The Armory Show

Because we can't putz around [laughs] the way we did when we were younger, and I do think if you're an artist over 50, there's a degree of urgency that you feel because time does feel scarce once you hit 50.

I'm definitely feeling that myself, and I do find myself doing some math [chuckles] in terms of how many years I've done things, how many more years, what are my goals that I'm trying to achieve, are they reasonable without the amount of time that I have left? And one of the things that really helped me a lot was some of you may have seen that I recently went to New York City because there was the Armory Show, and September is very much a back to school for the art world.

And one of the things that I try to do anytime I'm seeing a huge amount of work is to really take note of the artists over 50 that I'm looking at.

Because at these shows, there are just hundreds of galleries.

They were quite icky, but they're also sort of fun.

I think part of that is the patterning that's on the pieces and also the brightness of some of these colors.

This is a really [clears throat] incredible artist, Phuong Tran Rey, and he was showing at Allison Fine Arts at the Armory Show, and it totally looked like a collage to me.

I just assumed, "Oh, that is definitely rice paper that's been painted and sealed onto the surface." But his technique, he puts paint on packing tape and then uses it to transfer those shapes onto the surface, and you would never know that it's paint until you got up really, really close to see that exact texture.

And she's amazing, so it was really cool for us to be able to catch up.

We ran into each other at the Armory Art Show.

And you know how you always are like, "Yeah, we gotta get together.

We gotta do this," and we never do it?

And then you have to think about which piece you are going to sell to which collector.

So, for instance, the selection of work and selection of artists that used to go to Bogota Art Fair is not the same as you go to the Armory Show or you go to the Art Basel Basel.

So I was focusing, you know, really concentrate, okay.

Made the connection between South America, I start working with more South American artists.

So I'm not going to make the effort again.

So which art fairs are on your register for the next year or

so? I was going to do the Armory show, but what happened is, first of all, this year had been really heavy for me because it was a lot of personal and professional things.

Personally, you know, my father died six months ago, and then my father died a month ago, so I thought, okay, let's take a little bit more calm.

In a quote, CEO Bonnie Brennan said Christie's is ready to commit.

Sales at New York's Armory Show weren't the strongest, but they weren't the worst either.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery sold a Joan Mitchell painting for over $2 million, the fair's top reported price on its VIP day last week.

Other notable sales included Edwin Hook Gallery's Laszlo Moholy-Nagy photograph for $320,000 and Gallery Maximilian's untitled Rashid Johnson work from 2025 for $175.

Thank you so much.

And of course Kyla McMillan, who is the director of The Armory Show, and we're gonna tell y'all about this, but welcome, Kyla.

Thank you for having us.

All right, so just so people who right now are like, "Okay, what's The Armory Show?" Can you just explain what The Armory Show is? 'Cause this has been happening since 1994, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, we're in our 32nd year, um, which is wild to think about.

But, uh, The Armory Show is the biggest art fair in New York City.

Um, so we bring together 242 exhibitors from around the world for a few days, for four days, um, and people have the opportunity to experience some of the best art and artists in the world.

On today's show, Tony Award-winning illusion designer Chris Fisher will talk about his work on shows like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paranormal Activity.

And we'll preview the Armory Show with two artists and a gallery owner.

But first, live from New York, it's All of It.

[ on hold music] Saturday Night Live returns for its 52nd season this weekend with a show hosted by Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson.

[upbeat music] This is All of It on WNYC.

I'm Alison Stewart.

The Armory Show is opening in just a few days, and it's one of the biggest events in the New York art calendar.

It was named after the famous 1913 show which introduced new art under one roof, The Armory on 69th Street.

It's Monday, September 14th, and these are the top market stories going into the week.

Have you also noticed a recent uptick in the number of museum acquisition prizes at fairs? The Armory Show just announced two new acquisition prizes for its next edition, which opens on September 24th.

And these awards are the first in the fair's 30-year history.

One gives $20,000 to the Perez Art Museum in Miami.

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Armory.

[laughs]

[laughs]

We, last year it was in October.

This year it's September 14th to 20th.

Um, where we landed was, let's do it the week before Armory because we actually do wanna make sure that people are able to come into the city, um, from the art world.

Um, I think in terms of how we think about our audiences for this week specifically, a lot of our, most of our content is geared towards Chicago and, and people in Chicago that have no idea what the global art calendar looks like.