Curator Lauren Haynes
THE CURATORIAL TEAM for the 2019 Armory Show was announced this week. Lauren Haynes is curating the New York City art fair’s Focus section, which is “devoted to solo- and dual-artist presentations by relevant and compelling artists.” This year, Ryan Lee Gallery presented a solo show of works by Emma Amos in the Focus section.
Haynes serves as curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentionville, Ark. Earlier this year, she organized the museum’s presentation of “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.” Before joining Crystal Bridges, Haynes was associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She is a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow.
The Armory Show also announced Sally Tallant, director of the Liverpool Biennial, is organizing the Platform section, which is dedicated to large-scale installations and performances. The Curatorial Leadership Summit is being chaired by Dan Byers, director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. (The inaugural summit held earlier this year, was organized by Naomi Beckwith, senior curator at MCA Chicago.)
“We are thrilled to be working with these internationally renowned curators on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary Year,” Nicole Berry, executive director of the Armory Show, said in a statement.
“The gallerists who founded the fair had a strong and important vision to present new voices in the arts. Capturing the spirit of the fair’s early days, while also looking toward the future, we have selected three curators who will bring new energy and perspectives to the 2019 edition. Engaging Sally, Lauren, and Dan reflect the core of our mission, to provide discoveries, intellectual rigor, and thoughtfulness to the fair experience. This is possible through our deep relationships with international curators and institutions, which continue to make The Armory Show New York’s premier destination for top galleries, artists, and collectors alike.”
“Capturing the spirit of the fair’s early days, while also looking toward the future, we have selected three curators who will bring new energy and perspectives to the 2019 edition. Engaging Sally, Lauren, and Dan reflect the core of our mission, to provide discoveries, intellectual rigor, and thoughtfulness to the fair experience.”
— Nicole Berry, Executive Director of the Armory Show
An emporium of art buying, public programming, and artist commissions, the Armory Show was established a quarter century ago in 1994. Each year about 200 galleries from around the world present 20th and 21st century art by highly regarded figures and new emerging voices. The Armory Show is March 7-10, 2019, at Piers 92 & 94 in Manhattan. The VIP preview day is March 6.
FOR ITS FIRST SEVEN YEARS, Focus was geography-based. Themes for the section included Nordic Countries (2012), the United States (2013), China (2014), and the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean (2015). In 2016, Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba were appointed curators of the Focus section. Grosse and Mutumba are co-founders of Contemporary And, an international platform exploring art from an African perspective.
Their vision, “Armory Focus: African Perspectives,” featured 15 galleries showing single artists and special artist commissions presented throughout the fair by eight young, emerging artists “that are challenging preconceptions surrounding the notion of ‘contemporary African art.'” The artists selected to participate were Kapwani Kiwanga, Emeka Ogboh, Lebohang Kganye, Karo Akpokiere, Ed Young, Athi-Patra Ruga, Jared Ginsburg, and Mame-Diara Niang. The programming also included three-day symposium featuring artists El Anatsui, Kapwani Kiwanga, and ruby onyinyechi amanze; curators Elvira Dyangani Ose and Zoe Whitley; and collector Pamela Joyner, among others.
After 2016, the Armory Show decided to rethink the Focus section and moved away the emphasis on geography, in order to provide “more opportunities for galleries to exhibit at The Armory Show at a subsidized rate.” The Armory Show notes that the number of galleries participating in the Focus section has since increased by 50 percent. In 2017, there were only 14 Focus galleries, one less than in 2016. This year’s fair included 28 galleries.
After 2016, the Armory Show decided to rethink the Focus section and moved away the emphasis on geography, in order to provide “more opportunities for galleries to exhibit at The Armory Show at a subsidized rate.”
In addition, the Armory Show ceased presenting commissioned artist projects under the umbrella of the Focus section. Those projects now fall under the purview of Platform. Launched in 2017, the new section is dedicated to large-scale artworks, installations, and site-specific commissions.
Although geography is no longer an organizing thread, each year the Focus section does have a theme. The concept for the upcoming 2019 edition, under the direction of Haynes, will be announced in the coming months. CT
TOP IMAGE: Lauren Haynes. Photo by Beth Hall, Courtesy Armory Show
BOOKSHELF
Lauren Haynes recently oversaw the presentation of “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” at the Crystal Bridges Museum. She also organized an “Alma Thomas” survey and “Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art” at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Both exhibitions accompanied by compelling catalogs.
