#armoryartfair

The centennial edition of The Armory Show kicked off this Wednesday with the VIP Preview who my friend, Bonnie Norlander, founder of Sftpwr (a women in the arts platform) kindly took me to. The beginning of armory art week 2013 is an overwhelming, exhilarating experience only to be summed up (so succinctly and gif-tastically) as this. (courtesy of Daily Artspace) Basically you have no idea where to begin and once you arrive the visual overload is almost too much. But power through and mingle we must because there is no better time to be an art lover in New York than during armory week. 

The Armory show is celebrating it's 100th birthday and pulled out the stops by making the focus this year: USA. Wow, how patriotic. A clear push towards transparency this year also shined--as commissioned artist Liz Magic Laser's fair "paraphernalia" boldly citied insider statistics (the cost of an average booth, $24,000). 

Laser's satirical, ironic, cultural commentary was a popular theme in other areas of the fair, where Chanel coats, free Brillo boxes, and paint-less paintings inhibited booths throughout the contemporary pier. One of the booths getting a lot of attention was Leila Heller Gallery (booth #734), who presented an array of insightful works by artists like Farideh Lashai, Leila Pzooki, and Rachel Lee Hovnanian. Lashai's work, a personal favorite of mine from the show for it's interesting take on one of my favorite art pieces, "Le Dejeuner sur l'hurbe" by Manet. Lashai's work "Le Temp Perdu", is a video installation that projects a trio of contemporary figures warping into the iconic threesome from Manet's original work. Another video installation from the booth that has gotten tons of buzz is Hovnanian's "Dinner for Two: Wedding Cake" where a whimsically techy mouse munches on the wedding cake of a distracted bride and groom, the pings and alerts of a computer echoing in the background. How clever!