McMillan has a range of experience in the art market. Most recently, she founded her itinerant gallery and consultancy company, Saint George Projects, which has staged exhibitions for artists like Alvaro Barrington and Henri Paul Broyard in New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Berlin, and elsewhere.

Prior to that, she was a director at David Zwirner for a year, and worked at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise for four years, where she was also a director. She has also worked at Alexander Gray Associates and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

“I am honored to join The Armory Show at this important moment in the fair’s history,” said McMillan said in statement. “My goal is to empower collectors and emphasize the fair’s role as a platform for artists, galleries and art enthusiasts. The Armory Show has long been celebrated as a foundational fair for New York and the US art market. I look forward to building on The Armory Show’s achievements, while also championing new voices and creating opportunities for diverse perspectives in contemporary art.”

McMillan’s appointment is the first major leadership change at the fair since it was acquired by Frieze in 2023. The fair’s next edition is scheduled to run in early September. Marking its 30th anniversary this year, the upcoming edition announced its exhibitor list last month. Frieze’s director of fairs, Kristell Chadé, and its Americas director, Christine Messineo, were in charge during the application process.

In a statement, Chadé said, “We are thrilled to welcome Kyla McMillan as Director of The Armory Show. Her wide-ranging experience and creative drive will undoubtedly take the fair to new heights, fostering an inclusive and dynamic environment. Her past projects have demonstrated a talent for reaching new audiences and forging meaningful connections with art.”

Several changes will be introduced to this year’s fair, including a new floor plan and a new lead partner, American Express. The 2024 edition also marks the second iteration since the fair was acquired, alongside Expo Chicago, by Frieze and the first to be planned completely under Frieze ownership.

The fair is also currently without a director, after its longtime leader Nicole Berry departed the fair in March for a development role at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; it is currently helmed by Frieze’s director of fairs, Kristell Chadé, and its Americas director, Christine Messineo.

In a statement, Messineo said, “The addition of The Armory Show to our network of fairs solidifies Frieze’s standing in New York by building on the collective of galleries. The upcoming edition inaugurates a floorplan that enhances the visitor experience with reimagined meeting spaces, reoriented sections, a new theater hosting conversations with art world luminaries, and engaging partnership activations.”

In recent years, the Armory Show has been unable to secure one of the four mega-galleries or several other blue-chip exhibitors that are hallmarks of Frieze’s exhibitor line-up. That appears set to continue for this year’s edition. In its release, however, the fair said it will see more than 145 exhibitors return from last year, which fairs often cite as a metric of successful sales conducted during the fair’s run. Among those are dealers like Victoria Miro, Almine Rech, James Cohan, Nara Roesler, Sean Kelly, Kasmin, Jessica Silverman, and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.

Exhibitors returning after at least a one-year break include Jeffrey Deitch, Proyectos Monclova, Sperone Westwater, Mariane Ibrahim, Bank, and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, while first-time participants include Commonwealth and Council, Labor, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Hannah Traore Gallery, Gallery Baton, and Experimenter. Blade Study is also a first-timer, after recieving the fair’s Gramercy International Prize, which goes to a New York–based gallery that has never shown at the fair before.

Last December, the Armory Show announced the curators who will organize certain sections of the fair: the Kitchen’s senior curator Robyn Farrell for Focus and independent curator Eugenie Tsai for Platform. Among the galleries in Focus, for single- and duo-artist presentations related to the Armory Show’s first edition in 1994, are Kapp Kapp, Monique Meloche, Lubov, Whatiftheworld, Et al., and Luis De Jesus. Platform presentations, for large-scale works, are being brought to the fair by dealers like Lehmann Maupin, Peter Blum Gallery, Goya Contemporary Gallery, and Tern Gallery.  

In a statement, Chadé said, “For the past 30 years, The Armory Show has been an anchor of the city’s cultural landscape, championing art at the forefront and providing galleries an opportunity to engage with New York audiences. It has been a pleasure working with the team to build on the strengths of the fair and expand its reach. We look forward to welcoming a number of new exhibitors and thoughtful presentations, underscoring The Armory Show’s position as a platform for discovery.”

The full exhibitor list follows below.

Galleries

Solo

Focus

Presents

Platform

Not-for-Profit

Berry’s departure is the first major shake-up since the fair’s acquisition, along with that of Expo Chicago, by Frieze, which stages its own fairs in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Seoul. When the acquisition was announced last July, Frieze CEO Simon Fox said that the two fairs would retain their leadership structure and that the acquisition did not endanger the future of either fair, telling ARTnews, “the market is huge. The two can coexist very comfortably as they currently do. We think we can enhance what the Armory Show currently does.”

In a letter to exhibitors, Kristell Chadé, executive director of fairs at Frieze, said that the search for a new director for the Armory Show is already underway. In the interim, Chadé and Christine Messineo, Frieze’s director of Americas, will lead the show. (Applications for the 2024 edition of the Armory Show this fall have already closed.)

“We are grateful for Nicole’s contribution to The Armory Show over the last eight years, and wish her all the best in her new role,” Chadé wrote in the letter. “We thank her for all her hard work, which leaves us in good shape for the upcoming 2024 edition of the fair.”

Berry joined the Armory Show as deputy director in 2016 and was promoted to the role of executive director in 2017, shortly after the New York Times reported that the fair’s then director Benjamin Genocchio had been accused of unwelcome touching by five women. Prior to joining the Armory Show, Berry had been deputy director of another art fair, Expo Chicago.

During her tenure leading the Armory Show, Berry has been important in transforming the look and feel of the fair, spearheading its move from the West Side Piers to the Javits Center and a date shift from early March to the first week in September.

“Since becoming Executive Director of The Armory Show, it has been my mission to improve the fair with each edition,” Berry said in a statement. “I am deeply proud of the accomplishments of our team and am grateful for the opportunities I have been provided. I wish the remarkable team and the extended Frieze network the best for this important milestone year and in the future.”

“Let’s start with the fact that the US art market is the biggest in the world by far,” Frieze CEO Simon Fox told ARTnews in an interview about the acquisition. “The opportunity to have a larger fair at a different time of year, in such an important market in New York, was very exciting for us. … Chicago, of course, is a completely new opportunity for us … to become involved in a culturally rich part of the US market that we haven’t been involved with before.”

Both the Armory Show, which is led by executive director Nicole Berry, and Expo Chicago, led by founder and president Tony Karman, will operate as separate divisions under Frieze with their existing teams but will share business services—like sponsorship, finance, legal, HR, digital—according to Fox. Fox said he would not comment on how long negotiations for the acquisitions of both fairs has been in the works.

The acquisition of the Armory Show would seem to complicate the future of Frieze’s New York fair, but Fox said both fairs would continue to operate as he sees them as complementing each other, calling Frieze New York a “smaller fair but a much loved fair” that is among the company’s most successful. (Both fairs take place down the road from each other in Far West Manhattan: the Armory Show at the Javits Convention Center and Frieze New York at the Shed in Hudson Yards.)

 “They [have] different audiences, different histories—this just allows us to play a bigger role in exciting new marketplace,” Fox said. “As I mentioned, the market is huge. The two can coexist very comfortably as they currently do. We think we can enhance what the Armory Show currently does.”

A further complication to this acquisition is that this year’s editions of the Armory Show, which moved its dates to September and to the Javits Center in 2021, and Frieze Seoul overlap during the same week.

“Going forward, it’s not ideal,” Fox acknowledged. “It’s also not straightforward moving dates. Both Frieze Seoul and the Armory Show are in busy convention centers. Over time, if we can somehow move the dates a little bit so we could avoid direct overlap that would be helpful. It’s not something we can achieve necessarily immediately.”

Both of Frieze’s newly acquired fairs are among the oldest to operate in the US market. The roots for Expo Chicago date back to 1980, when its predecessor Art Chicago was founded. Art Chicago was for decades considered the US’s top art fair, and the Armory Show, which began as the Gramercy International Art Fair in the rooms of the Gramercy Park Hotel in 1994, was founded by several New York dealers as an alternative to Art Chicago.

In its final years, Art Chicago experienced several operating and financial difficulties and ultimately canceled its 2011 edition; Expo Chicago, operating as a separate business but with the groundwork already laid by Art Chicago, launched its first edition in 2012. The Gramercy International renamed itself in 1999 after it moved to the nearby 69th Regiment Armory, which was also where the now iconic Armory Show of 1913, which brought European modernism to the US, was also staged.

The two fairs, however, are arguably beat in importance and size by Art Basel Miami Beach, which started in 2004. The 2023 edition of Expo Chicago, which marked the company’s 10th in-person fair, had just over 170 exhibitors, while the upcoming Armory Show has more than 225 exhibitors lined-up to take part. Art Basel Miami Beach, which operates each December, has not yet announced its exhibitor list, hosted 283 galleries at its 2022 edition. (Art Basel Miami Beach is still without a fair director.)

For their 2023 editions, both the Armory Show and Expo Chicago failed to lure any of the four mega-galleries—Gagoisan, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, David Zwirner—to the fair, though they each did attract major blue-chip galleries on their exhibitor lists. Now, as part of the Frieze umbrella, that could change.

Both Frieze and Art Basel have been continuing to expand over the past several years, which could likely be attributed to the launch of Frieze Los Angeles in 2019. Frieze’s continued expansion was likely stymied slightly by the pandemic, as it announced the launch of a new fair, Frieze Seoul in the ever-growing Asia art market, in May 2021.

Since the launch of Art Basel Hong Kong in 2013—itself an acquisition of an existing fair, Art HK, which was founded in 2007—Art Basel has maintained three fairs a year. That all changed when Art Basel made headlines in January 2022 when it announced that it would launch a new fair, Paris+ par Art Basel, after it secured the October dates for the Grand Palais that had long been held by the French fair FIAC.   

In an interview with Vanity Fair columnist Nate Freeman last October, Ari Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, which acquired Frieze in 2016, said that he thought “LA is going to be bigger than Basel’s Miami,” adding, “This is not to bash Basel: I think they made a mistake in Hong Kong. I think we made the right decision in South Korea. I think we made the right decision in LA—I think it’s overcommercialized now in Miami. That’s not what we want to do because, again, I think they’re just trying to make money.”

Fox declined to comment on Frieze’s competitor but said what distinguishes Frieze as a company from others is that he sees it “as not just a fair operator,” pointing to its roots in publishing with Frieze magazine and its more recent additions of its year-round gallery, No.9 Cork Street, and its membership program, Frieze 91.

“We’ve been growing and innovating across all parts of our organization,” Fox said. “I see lots of future growth opportunities for us, thinking about Frieze as a whole rather than simply as an operator of fairs.”

At this year’s edition, the second to take place at the Javits Center in New York’s Hudson Yards, the Armory Show will feature more than 240 exhibitors from around the world. By contrast, last year, 157 galleries participated in the physical fair, with 50 exhibitors participating online.

While that number puts the Armory Show on the same scale as an event like Art Basel, widely considered to be the world’s most important art fair, the Swiss fair’s marquee event typically attracts a more blue-chip crowd. This year, David Zwirner remains the sole mega-gallery with a booth at the Armory Show. By contrast, Frieze New York, the other fair of a similar scale in the city, will host five megas—Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, and White Cube—at its 2022 edition in May.

Set to run from September 9 to 11, with a V.I.P. day on September 8, the Armory Show is seeking to capitalize on loosening travel restrictions and reignited desire for in-person art viewing. The fair has stated that it will take a focus on Latinx and Latin American art this year, with sections being overseen Tobias Ostrander and Carla Acevedo-Yates and Mari Carmen Ramírez organizing its curatorial gathering.

“We saw our applications go up 30 percent this year, so I think that’s indicative of an interest in getting people back in front of art,” said Nicole Berry, the Armory Show’s executive director, in an interview with ARTnews.

Part of the reason for this growth, Berry said, was the impact of the pandemic last year. In 2021, around 200 galleries were supposed to participate in-person, though some were forced to defer their participation to this year amid Covid limitations on who could leave their respective countries.

The Armory Show is still the only the fair that takes place in New York in early September, a period that has traditionally been considered the one where galleries reopen for business after a summer break.

The exhibitor list for the 2022 Armory Show follows below.

GALLERIES

303 Gallery, New York
ACA Galleries, New York
albertz benda, New York, Los Angeles
Altman Siegel, San Francisco
ARCHEUS / POST-MODERN, London
Galería de Arte Mexicano GAM, Mexico City
Alfonso Artiaco, Naples
BANK, Shanghai
BERG Contemporary, Reykjavik
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen
Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach
Peter Blum Gallery, New York
Galleri Brandstrup, Oslo
The Breeder, Athens
Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, Hong Kong, Palm Beach
Buchmann Galerie, Berlin, Lugano
Campoli Presti, Paris, London
Cardi Gallery, Milan, London
David Castillo, Miami
James Cohan, New York
Cortesi Gallery, Lugano, Milan
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
Galerie Crone, Vienna, Berlin
Massimo De Carlo, Milan, London, Paris, Hong Kong
Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles Los Angeles
Tibor de Nagy, New York
DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin
Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles
Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, Leipzig
galerie frank elbaz, Paris
Derek Eller Gallery, New York
Donald Ellis Gallery, New York, Dundas
Larkin Erdmann, Zurich
Galeria Estação, Sao Paulo
Max Estrella, Madrid
Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York
Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, East Hampton
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
Fredericks & Freiser, New York
Frith Street Gallery, London
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
Green On Red Gallery, Dublin
GRIMM, Amsterdam, New York
Kavi Gupta, Chicago
Hales, London, New York
Half Gallery, New York, Los Angeles
Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, London, Paris
Kristin Hjellegjerde, Gallery London, Berlin, Nevlunghavn
The Hole, New York, Los Angeles
Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, Paris
INGLEBY, Edinburgh
Lyndsey Ingram, London
Inman Gallery, Houston
Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, New York
Johyun Gallery, Busan, Seoul
K Art, Buffalo
Kasmin, New York
Sean Kelly, New York, Los Angeles
Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco
Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo
Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp
Simon Lee Gallery, London, Hong Kong
Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne
Josh Lilley, London
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia
Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
LOOCK Galerie, Berlin
Ludorff, Dusseldorf
Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m., Bologna, Milan, Paris
MAGNIN-A, Paris
MAKI Gallery, Tokyo
Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam
Marlborough, New York, Barcelona, London, Madrid
Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles
MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels, Knokke, Zaventem
Mazzoleni, London, Turin
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York
Newton, New York
NINO MIER GALLERY, Los Angeles, Brussels, Marfa
Galeria Millan, Sao Paulo
Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Francesca Minini, Milan
Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia
Victoria Miro, London, Venice
Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin, Cologne, Munich
Nature Morte, New Delhi
Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles
Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, New York, Bucharest
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Carolina Nitsch, New York
David Nolan Gallery, New York
Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, Brussels
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome
Galerie Oniris, Rennes
Overduin & Co., Los Angeles
P420, Bologna
Paragon, London
Peres Projects, Berlin, Milan, Seoul
Pierogi, New York
Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Polígrafa Obra Gràfica, Barcelona
PROYECTOS MONCLOVA, Mexico City
Almine Rech, Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai
Repetto Gallery, London
Galería RGR, Mexico City
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Roberts Projects, Los Angeles
Galeria Nara Roesler, Sao Paulo, New York, Rio de Janeiro
Ronchini Gallery, London
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York
Richard Saltoun, London, Rome
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills
ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore
Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston
Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
Silverlens Galleries Makati, City
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
Walter Storms Galerie, Munich
Hollis Taggart, New York, Southport
Taubert Contemporary, Berlin
Timothy Taylor, London, New York
Galerie Templon, Paris, Brussels, New York
Tiwani Contemporary, London, Lagos
Two Palms, New York
Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
Van Doren Waxter, New York
Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Vigo Gallery, London
VISTAMARE | VISTAMARESTUDIO, Pescara, Milan
WENTRUP, Berlin, Hamburg
Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Karuizawa
Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
David Zwirner, New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris

SOLO

Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Paris
Art: Concept, Paris
James Fuentes, New York
Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Klemm’s, Berlin
Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai
Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York
OSL contemporary, Oslo
Parafin, London
Galeria SENDA, Barcelona
SMAC, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg
Spinello Projects, Miami
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Leon Tovar Gallery, New York
Vintage Galéria, Budapest

FOCUS

Almeida e Dale, Sao Paulo
Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
Bienvenu Steinberg & Partner, New York
Cecilia Brunson Projects, London
Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco
CURRO, Guadalajara
Davidson Gallery, New York
DOCUMENT, Chicago
Embajada, San Juan
Nora Fisch, Buenos Aires
Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Hutchinson Modern, New York
Instituto de Visión, Bogota, New York
Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai
Sean Kelly, New York, Los Angeles
kó, Lagos
M+B, Los Angeles
Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago
Mrs., New York
PROXYCO Gallery, New York
Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City
Revolver Galería, Lima, Buenos Aires, New York
Rolf Art, Buenos Aires
rosenfeld, London
Ruiz-Healy Art, Inc., San Antonio, New York City
Eduardo Secci, Florence, Milan
Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
SOCO Gallery, Charlotte
Marc Straus, New York
TERN Gallery, Nassau
Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York
Volume Gallery, Chicago
WORKPLACE, London

PRESENTS

+2, Tehran
12.26, Dallas
1969 Gallery, New York
Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa, London
AFRONOVA GALLERY, Johannesburg
Jack Barrett, New York
Jack Bell Gallery, London
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal
Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam
Broadway, New York
Calderón, New York
Carbon 12, Dubai
Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi
Edel Assanti, London
Frestonian Gallery, London
Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, Cologne
Higher Pictures Generation, New York
HOUSING, New York
Kapp Kapp, New York
Galerie Fabian Lang, Zurich
M. LeBlanc, Chicago
Lyles & King, New York
Kai Matsumiya, New York
Charles Moffett, New York
Mother Gallery, New York, Beacon
Patel Brown, Toronto
Pequod Co., Mexico City
The Pit, Los Angeles, Palm Springs
PSM, Berlin
Niru Ratnam, Gallery London
Regards, Chicago
Rele Gallery, Lagos, Los Angeles
SARADIPOUR Art (SARAI), Mahshahr, Los Angeles
Sargent’s Daughters, New York, Los Angeles
SHRINE, New York, Los Angeles
Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles
Stanley’s, Los Angeles
The Sunday Painter, London
Voloshyn Gallery, Kiev
Anna Zorina Gallery, New York

PLATFORM

El Apartamento, Havana
James Cohan, New York
Instituto de Visión, Bogota, New York
Kavi Gupta, Chicago
Sean Horton (presents), New York
Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo, Brussels, New York
Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago
Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
Perrotin, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai
PROXYCO, Gallery New York
Rolf Art, Buenos Aires

Since 2017, Farietta has served as advancement deputy at Ballroom Marfa in west Texas, where she led the organization’s fundraising efforts to realize its exhibition, site-specific installations, and public programming. She also oversaw limited-edition projects created by artists like Loie Hollowell, Leo Villareal, Eduardo Sarabia, Solange Pessoa, and Carla Fernandez.

Prior to Ballroom Marfa, she had a development position at the Brooklyn Museum and served as a director at Johannes Vogt Gallery in New York for four years. Farietta has also previous experience working in art fairs. She was director of VIP relations and programming at Scope Art Fairs from 2006 to 2008 and then was named assistant director of Volta New York for its first edition in 2008.

“I am thrilled to be joining The Armory Show at such a transformative moment in its history,” Farietta said. “Following the fair’s permanent move to the Javits Center last September, I look forward to collaborating with this exceptional team on strategic initiatives to continue its success.”

In December, the Armory Show announced that its forthcoming 2022 edition will dedicate all of its special programming to focus on Latinx and Latin American art. In addition to her appointment, the Armory Show also announced several other appointments to its senior leadership: Andrew Cabridens as head of VIP relations, Thomas Dewey Davis as director of communications and programming, and Laure Dubois as director of marketing.”

In a statement, the fair’s executive director, Nicole Berry, said, “The Armory Show is delighted to welcome Adriana as Deputy Director to our extraordinary team. Adriana brings significant experience and expertise within the arts that will further elevate the fair as a cornerstone of the New York cultural landscape.”

Ramírez, curator of Latin American art and director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will organize the fair’s annual Curatorial Leadership Summit. Ostrander, adjunct curator for Latin American art at Tate, will organize the fair’s Platform section for large-scale works. Acevedo-Yates, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, will oversee the fair’s Focus section for solo and two-person presentations.

“As New York’s fair we have the responsibility to offer presentations that reflect the city that we live in and those that make up the city,” Nicole Berry, executive director of the Armory Show, said in an interview. “We want to directly engage with the diverse landscape of the city and acknowledge, in this year in particular, the vast accomplishments of Latin American and Latinx artists, whether in New York or elsewhere. We want to encourage the art world to engage with these issues.”

For her section, Acevedo-Yates will focus on environmental issues and intergenerational dialogues, as well as what she called “South-South ecologies.” With a mind to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, she has been thinking about “how colonialism, racism and gender violence intersect with environmental struggles,” she said. Ostrander’s section will also take a thematic approach, focusing on the role that monuments play, both within Latin America and the U.S. “I know there are a lot of artists who are responding to the question of ‘What do we monumentalize?’ now,” he said.

Ramírez’s summit, a closed-door, day-long symposium during the fair in September, is set to ask crucial questions, among them: “Who is considered Latin American and/or Latinx? What are the historical bases for those distinctions?”

“Latinx and Latin American art are two very complex, sometimes contested, areas of curatorial practice,” she said. “They share many things but are very different, and I think there’s a lot of confusion among museum professionals who are not involved directly in this field.”

Curating for fairs and museums are two very different things, and Acevedo-Yates and Ostrander said they were excited about the process of doing their work on accelerated timeline because it could allow them to respond to current issues more quickly. Ramírez added that the market context is crucial. “What this art needs right now is legitimacy,” she said, “and only the market and institutions can do that.”

This past September, the Armory Show staged its first edition at the Javits Center in New York—a new venue with new dates. (The fair staged its last pre-pandemic iteration in March 2020, just before lockdown began in the U.S., and did not have to cancel an edition.) Berry expressed hope what for the next edition holds. “We had envisioned 2021 at the Javits Center as a new chapter for the Armory Show, and we feel that we did that,” she said. “It set the stage for the future of the fair.”

According to Ramírez, that future must include a emphasis on Latinx and Latin American art, even when it is not the stated focus of the fair. “In my view, this debate around Latinx art here in the United States is really going to define the next decade—if only because it’s grounded in the fact that this is an ascending minority,” Ramírez said. “This is a matter of survival for these institutions. This is not something we can turn our heads away from.”

Below a look at some of the best art at the fair, which runs through Sunday, September 12.

Prior to leading the fair, Berry was the Armory Show’s deputy director, and before taking on that position, she led the Expo Chicago fair for five years. Ahead of the fair’s opening, ARTnews spoke with Berry to discuss her career, staging this year’s fair, the art market’s general outlook, and the future she has in store for the Armory Show.

ARTnews: You spent almost a decade in elementary school education. What led you to pursue working in the arts?

Nicole Berry: I was always incorporating art and art history into all of my lessons. As that was occurring, I realized that it was passion that I needed to pursue. I made a transition from teaching to working at a nonprofit arts organization, Art in Action, started by Judy Sleeth, where I was developing curriculum for public schools that had cut arts programming. I then decided to get my master’s in art history at the University of California, Davis. But that time as a teacher really has influenced everything that I’ve done since. It gave me skills that translate well to art, management, organization, leadership, and teamwork.

How did your experience at UC Davis shape what you thought your career in the arts might be? 

The experience was great because Wayne Thiebaud was still teaching in the art department there. I wrote my thesis on Betty Parsons and Peggy Guggenheim as gatekeeper dealers. I didn’t know how I wanted to move forward after I graduated. I wanted to experience lots of different things. I ended up as an intern in the contemporary art department at Sotheby’s in London during the bubble of the early 2000s. It wound up being a wonderful training ground. Then, I knew I wanted to experience something else. I tried to get as much experience as possible and figure out where I wanted to land. So I started working in secondary market at galleries on the Upper East Side, which gave me a new skill set, from developing and curating exhibitions to interfacing with artists and collectors.

When I moved to [doing] fairs, coming from the gallery side was tremendous because I knew the challenges galleries face. But it wasn’t as if, in grad school, I set out to become an art fair director. I think having had a professional career prior to my art world experience, I was very thoughtful about the positions I took and where I wanted to gain experience. At the same time, I started my own art blog, Accessible Art, and that developed organically because I was in New York City and attended everything I could related to art. I wanted to share that with people who couldn’t be there in person. I had friends who were intimidated by the art world. My philosophy is that art should be a part of everybody’s life, that it enriches it. It was a great way to merge my passion for art with my education background.

After five years in Chicago working as deputy director of the Expo Chicago fair, you joined the Armory Show as its deputy director.  

I knew I always wanted to get back to New York. Armory was the perfect fit for the skills I had gained from my time in Chicago. It was an opportunity to work for a beloved institution in one of the great cultural capitals of the world. I had been a visitor to Armory for years, and there were elements of it that I knew could be improved, and so I looked forward to that challenge. I built personal relationships with curators all over the country during my time in Chicago, and I wanted to build upon that at the Armory Show in a meaningful way. The Curatorial Leadership Summit that was created at the Armory Show grew out of those relationships. Curators often attend fairs, but they’re often running from one thing to the next, so how can we create a moment to have a meaningful interaction?

The Javits Center in New York, the new home of the Armory Show.

Why do you think it’s important to connect curators to the fair in a meaningful way?

Curators have their fingers on the pulse of what’s happening in the art world and that’s why we also work with curators on our program because I think they are really in the know and provide a different perspective. We want to create an opportunity for curators to gather with peers to talk about challenges in the profession. Each year a different curator is the chair of the Curatorial Leadership Summit and they build a program to foster open and honest conversation so they can learn from one another. It’s also important to us to not just have that closed-door session of the Curatorial Leadership Summit, but to bring some of those topics to a talk for the public because these topics are interesting to everyone.

Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is our 2021 Curatorial Leadership Summit chair. She has put together this program which is going to address the recent issues of racial injustice and how it’s impacted our cultural institutions, particularly in the way that it’s pushing museums to rethink their history and become more inclusive spaces. On site, we will have a closed-door session and a public discussion.

Speaking of being on site, how does the fair’s transition from the Westside piers to the Javits Center represent a next step for the Armory Show? 

The Pier 92 situation [in which a city inspection declared the structure unsafe about a week before the fair opened] was obviously very much out of my team’s control, but we worked tirelessly to make sure there was as little disruption as possible for exhibitors. The Armory Show team has remained resilient and we continue to adapt to ensure we’re doing the best we can for our clients, our galleries, collectors, and visitors. The bottom line is that the piers became untenable and the silver lining of that is that it forced us to look for a new venue long term. We are thrilled to be at a state-of-the-art facility like the Javits in a centralized location. The Javits was really the only one that fit the bill across the board. We’re excited about activating the western corridor of Manhattan from the Javits down the Highline to Chelsea, the Whitney, and down into Tribeca.

Focusing on the quality of galleries at the Armory has always been an important part of my vision for the fair. It’s been great to reengage with the major galleries who had not participated in quite some time and to interest younger galleries in emerging markets. For us, this brings a sense of discovery to the fair, and ensures that there’s something for the most seasoned collector as well as those just starting out. This space is a blank canvas that allows us to really rethink how the fair functions.

What should visitors to the fair this week expect, both from in terms of art and health and safety? 

The Armory Show has developed robust health and safety protocols in partnership with the Javits Center, adhering to all New York State and CDC recommendations for events, including but not limited to mandatory masks and proof of vaccination or negative PCR test for entry. We have also instituted timed entry to allow for social distancing and the safe flow of traffic for staff, exhibitors, and visitors. The health and safety of everyone at the fair is and will continue to be our top priority.

Our new open floor plan, thoughtfully designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners, offers excellent sightlines throughout the fair to facilitate the discovery of new artworks and artists. Frederick Fisher and Partners has also designed an inviting central Agora where visitors may pause, connect, and experience the large-scale installations in Platform, curated by Claudia Schmuckli. And perhaps the most exciting change is that all our exhibitors will be integrated under one roof for the first time in over a decade, offering collectors the opportunity to view modern masterpieces alongside cutting-edge contemporary art.

Additionally, for the first time, the in-person fair will be accompanied by our new digital platform Armory Online. The platform includes special tools for favoriting and creating collections, and discovering new artists. Armory Online will offer enhanced and sustained engagement for our visitors to the in-person fair, as well as an opportunity to attend digitally for those who are not able to travel.

What has been the biggest challenge in navigating holding the fair this fall?

The pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for all live events, one of which has been dealing with the unknown and shifting circumstances. Thankfully, we’ve been able to navigate the uncertainty of this constantly changing landscape, in close partnership with the Javits Center and our galleries, and move forward with our plans for an in-person fair.

Did you and your team ever consider calling off the fair? What led you to decide to go forward with it? 

Over the past 18 months, many galleries and collectors have expressed how much they miss in-person fairs, particularly in New York, and the opportunities they provide for strengthening and building new relationships. As vaccination rates increased and New York City began to reopen, we remained hopeful that we could proceed and made safety our first priority. Hosting our fair at the Javits Center—a New York state–run facility with the highest industry standards for Covid-19 safety measures and space for social distancing—gave us further confidence to proceed.

What would you say to the people who think the fair should be called off entirely?

We understand that people have varying degrees of comfort when it comes to attending large scale events. Working with the Javits Center, we have put safety measures such as limited capacity, timed entry, social distancing, mandatory masks, and proof of vaccination or negative PCR test in place. We have also created the Armory Online platform which allows those who choose not to attend to participate in the Armory Show experience.

The 2020 edition of the Armory Show happened just before New York City and much of the world went into lockdown because of the pandemic. Were there ever plans to cancel it then or close early?

New York was fully functioning when we were preparing for the 2020 fair, so we were in touch with galleries to say this is what we’re doing. We had no idea what was coming down the pipeline. There was incredible success at that fair. It wasn’t until later that we realized how serious the situation was. But hindsight is 20/20. We didn’t have any information. We were going by the guidelines, which were that we could go ahead with the fair.

With that hindsight, do you think going forward with the fair was still the right call?

In the immediate aftermath of New York becoming an epicenter, there was great grief for everyone. The number of deaths happening here in New York, happening in the world—I think we were feeling a communal grief and shock at what was happening. But I’ve had conversations with art advisers and galleries who have said, “Thank you for happening.” They said that that event happening allowed them to be financially okay for what became a very difficult year.

As you said, art galleries have had a rough year financially, and many have had to rethink their participation in several fairs a year. How is the Armory Show still essential to their businesses?

We’re a quintessentially a New York fair. We’re embedded in the cultural fabric of this city and deeply committed to the community, which is appealing to gallerists. We have a loyal collector and exhibitor base and we always have new galleries joining. We’ve consistently played a really crucial role in bringing New York’s art community together with the more global art world. In our new location and with the new date patterns [the fair used to be held in March], we’re excited about the impact that we can have. Based on the conversations I’ve had with gallerists, they’re excited to get back to fairs and they miss New York. They want to return to that in-person experience. As much as the digital sphere has certainly become an important part of the equation and has created useful tools for galleries, we all agree that it can’t replace the physical experience of standing in front of a work of art. The ability to wander in and out of booths and showcase a diverse range of artists through a wide range of collectors is vital to the success of the international art market. Fairs bring people together and provide a vibrant marketplace for sales. The vitality of New York’s art market and its deep collector base is a core part of our success. I think that puts us in a strong position, not only for 2021, but for years to come.

The Armory Show has been around for over 25 years. How are you thinking about the history of the fair and what the future is for it?

I really learned a lot more about the history when working on our 25th anniversary edition. There’s so much love for early days of the fair—the Gramercy International Fair, which grew into the Armory Show. Some of the world’s top gallerists were just beginning their careers when they participated in those early editions. We can never recreate what that fair was, but our roots are really important to consider as we grow and as we reassess our identity as a fair, particularly with this move to the Javits. We have grown with the market. We’re always adapting to meet the needs of galleries and visitors. I want to make the founders proud of who we have become as we look to the future.