The world is in tumult but for the moment, the business of art marches on. Artists go to their studios, museums keep their doors open and art critics try to make sense of it all. Meanwhile, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), a members-only organization known for its blue-chip brands, has assembled for its annual fair.
The 35th edition of The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory offers up 78 galleries and 57 solo presentations. All proceeds from admissions go to the Henry Street Settlement. The quality of artwork here is high: smart, well made, innovative. There are very strong showings here by well-regarded artists like Hope Gangloff, Julie Heffernan, Sheila Hicks, Kurt Kauper, Pieter Schoolwerth and Tavares Strachan — even watercolors by the famed, gender-bending 19th-century author George Sand. What the Art Show demonstrates, however, is the fleet-footed ability of contemporary galleries — compared with larger or besieged institutions — to ferret out lesser-known artists and showcase them in compact, distinctive displays. This edition of the fair really shines in highlighting under-the-radar masters, often women and Black artists. (For more of a design and antiques focus, visit this Armory next week for the Salon Art + Design fair.) Here are a handful of booths that particularly snagged my attention.
Tina Kim (Booth C8)
The Chelsea gallerist Tina Kim is showing work by two Asian artists made after their introduction to New York. The Japanese sculptor Minoru Niizuma, who moved here in the late 1950s, created compact, modernist objects in stone and wood, which became more dynamic after he experienced the frenetic energy of New York. The Korean painter Kim Tschang-Yeul later became known for minimal canvases with photorealistic waterdrops. Here, paintings from the 1960s, with pulsing concentric shapes painted in bright acrylic color, catch your eye, like blinking neon or streetlights.
