Much like Christmas morning, the opening day of any major art fair is heady with anticipation. In those first few hours, a queue of well-dressed people snake around the vicinity until the doors open, revealing uncovered booths and our favourite artists hovering by their never-seen-before masterpieces. And, if we’re lucky, familiar faces will emerge in the crowd. The fair has begun.
But what about the people who make the magic happen, the fast-moving teams behind the stage? How do they spend their first twenty-four hours at the fair? Let’s find out. Elephant asked Robyn Farrell, curator of the Focus section at The Armory Show (NYC), for a photo diary from day one of The Armory Show, 2024.
Robyn Farrell is the senior curator at The Kitchen, New York, where she organises and oversees exhibitions, publications, live and online programming. Recent exhibitions include Desire Inc. (2024) with Lynn Hershman Leeson and The Kitchen in Focus at 47 Canal(2024). At the fair this year, Robyn has considered the experimental spirit of the fair’s founding in 1994 and reflects on these avant-garde histories while probing the radical strategies and poetic interventions of interdisciplinary forms and cultural exchange.
Robyn’s photo diary follows her from installing the evening before the fair opens to celebrating in gold shoes, looking out over the New York City skyline.
‘Installation view of Asya Geisberg Gallery’s stand with artist Rodrigo Valenzuela and his sweet dog, Winona.’ ‘I opened The Kitchen in Focus at 47 Canal on Wednesday. The exhibition includes video documentation from hey dance performances from The Kitchen pioneering dance series “Dancing in the The Kitchen,” and highlights work and archival material by artists Andy de Groat, Susan Rethorst, and Elizabeth Streb.’‘Standing Room Only, the avant garde musical performance group, At Armory kick-off celebration at the National Arts Club on Wednesday night.’‘View of Lincoln Center from the roof of The Empire Hotel – the location of the Public Art Fund’s reception for Edra Soto’s new commission.’
‘Footwear ready for Day 1.’‘Artist Ebony Patterson and gallerist Monique Meloche at Thursday’s VIP preview. Meloche’s gallery is featuring Patterson’s “Studies for a vocabulary of loss” series which premiered at at the New York Botanical Garden last summer.’‘Chiffon Thomas’s Untitled (Dome Figure) 2023, part of Eugenie Tsai’s Platform Section of The Armory Show.’ ‘Oliver Herring speaking to a crowd from his award winning installation at BANK in the Focus Section.’ ‘Claudia Hart demonstrating the QR code activation within her installation at Patrick Milhaud Gallery’s Focus booth.’‘Louis Osmosis‘s installation of his new deCan’t series at Kapp Kapp wryly nod to one of the Armory’s founders, the gallerist Pat Hearn.’ ‘Dessert with Cecilia Brunson Projects at Estancia 460.’Effie Phillips-Staley, Robyn Farrell and Fatima Zaidi. Photography by Matt Borkowski. Courtesy of BFA.com.
Words by Emily Burke. All photo diary images and captions by Robyn Farrell.
