A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Armory

NYC Art Fairs: LAArt, Scope NYC, and The Red Dot Fair
March 29-31, 2008


This past weekend I set out on a mission. I was going to tackle the Armory Show at Pier 94. I will reveal an embarrassing confession. I am a painter, living and working in New York, finishing my MFA…and I have never been to the Armory. I go to Chelsea, I see shows, and I always make it to the Whitney Biannual and even got to Venice this past summer for the Biennale. So what was the problem? Clearly it was not a lack of motivation or interest.

To be perfectly honest I have always seen the art fairs in NY and all over as nothing more then seasonal malls. Fancy tents or hotels filled with all those “art goers” who schmooze, and sip their white wine, unconcerned with the actual art, indifferent to the actual artists. It was a bitter chip on my shoulder mostly formed by opening nights in Chelsea where I left nauseated by crowds, market driven work and one too many drinks. I had naively assumed there was no way an art fair; a literal place of commerce could be any different, it had to be worse.

This past weekend determined to see the Armory Show (arguably the biggest and most prestigious fair) I found myself instead wondering happily through three smaller fairs: LAArt, Scope and The Red Dot. The reason for my diversion from the Armory was simple. The person I was going to see the show with had gone already, it was getting late in the day and with a simple, “Eh, it’s not all that, meet me at LAArt,” my decision was made.

The amount of work I saw at these three fairs, the interesting people I spoke with, the gallery directors, press and fellow artists I met are to vast to fill in this write up. It confirms a long held idea of mine that avoiding the big bang for the smaller intimate affair is always a good idea. I will keep it as brief as I can and try to break it up between the three fairs in the following posts. Lets just say most of my preconceived notions were replaced by a real excitement to make work and get involved in the functioning “art world.” However, like anything else, some of the sham of a travesty of the boozy art world still seeped through.