The Armory Show: Five Artists To Watch
With over 42,000 visitors in attendance at New York's Javits Center, The Armory Show was most definitely back for 2022. Galleries reported strong sales right through the weekend.
Some of the most exciting presentations at this year's fair came from the Presents section, dedicated to galleries ten years old and under. Booths showing emerging artists, as well as somewhat overlooked mid-career artists were also a highlight. Below are the gems that caught our attention.
Jenny Morgan at Mother Gallery
Jenny Morgan's solo booth at the four-year-old Mother Gallery was the star of the show.
The New York-based artist presented three large-scale paintings and three smaller oil works. Standing in front of Morgan's works, you could sense the energy driving her seamless forms—a perfect illustration of why art should be experienced in person.
Mother Gallery's founder and director, Paola Oxoa, explained: 'The Armory Show is New York's art fair and as a New York artist, it was the perfect place to show her work to the most people in the city.'
'She's pushing portraiture in new directions, embedding the materials with the energy of her muse. Her concern is to feel the energy of the moment, and communicate these moments with her brush,' Oxoa said.
On Armory's final day, it was announced that the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami had purchased Morgan's work, The Lineage (2022).
William Brickel at Kohn Gallery
Kohn Gallery was hot on bringing young and emerging artists to New York, including British talent William Brickel who was first brought to our attention by Kohn Gallery two years ago.
Brickel recalls memories and imagination, representing his lived experiences while expressing states of emotional vulnerability in large, impactful paintings that embrace the material properties of watercolours and oils.
Already, his works have made their way into reputable collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and ICA Miami.
Brickel comes fresh off the back of a solo exhibition at The Artist Room in London. A graduate of London's Royal Drawing School, he will be one to look out for in the next few years.
Johnny Izatt-Lowry at Fabian Lang
With his playful, dreamlike paintings, U.K. artist Johnny Izatt-Lowry was a sure crowd-pleaser at Fabian Lang's booth.
Izatt-Lowry's painted scenes are both incidental and assembled—filled with shoes, oranges, cigarettes, and cabbages, amongst other miscellaneous objects.
On closer inspection of his canvases, which are stretched with crepe fabric, one could observe the depth and texture of areas that the artist had pressed more firmly, and where the pigment had subsequently gathered upon the canvas.
Holding an MFA from London's Slade School of Art, the young British artist's oeurve was both unique and intriguing, while being instantly palatable.
Anthony Cudahy at Hales Gallery
A recent Hunter College MFA graduate, Anthony Cudahy was one to look out for at Hales Gallery's booth.
Weaving personal and fictional narratives, Cudahy taps into intimate moments of human experience, exploring feelings of loneliness, isolation, and desire within the mundane everyday.
Figures and settings are often seen to coalesce in vignettes that combine a broad range of painting techniques, including fluid brushwork, incidental mark-making, thick impasto, patterning, and the use of phosphorescent colour.
'As a New York-based artist, it's important to us that he has visibility on his home turf. He's at the top of his game at the moment so now, more than ever, it's great to show his work at Armory,' said Hales Gallery.
GRIMM announced their representation of Cudahy earlier this year, with the artist's inaugural solo show scheduled for November at GRIMM's Amsterdam gallery. Cudahy's first museum solo exhibition opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Dole, in 2023.
Li Hei Di at Kohn Gallery
Another impressive young artist presented at Kohn Gallery's booth was Chinese painter Li Hei Di, who had two oil paintings on show. A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, Li Hei Di has turned heads with her works—both at her London graduate show, and again in New York for Armory.
Capturing the desire, seduction and flirtation of sex, particularly in that of the anticipatory 'mating dance', Li Hei Di's whimsical floral forms complemented the effervescent canvases of Ilana Savdie hung nearby.
Li Hei Di will have her first solo show with Kohn Gallery in 2023.
Main image: Jenny Morgan, Secret Lair (2022). Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 55.9 cm. Courtesy Mother Gallery.
