Highlights to Look Out for at the Upcoming 2024 Armory Show in New York

“My goal is to empower collectors and emphasize the fair’s role as a platform for artists, galleries and art enthusiasts,” says McMillan, whose experience ranges from founding her own gallery and consulting company, Saint George Projects, and working as a director at David Zwirner, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and Alexander Gray Associates. “The Armory Show has long been celebrated as a foundational fair for New York and the U.S. art market. I look forward to building on The Armory Show’s achievements, while also championing new voices and creating opportunities for diverse perspectives in contemporary art.” Along with McMillan’s vision, the fair itself is only a year into new ownership by London-based company Frieze, which runs eight fairs around the world including Frieze New York, London, Seoul, and Los Angeles.

“The Armory Show’s team, with the support of our Frieze colleagues, have organized an incredible lineup of talent this year,” McMillan continues.

Highlights from the fair’s main section include the London-based gallery Victoria Miro showing a major video work by Isaac Julien. Hot off the heels of a five-screen presentation at the recently closed 2024 Whitney Biennale, Julien’s work will be offered as a two-screen installation accompanied by associated photographic works. The film, titled Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die) explores the relationship between U.S. African art collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes and the famed philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke, known as the Father of the Harlem Renaissance. Marianne Ibrahim Gallery with spaces in Chicago, Paris, and Mexico City is presenting a solo booth of beautiful paintings that hover between abstraction and figuration by Japanese artist Yukimasa Ida, following two major solo museum exhibitions in 2023 at the Yonago City Museum of Art and Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art.

Blue Velvet from Zurich is also opting for a solo presentation, showcasing the first ever solo presentation at an international fair of legendary Greek American artist Chryssa Vardea’s work, spanning four artistic periods.

Emerging artists to look out for include new works by Northern Cheyenne artist Jordan Ann Craig, whose large-scale abstract paintings and prints exploring her Native ancestry are going on view at Hales Gallery. Pippy Houldsworth gallery will present new work by buzzworthy abstract painter Sophia Loeb, as well as pieces by Nasim Hantehzadeh, Qualeasha Wood, and Liorah Tchiprout, among others. At Almine Rech, don’t miss experimental, process-driven works by American colorist Gwen O’Neil, whose meditative works are crafted with hundreds of dabs of pigment-loaded brushes on raw canvas.

The Armory Show sets itself apart from other fairs with its unique curatorial focus, fostering young galleries and staging site-specific projects. Platform, for example, is a section that features large-scale installations throughout the fair grounds. This year, curated by former Brooklyn Museum curator Eugenie Tsai, it will explore the theme of collective memory with works by Dominique Fund, Sanford Biggers, and Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, who is bringing Valkyrie Liberty, a monumental hanging sculpture that blends the cultural and mythological symbolism of the Statue of Liberty with the Norse legends of the Valkyries. It was first shown for Dior’s Fall/Winter 2023-2024 collection.

There are also exciting discoveries to be made in the Presents section, featuring newer galleries less than a decade old. Proxyco, for example, is bringing a selection of horticultural sculptures made of braided steel, resin clay, wool, and fabric by Diana Sofia Lozano and Hannah Traore Gallery will display photographs by Camila Falquez that document the passing of the first bill that protects transgender and non-binary people in her native Colombia.

The Armory Show is on view at the Javits Center from September 6–8, 2024 ·