Well, somehow I managed to see all four of these fairs in one day while also working at my gallery’s booth at the Armory Modern.  My overall impressions were that the positive attitude at the Armory was a nice surprise. It was crowded and there was some good art to be seen. The new addition of the Modern section actually added something to the fair though it does veer away from the original avant-garde intent of the 1913 Armory Show founders upon which this fair is based.

Highlights from the Armory were: a Marca-Relli in plastic at Armand Bartos, an O’Keeffe pastel on paper entitled, Great Horns with Blue from 1945 at Hirschl and Adler for a mere $985,000, and every piece of art in Italy’s Studio la Citta’s booth.

Tony Feher, GlassJars

In the Contemporary section D’Amelio Terras has a great Tony Feher work from 2009, Glass Jars. Sikkema Jenkins had a tremendous Mark Bradford.

Callum Innes, Repetition

Kerlin Gallery from Ireland had a Callum Inness painting for $35,000 called Repetition, 65 x 61 inches that was amazing–it looked like wood.

Subodh Gupta, There is Always Cinema

A Gupta work called There is Always Cinema made of found objects and brass was very cool.

John Beech

Peter Blum had a wall filled with works by an artist I had never heard of called John Beech which I liked a lot.

Sol Lewitt

Rhona Hoffman had sold a 1972 Lewitt work on paper that I adored. IBID Projects from London were showing photos by Olivier Richon. He references still life paintings from the 17th century. And Two Palms had Mel Bochner etchings for $1200 which seemed like a steal.

I though Pulse was fine but I felt that it was better last year. There were some good buys at the fair though.

Freight and Volume, Jim Lee

Jim Lee detail

Freight and Volume had various works by Jim Lee that I liked.

Douglas Florian

Douglas Florian

Bravin Lee was showing affordable gouaches on paper by Douglas Florian for $800 each.

Donald Baechler, The Lucky Ring

Fred Tomaselli, archival print

ACRIA had a Donald Baechler called “The Lucky Ring” for $1000 and a Tomaselli archival digital print for $300.

William Powhida, Post Boom Odds

Powhida, Why I Make Art

Powhida, Acquisitions

But my favorite works, the works I would purchase if I could, were William Powhida’s works in the Schroeder Romero booth called “Post-Boom Odds,” “Acquisitions,” and “Why I Make Art.” Of course I always love a little humor in my collection and the biting wit is definitely present in these works.

Scope only had one artist whose work intrigued and that was EVOL at Wilde Gallery from Berlin. They were works on cardboard, very street arty, and they were all sold out. I am going to do some research on that artist as his works were in the $2000-7000 range and I really liked them. Other than that, Scope was a bit of a mish-mash of work.

Volta had some good booths and some that puzzled. By the time I saw that fair, unfortunately, the only thing I wanted was a chair and some water. An exhausting weekend but worth it all to share my finds with you.