Reports artasiapacific.com^51Art Fair Report
March art fairs in New York are still
competing for the “best in show”
crown, even more so this year amid
political tension and economic dips.
The first week brought the year’s
initial wave of the city’s art fairs,
from the Armory Show to the long-
running Art Show, organized by the
Art Dealers Association of America,
and more niche ventures such as
Volta, Independent and New Art
Dealers Alliance (NADA).
Over in Dubai and Hong Kong,
the air of competitiveness within
art circles was friendlier, as the
coterie of jet-setting collectors
flying in for the fairs noticeably
put gallerists, dealers and artists at
ease. Our editors highlight coveted
pieces that buyers were fighting to
get their hands on.New York
Once New York’s primary
contemporary art fair before the
arrival of Frieze, the Armory Show
(3/2 –5) is attempting a comeback.
The second year of director Benjamin
Genocchio’s campaign to “Make
the Armory Great Again” had
some success. Reports of steady
sales throughout the fair were
intermixed with numerous collectors
openly discussing their rising stockYAYOI KUSAMA, Guidepost to the New
World, 2016, painted cast aluminum, 11 pieces,
dimensions variable. Copyright the artist.
Courtesy Yayoi Kusama Inc., Ota Fine Arts,
Tokyo/Singapore and Victoria Miro, London.
Spring Fling
portfolios amid expectation that
the Trump administration will
redistribute more wealth to uber-
rich individuals and corporations.
With 210 galleries from 30
countries, Genocchio’s Armory
Show also brought an improved
look to the ungainly spaces of New
York’s Piers 92 and 94—though
there’s still a narrow, rickety metal
staircase connecting the two
venues—and exhibitors attempted
to mount all manner of attention-
grabbing booths. Perhaps the most
unavoidable was Mizuma Art
Gallery’s (Tokyo/Beijing/Singapore)
presentation of the 17.5-meter-long
Jumble of 100 Flowers (2012–17)
painting by Makoto Aida, which
provocatively depicts dozens of
nude young women frolicking amid
butterflies and snipers’ crosshairs,
in an appropriately Trump-esque
tribute to misogyny. Aida’s mural-
type painting formed the backdrop
to Yayoi Kusama’s eminently selfie-
friendly artificial grass field of polka-
dotted sculptures, Guidepost to the
New World (2016). While the strong
presence of Japanese artists from
the postwar era carried over to Axel
Vervoordt and Whitestone, most
galleries focused on artists already
well-known to the New York crowd.Sean Kelly (New York) showed
off works by recently signed
Shahzia Sikander, with a video
that sold for USD 150,000 and
a drawing that went for USD
120,000. In the Focus section—
solo-artist presentations curated
by Jarrett Gregory, who was
recently appointed curator of the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden in Washington, DC—10
Chancery Lane (Hong Kong)
featured Tuan Andrew Nguyen, one
of the Propeller Group’s members,
whose sculptural works explore
the worship of animals and extinct
species. Nearby, Vitamin Creative
Space (Guangzhou) reprised Koki
Tanaka’s collaborative projects for
a New York audience. The Armory
Show’s new push for a more
international roster is what might
help it climb back to the top of the
New York City fair pile.Dubai
The price of oil may have slid
to half its value from three years
ago, but that has not tempered
the ardor for art acquisition in the
Gulf. A record number of 28,000
visitors streamed through the
doors at Art Dubai’s 11th edition
(3/15–18), with representatives from
98 art institutions and museums in
attendance. This year’s iteration was
the most geographically expansive
to date, featuring 94 galleries from
43 countries. Tehran’s galleries were
well represented—the most ever at
Art Dubai—and showed works by
modern and contemporary Iranian
artists, some of whom are rarely
exhibited beyond Iran’s borders.
The booth of Dastan’s
Basement (Tehran) stood out
among pristine presentations at
the fair. Showcasing work by 25
artists, the gallery customized
its space, modeling it after an
artist’s studio, with tools of the
trade scattered on well-worn
surfaces. In particular, Mohammad
Hossein Gholamzadeh’s suspended
sculptural installation of a falling
man with mechanical wings and a
motor strapped to his back wowed
the crowd. Prices of sold artworks