Text by: Simran Tuteja

Initially held in the rooms of the Gramercy Hotel, New York City in 1994 by five art dealers, Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the Gramercy International Art Fair was later renamed as The Armory Show. Also known as New York’s Art Fair, it is an international art fair, where international galleries showcase contemporary and modern art as well as artists, is held for four days and hosts a crowd of about 65,000 every year. This year the show will commence on September 8, 2023 and close on September 10, 2023 along with the VIP Preview Day on September 7, 2023 at the Javits Center, New York City.

More than 225 galleries from across the world will be exhibiting this year at The Armory Show out of which over 140 exhibitors are returning from the previous edition, over 30 galleries are returning after a hiatus and over 40 exhibitors are debuting this year. This year’s fair has been curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the ICA/Boston; Candice Hopkins, Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project; and Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Whitney Museum of American Art, will chair the sixth annual Curatorial Leadership Summit.

The definition of contemporary and modern art extends to photography hence providing numerous photographers a platform to display their artwork. Curated by Candice Hopkins, the section Focus consists of a large installation called Remember Royalty by Yhonnie Scarce (presented by THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne), a descendant of the Kokatha and Nukunu people of South Australia. She is an Australian glass artist whose work is influenced by the effects of colonization on Indigenous Australia. Remember Royalty consists of four black and white suspended portraits and three sculptures arranged to echo a kind of shrine. The images are drawn from family archives and are printed on a sheet or blanket roughly as old as the original photograph. The artist shrewdly pays tribute to her family’s strength, dignity and aspiration while acknowledging the hardships faced by them in her artwork.

Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York will be presenting Ahmet Ertuğ’s Castello di Sammezzano, Florence Italy. Ertuğ is an architect turned photographer whose subjects are mainly architectural sites. The vibrant image focuses on the marvelous details that the architectural landmark offers which the artist manages to capture very precisely. Ertuğ’s works have re-invoked the public’s interest in monuments and galleries that had once lost its audience with its extraordinary image quality.

This year’s fair is divided into five sections: Galleries, Solo, Presents, Focus (curated by Candice Hopkins) and Platform (curated by Eva Respini). The Armory Show has established itself in New York City’s cultural landscape with the help of Cultural Partners (Artists Space was announced as 2023 Armory Spotlight), and Off-Site installations. Paying homage to the fair’s original name, the Gramercy International Prize awards a complimentary booth to a New York-based gallery participating for the first. This year the award has been presented to No Gallery. Numerous galleries and artists await the beginning of this exhilarating fair and invite art enthusiasts, collectors and buyers to this year’s edition of The Armory Show.