Armory Arts Week is shining knight of New York City's arts scene

New York’s museums and galleries are constantly putting up new shows, and its artists are forever generating vast quantities of new art. Indeed, New York is the art capital that never sleeps, but during Armory Arts Week each year, the city’s art drive goes into full throttle.

The centerpiece of Armory Arts Week is the Armory Show, located in the massive warehouses of Piers 92 and 94 on the Hudson River. The current incarnation of the Armory began in 1999 and has been a staple of the international contemporary art scene since 2001, serving as a venue for the world’s premier galleries to show their artists’ newest work.

The show hearkens back to the original Armory Show, a one-time event held in New York in 1913. That event featured approximately 1,300 works of art by over 300 artists. It marked a monumental shift in the American art scene by presenting then-radical work to an audience accustomed to traditional forms. It spurred the advent of an American avant-garde tradition that took root as New York replaced Paris, some would argue, as the world’s art capital. Perhaps most scandalous was Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase,” a work that sought to capture the motion of a figure through the use of highly abstract forms.

It is nearly impossible to scandalize today’s often-jaded art world, but the Armory Show provides a highly comprehensive snapshot of what is happening in art today. What is perhaps most remarkable about the show is the sheer quantity of work on display. This year’s show features over 300 galleries from more than 30 countries. Each gallery presents its own miniature show of about 10 works.

With a show this size and with artists making such a wide variety of work, viewers will probably identify few over-arching trends. Rather, the show is a magnificent testament to the diffuse nature of artists’ styles and interests as well as to the dynamism of today’s contemporary art market.

The vastness of the show, which is divided into modern and contemporary sections, precludes visitors from liking all, or even most, of the work on display. But wandering viewers are sure to discover at least some art that inspires them. Whether it be abstract painting, photography, or conceptual art that is of interest, it exists somewhere in the show.

The space constraints imposed on the galleries can be frustrating, forcing them to exhibit in small, cubical-like spaces. This arrangement is most conducive to works that can be hung on walls, excluding much of the invigorating film and installation-based art being made today.

There are exceptions, however. New York’s Richard Felman Fine Arts is exhibiting an eye-catching work by Sam Van Aken called “New Edens.” The work is comprised of an orchard of live trees that have been genetically modified to grow five fruits at once. The piece, which is constantly “growing,” invokes the issues surrounding genetic modification, while simultaneously bringing the world of agriculture into the gallery setting. The trees are illuminated by Flavin-esque towers of florescent lights, creating an eerie ambiance that resonates with the seriousness of the artists’ concept. It is a boundary-transgressing work in many ways.

While Armory Arts Week is highly celebratory of New York, an exciting facet of the Armory Show is its international character. Galleries from around the world travel to display, bringing work that might not otherwise make it into the at-times insular New York art scene. Finnish artist Denise Grünstein is on view with Stockholm’s Galleri Charlotte Lund. Her stark, elegant photography and video work features a singular model who remains faceless in an investigation of the social and aesthetic impact of human hair.

The Portuguese duo João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva are on view at Düsseldorf’s Sies + Höke Galerie. The artists use rapid shutter speeds to create physically impossible scenes. In one work, a group of wooden sticks falls through air but is captured right at the moment when the first stick hits the ground. This creates the illusion of precarious, but elegant, sculptural forms lit with chiaroscuro-like effects. In addition to being highly aesthetically compelling, the pieces serve as poignant reflections on time and the absurd.

To further emphasize the show’s internationality, this year organizers created “Focus: Latin America”, which features a selection of 17 galleries from Latin America. The section allows viewers to contemplate the tides of Latin American art within the context of the global scene. Notable is the display at Mexico City’s Caja Blanca, featuring work by Gustavo Artigas. The artist’s tongue-and-cheek “Risk Paintings” feature text describing the risks associated with particular chemical pigments set in front of paint of the corresponding color.

The Armory Show, which is up until Sunday, March 6, is accompanied by a panoply of other fairs and art events all around the city. The Art Show of the Art Dealers Association of America is on view until March 6 at the Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Ave., at 67th Street). The Art Show, while extensive, is vastly smaller than the Armory Show and includes slightly older and more traditional work. The Armory Show is certainly the hipper of the two, but there are a number of standout displays at the Art Show. Zhang Huan’s paintings made of incense ash (at The Pace Gallery) and Dean Byington’s almost impossibly intricate black-and-white oil paintings at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects are not to be missed.

Further afield, Verge Art Brooklyn, also up through March 6, displays work from a great number of primarily Brooklyn artists at various spaces throughout DUMBO. While Verge lacks the sheen of the Armory Show, it features some solid work. An exhaustive show fills the second floor of 111 Front St. (between Washington and Adams streets). Meg Hitchcock’s intricately contoured collage made of tiny pieces of text and Stephen Mallen’s striking photos of discarded New York City subway cars stand out.

Armory Arts Week celebrates art in all of its manifestations, from artificial orchards to portraits, from Düsseldorf to Brooklyn. New York is always buzzing with energy, but this weekend the art world is providing it with an additional burst.