The Armory Show, founded in 1994, consolidates New York as one of the world’s Contemporary Art epicenters.

With over 225 galleries from more than 35 countries, The Armory Show, owned now by Frieze, has ended with sales like a Lynne Drexler work sold for $800,000 or an Alice Baber painting for $200,000, both at Berry Campbell Gallery, Victoria Miro sold out her stand with nine paintings by the Colombian artist María Berrío (between $65,000–$200,000), Jessica Silverman sold a large bronze sculpture by Woody De Othello for $400,000, Wentrup sold out its solo stand dedicated to Jenny Brosinski, with paintings that ranged from $40,000 to $50,000, among other spectacular sales that took place at this year’s edition.

Next is a selection of five works that have caught our eye for their outstandingness and contemporaneity.

SELECTION OF WORKS

Gisela McDaniel

*Quiet*, 2023. Oil on canvas, shell, gel x nail. 40.6 × 30.5 × 7.6 cm
Pilar Corrias Gallery

Pilar Corrias Gallery had an impressive booth this year with a solo presentation of Gisela McDaniel, whose oil paintings portray mostly multiracial women and non-binary people, positioning them in a vibrantly colored setting and thus creating a paralell reality, a safe space where the representation of naked subjects is done organically, as an ode to the body without having to be strictly sexualized. At the same time, it represents survivors of sexual violence and adds audio recordings of them telling their stories and taking the reins of the narrative.

Serena Korda

*Gauntlet and Body Beads,* 2023. Glazed Stoneware, mother of pearl lustre, underglaze, hand died cotton rope, 24 K gold lustre. 33 × 11 × 22 cm.
Cooke Latham Gallery

In the Cooke Latham Gallery we come across a multidisciplinary artist, the London-born Serena Korda, who has worked with performance, sculpture and public art and brought a stunning collection of pieces to New York’s art scene. Gauntlet and Body Beads represents a gloved hand holding a thick burgundy rope with just one finger, which has what looks like giant pearls attached. The sculpture gives a sense of fragility and instability, accompanied by soft pastel colors and the strong crimson hue of the rope, that steadies our gaze.

Alejandra Moros

*Rainy Season,* 2023. Oil on canvas. 101.6 × 76.2 cm.
Spinello Projects

Alejandra Moros, the youngest artist in this selection, fills her canvases with almost monochrome close-ups of the human body or different objects, creating compositions that are in between Surrealism and Realism. As if you were using a microscope to see what the naked eye is incapable of, the Miami-based artist fabricates a whole separate cosmos. In Rainy Season we don’t know the subjects, what we see is unknown to us, but that’s where the most interesting aspect of Moros’ works lies, a scenario where the reality is the eye of the beholder.

Devan Shimoyama

*For Tamir VIII,* 2019. Silk flowers, rhinestones, jewelry, canvas, found objects and chains on industrial vinyl swing seat. 38.1 × 55.9 × 20.3 cm.
De Buck Gallery

Devan Shimoyama is not a new face here in KERES, we spoke about his work months ago in an article (read here), but his sculptures are less known by the public. The brittleness of the flowers contrasts with the heaviness of the chains, a pair of wings rest on the surface, ready to take flight but the bench remains motionless. This year, Shimoyama had his first solo show in Spain called Tell Me at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo of Málaga.

Rajni Perera & Marigold Santos

*Efflorescence/The Way We Wake,* 2023. Polymer clay, styrofoam, paint, metallic powder, synthetic hair, pearls, steel, aluminum, floral foam, paper, plastic. 243.8 × 152.4 × 121.9 cm. Courtesy of Patel Brown.
Patel Brown

Rajni Perera and Marigold Santos both present works at this year’s edition of the fair with Patel Brown, but also a collaborative one, Efflorescence/The Way We Wake, a large-scale clay installation that combines a variety of materials with stunning visuals, representing a crawling masked woman, with long, jet black hair falling down her shoulder and her back. She lifts herself on her tattoo-covered hands, while her impossible-pointed breasts rest on the floor. Surrounded by flora, she looks like a deity, like she was born from the earth and belonged to it.

THE ARMORY SHOW