Original publication at Art China: 超过35 个国家，225 家画廊参展，是什么让今年的纽约军械库艺术展如此火热？
Summer has just ended, and art fairs and exhibitions are sweeping through New York’s early autumn heatwave. Art on Paper, focused on contemporary art on paper; SPRING/BREAK Art Show, deep-rooted in avant-garde content; Photo Fairs New York, the “sister fair” of Photo Shanghai; and the Rehearsal Art Book Fair, co-hosted by two independent New York art and literary spaces, Bungee Space and Accent Sister, are all taking place during the first week of Armory Week in September. Among them, the most influential and largest is the Armory Show.
The Armory Show in New York, held from September 7 to 10, 2023, for the third time at the Javits Center, with September 7 as the VIP preview day closed to the public. This year’s Armory Show invited 225 galleries from over 35 countries. Although this is a slight drop from the 240 galleries in 2022, the Armory Show still managed to fill the first floor of the Javits Center with art, immersing every collector and visitor in an overwhelming artistic experience. The exhibition is divided into six sections: Galleries, Solo, Focus, Presents, Platform, and Not-for-Profit. Notably, more galleries chose to feature and promote works by Chinese and Chinese diaspora artists.
Entering the Armory Show, it’s hard not to be attracted to the unique “Platform” section. Unlike other square booth setups, the Platform section is arranged in an oval shape at the very center of the exhibition, creating a contemporary Agora, a public gathering place in ancient Greece. Curator Eva Respini provided a multidimensional historical perspective through the installations and sculptures of 12 artists. Chinese artist Xu Zhen’s work “Eternal – Bodhisattva Standing, Winged Victory of Samothrace” juxtaposes two well-known figures from Eastern and Western cultures, bringing ancient mythology and religious civilization into a modern context, humorously exploring the similarities and differences between Buddhist culture and Greek mythology, offering viewers an archaeological and global experience.
Also featured in the Platform section, Korean artist Jean Shin presented “Huddled Masses,” using discarded electronic devices as materials. Discarded phones, like fossils, are embedded in a ground of computer cables, forming a Zen garden landscape reminiscent of scholar rocks in traditional Chinese painting, reflecting humanity’s ever-growing digital footprint. Shin’s work imagines the future against a historical backdrop, questioning whether the rapid pace of technological advancement will flood human life with more e-waste and whether the earth can bear the fast-paced consumerism culture.
Another curated section is “Focus,” with curator Candice Hopkins, highlighting Indigenous art. This section aims not only to showcase previously underrepresented Indigenous art but also to delve deeper into cultural heritage through material culture.
For example, Sapar Contemporary collaborated with the Shipibo Conibo Center to present works by Peruvian Indigenous artist Brus Rubio Churay. Centered on “cosmology,” Churay’s works depict symbolic and spiritually significant animals from his culture, such as the Amazon pink dolphin, monkeys, jaguars, anteaters, and falcons, exploring the crucial roles of non-human life in cosmology, responding to Western civilization’s environmental anxieties. The Focus section demonstrates the Armory Show’s care for marginalized artistic groups, allowing the cultural value of Indigenous art to be better displayed and more people to recognize that Indigenous art can also be contemporary.
As early as 2014, the Armory Show’s Focus section curated around Chinese contemporary art, allowing American audiences to break stereotypes and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese contemporary artists’ creations. Although this year’s Focus section did not feature Chinese artists due to its theme, other sections like Galleries, Solo, and Not-for-Profit still presented impressive works by Chinese and Chinese diaspora artists.
Tang Contemporary Art Center, one of the few galleries from China, brought more contemporary Chinese perspectives to the Armory Show. Tang chose to exhibit works by fourteen artists including Yue Minjun, Zhu Jinshi, Wang Qiyao, Wang Jianwei, and Zhao Zhao, around the theme “Beyond Borders,” extending and showcasing contemporary social phenomena and values through individual artistic expressions, narrating more diverse media uses and artistic expressions in the context of globalization. Notably, Tang’s booth is one of the largest, bringing more contemporary Chinese voices to the Armory Show.
Nicodim Gallery, under the leadership of new director Yan Yu, brought works by twelve artists of various backgrounds to the Armory Show. As a native of Chengdu and a first-generation Chinese American, director Yan Yu brought a unique cultural perspective to the exhibition. The selected works, though diverse in theme, all possessed a mysterious aura from different cultures. Notably, Nicodim showcased works by artist Fu Liang, who lives in France and uses special ground minerals for his works. Once the Western modernist-style painting is completed, the brilliance of the mineral pigments adds an ethereal quality characteristic of traditional Chinese painting.
New York-based Dinner Gallery presented a solo exhibition of works by Taiwanese artist Phaan Howng, inviting the artist to paint her signature plant patterns on the booth walls, turning the booth into a personal installation. Howng’s work imagines future worlds, depicting how, as the natural environment changes, people increasingly want to create natural landscapes indoors when they can’t control the natural environment. After studying ancient Chinese garden paintings and Victorian Gothic botanical literature, she began this series, imagining filling all spaces with exotic plants. At the Armory Show, Howng successfully immersed the audience in her imagined fantastical plant world, bringing some imaginative ideas of future human-nature coexistence.
San Francisco’s Micky Meng Gallery showcased Asian Californian artist Cathy Lu’s installation “Peripheral Visions,” attracting numerous viewers. In art fairs where galleries mostly display wall-mounted artworks, with few sculptures and even fewer installations, Micky Meng Gallery’s choice was bold. “Peripheral Visions” presented an allegorical garden with totemic eye sculptures representing the artist and famous Asian American women like Ruth Asawa and Michelle Kwan, continuously weeping onion-infused “yellow tears” into plastic buckets from Chinatowns, symbolizing the traumas and struggles faced by Asian communities in Western societies and the desire to heal these wounds through friendship and community.
Many other participating art institutions also chose to exhibit works by Chinese and Chinese diaspora artists at the Armory Show. Half Gallery displayed new works by Fang Yuan, and the French Gallery Semiose presented works by Xie Lei. With globalization, more regions worldwide are home to Chinese and Chinese diaspora communities. Finding their identity in foreign lands has become a major theme in their artistic creations. Even while studying and living abroad, they choose to root their art in Chinese culture. Meanwhile, more domestic artists have the opportunity to showcase their works on the international stage, allowing the world to see the landscape of contemporary Chinese art. On the preview day of the Armory Show, many domestic and international collectors could be seen inquiring in front of Chinese artists’ works.
If the 2014 Armory Show’s Focus section reintroduced Chinese contemporary art to the West, this year’s show demonstrates the increasing recognition of Chinese artists’ work by Western art institutions, with the Armory Show continuing to favor more Chinese voices. Chinese contemporary art has become an indispensable guest at international art fairs.