A Sky filled with Shooting Stars

Clayton Price, "Unheeded Warning" (2001) at Verge

This is the busiest – and many people would say the most important – week in the New York City art calendar. The Armory Show itself, on the west side’s Piers 92 and 94, is one of the world’s most significant art fairs. Every year it attracts well over 50,000 visitors. But in addition to the Armory Show the city hosts a whole string of other fairs (ten of them at last count!) that hope to take advantage of the hordes of collectors, dealers, artists, museum-folk, and journalists who gravitate here during “Armory Arts Week”. There’s the ADAA Art Fair at Park Avenue Armory (now in its twenty-second year), SCOPE at Lincoln Center, PULSE at its new home at West Street, Volta on 34^th Street, and a whole slew of others that I’m going to try to visit between now and next Monday. Rather than formal fair reviews – which my pals over onARTINFO are writing – I thought I’d attempt something a little more intimate: A key part of the art fair experience for me are the conversations that I find myself having with artists, gallerists, collectors, and the whole range of fair-goers that I run into. And that’s what I’m going to give a taste of here. I’ll be updating this day by day – and I’m already aware that these little snippets are broad-ranging and somewhat impressionistic – but here, for your delectation, are some samples of this week’s art fair conversations.

Alex Hay, "Anomaly Blue" (2006) - on reserve at Peter Freeman, Inc. for $135,000

It was great. It was very crowded. Things were happening in a way that they haven’t for some time. We made several sales. And these sales were a big deal for us because it’s Alex Hay’s work, which doesn’t always have a lot of traction. But somehow this time it worked! And we sold at the retail, which is good news, because at Miami everybody wanted to bargain so much more than we were comfortable with. In fact, we were just talking about rehanging the booth. – Rachel Churner of Peter Freeman, Inc. – whose ADAA Art Show booth is a solo show of Alex Hay’s work – talking about Tuesday night’s opening. Of the seven pieces the gallery had for sale, two sold and two were reserved. (Wednesday)

James Brooks, "B" (1952) at Greenberg Van Doren

This fair has been trending more and more to one-person booths for some years and I think it’s given it a real identity. I think that people come expecting that now to some extent. And I’ve heard a lot of people saying what a pleasure it was. And there a one person shows across the board – we’re very happy to have a James Brookes show, L & M has a show of de Koonings, so there are at least two AbEx artists here, but there are a lot of younger artists also, and I think it makes for a very enjoyable, solid, focused viewing experience. – John Van Doren of Greenberg Van Doren on the thinking behind his gallery’s ADAA Art Show booth, which was dedicated to the most under-rated of the abstract expressionists, James Brookes. (Wednesday)

We are deeply grateful for what this fair does for New York City. These events not only bring together thousands of people and hundreds of galleries, they really are opportunities to think about art – and especially contemporary art – in the largest context possible. It’s absolutely remarkable. You can feel the vitality that’s taking place in the art world. In addition to all that is happening here at the piers, there is so much else that is happening in this city: if you haven’t had a chance to see the Whitney Biennial, I hope you’ll do that; if you haven’t had a chance to see William Kentridge’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, I hope you’ll do that; if you haven’t had a chance to see Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim I hope you’ll do that as well, because all of these exhibitions are part of what makes New York so exciting. – MoMA Director Glenn Lowry reminds people of the city’s museum shows at the Armory Show’s opening press conference. (Wednesday)

My impression is of a very cozy art fair. It’s very small. It’s not too big. You have a chance to see all of the galleries, and the gallery spaces are small. Everybody loves to come here, because you can see it one day, and have another day to see other things. It’s very different to Art Basel and ARCO. – Roberto J. Nieves Robles, President & Director of Circa Puerto Rico (a fair that shows thirty-five galleries) with a surprising take on the scale of the Armory Show. (Wednesday)

David Kramer, "Greatest Moments" (2009)

My first thought is that there is no grand-slam here. But I think the more intimate work resonates: David Kramer’s work at Galerie Laurent Godin made a terrific showing, as well as the Armitage Gone! Exquisite Corpse project. I thought that was brilliant. – Mary-Ann Monforton of BOMB Magazine shares her Armory Show recommendations. (Wednesday)

Thursday’s conversations:

I think that for me personally my decision was based on having a gallery in Chelsea: I get to see a lot of this audience on a regular basis, so I just felt it was less of an imperative this year. I’ve been seeing people from out of town for the last few days, and having dinner with clients and colleagues. It wasn’t so much a financial decision as it was a decision based on time and energy. I’ve just been focusing more on the gallery program getting people into the gallery. In some ways I find just being able to move around more productive for me. – Gallerist Pavel Zoubok – whom I ran into atPULSE – on his reasons for deciding against showing in any of this week’s fairs. (Thursday)

After coming through such a difficult year I think everybody’s stepping it up looking good. I think there is an optimism in the air which is exciting. But my sense of things is that people are making decisions which are more considered. There’s less of that frenzy, which is better for the art, and better for the relationship between galleries and their clients in the long term. I think that – with some tentativeness, obviously –collectors, and even new collectors, are trying to find some stasis on the heels of what has been a very challenging year. – Pavel Zoubok again, with an assessment of the current mood. (Thursday)

Business is shaky! If anybody tells you it’s not shaky, they’re not telling the truth. – Gallerist Magda Sawon ofPostmasters, who was also touring PULSE, with a rather less rosy summing up. (Thursday)

I like this venue: it’s smaller, it’s more intimate, and curatorially the fair is tighter – it’s a little bit more selective. I think that’s a good thing for everybody who’s showing here. We’ve had a really terrific response from collectors. We’ve had people coming in specifically to see Eric Thor Sandberg’s work. We even had people trying to sneak in before the fair opened yesterday to get a preview. – Leigh Conner of Conner Contemporary Art on this year’s PULSEexperience. (Thursday)

This is my first art fair ever! I want to see beautiful things, and creative things that open my mind to new experiences. That’s what I’m here for … I’m really interested in installation art. – Another PULSE visitor, Miss New York 2010 – Davina Reeves (who is actually from Austin, Texas). (Thursday)

It’s a performance installation, and it’s a collaboration between the artist and the spectator. The responses have been pretty amazing. People have been a little confused sometimes, and they laugh a lot, because it’s unusual but it’s a really fun project and people really enjoy it. We’ve done fashion trade shows before, but believe it or not we actually get a better response from the art world than we do from the fashion world. Yesterday we didn’t have one spare moment. We’re doing very well! – Performance artists Karelle Levy (designer) and Daria Shapiro (curator) who are offeringQuickie Couture at SCOPE and who, for between $25 and $300 will work with you to create an individually tailored item of clothing in less than an hour from their stock of handmade fabrics. (Full disclosure: they traded me a handmade tie for a promise that I’d include them here!) (Thursday)

People have told us that it makes them feel like the old days are back, but that actually makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like the sense of a frenzy. We actually tried to slow things down, but once the word was out that big collectors had bought one, it was suddenly like we had the sharks circling. – Gallerist Hamish Morrison on the experience of selling out not only his Volta booth of Paul Pretzer’s paintings, but his entire holdings of the artist’s work – some forty pieces in total. (Friday)

Of course there are advantages to being part of a smaller fair. I went to the Armory Show yesterday, where I have friends showing. I walked around for more than an hour, and I couldn’t even find their booths. – Risa Needleman ofInvisible Exports – where she is showing Mickey Smith – on one of the advantages of being at Volta. (Friday)

Oh, it doesn’t have any information in it. – The young lady on the Volta press desk talks up the importance of the $20 fair catalog. (Friday)

This piece has not sold. I would be shocked if someone were to pick up a piece like this. It’s an absolutely absurd gesture. It’s funny. Some people love this piece, some people hate it. I can’t really control that. That’s cool. – Voltaartist, Todd Pavlisko (showing with Samsøn) on his three-channel video work Centerpiece (2008-10) which shows him nailing his foot to the floor. (Friday)

When I was at the international school in Japan, we had this Australian guy who used to come in to teach us drawing. He used to tell us about his work with technology. A couple of years later when I was at college, I was looking through books in the library and I discovered that our drawing teacher was Stelarc! – Volta artist Nancy Lorenz (showing with PDX Contemporary Art) on her early encounter with a performance art legend. (Friday)

Marina Abramović performing "Lips of Thomas" (original 1975) as part of "Seven Easy Pieces" (2005)

Pushing the envelope! – MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach’s one sentence assessment of the significance of theMarina Abramovic retrospective “The Artist is Present” whose first preview, for press and Armory Show VIPs, took place Saturday. (Saturday)

I think it’s very important for MoMA. – Ms Abramovic’s gallerist Sean Kelly is almost as succinct. (Saturday)

A mason pays 75c per cleaned brick, and dirty bricks are worth however much aesthetic value you place on them. So we’re selling the cleaned bricks at their market price of 75c, or if you want a dirty brick, you can place however much aesthetic value on it above 75c that you decide, and that’s what it costs. I’ve sold no clean bricks today, but I have sold about six dirty bricks. I sold some for $20 each, and somebody gave me $10 for two bricks. There’s been a range. The people who bought the bricks loved them. (I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the bricks I don’t sell.) – Dana Bishop-Root of transformazium.org at Fountain explains that – more than forty years after Carl Andre’sEquivalents – art collectors are still eager to buy industrial bricks. (Saturday)

I walked around and I thought to myself, “Where is the Chinese art?” It’s just gone. I didn’t see any of the market darlings – like Yue Minjun or Zhang Xiaogang – and I was looking. It reflects the fact that the cheapest way to buy Chinese art now is at auction; because it’s gone down so much in price you can just go in there and scoop it all up. – Chinese art consultant Carrie Clyne – whom I ran into at Independent – runs an expert eye over the Armory Show. (Saturday)

We’ve made $3700, but we’re aiming at $5000. – Clayton Price, one of the American Society of Media Photographers New York whose fundraising efforts for Haiti (all photographs offered at $100 and 100% of proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders) was one of the best things about Verge. (Sunday)

We have four artists exhibiting in this space. We have the photographs of Emily Bolivice, we have hand-drawn newspapers by Carissa Carman, we have an installation by Crystal Gregory, and we have the drawings of Eliza Stamps. – The “gallerist’ from the “Chashama Gallery”, who turned out to be performance artist Eliza Stamps, who – along with her three artist-colleagues – was enacting the role of her own dealer at Verge. (Sunday)

Photo Credits: Erik Thor Sandberg, Alterations (2010) copyright Erik Thor Sandberg, courtesy Conner Contemporary Art.