Two New Prizes and a Caribbean Focus for This Year’s Armory Show

The Armory Show returns to New York City next month with two brand new acquisition prizes and a focus on artists from the Caribbean diaspora.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Acquisition Prize marks the institution’s commitment to advancing Caribbean art and artists by establishing a $20,000 acquisition fund to support both the museum’s permanent collection and The Green Family Foundation Caribbean Cultural Institute. Meanwhile, The Bronx Museum Acquisition Prize provides $15,000 towards an acquisition for its permanent collection.

At the centre of the fair, the 10th edition of Platform once again provides a space for large-scale installations and sculptures. This year’s iteration—Passages and Thresholds, curated by the Sculpture Centre’s Jovanna Venegas—examines technological forms emerging across the Caribbean, considering ideas of resilience, reconstruction and self-determination.

The Armory Show’s director Kyla McMillan described this year’s fair as “a vital platform for experimentation, discovery and exchange”. In a statement, she said: “The 2026 edition of The Armory Show reflects our ambition to create a more connected experience for audiences. 

“With new dates and an intentionally extended Armory Week, we are introducing and expanding initiatives that create greater visibility and engagement for artists, galleries, curators, and collectors.”

Highlights include Bony Ramirez’s La Carta (2026), an immersive installation examining the emotional and physical effects of receiving devastating news; Nuestra Silla (Our Chair) (2026) by Lucia Hierro, inspired by the plastic chairs familiar in Dominican American neighbourhoods in New York City, and Gaëlle Choisne’s Zantray Vert and Zantray Blue (2023), which uses sculpture and painting to explore environmental collapse and colonial legacy.

Inspired by the inaugural Armory Show in 1913, this year’s Armory Sculpture section includes work by Sonya Clark, Rafael Ferrer and Manuel Mathieu. Clark’s Edifice and Mortar (2018) is a large installation made of hand-cast bricks inscribed with the Declaration of Independence and bound with African American hair, which considers the importance of Black labour in building the United States.

Rafael Ferrer’s Geographic Avenger Beached (1974–2026) examines the relationship between the US and Puerto Rico, while Manuel Mathieu’s Shhrine (2025) is an olfactory installation that explores spirituality and memory using fragrance.

Spotlight, the section of the fair that gives prominence to a New York City not-for-profit organisation, this year features El Museo del Barrio, which will display a textile installation by Lulu Varona that visitors will be invited to embroider or unpick.

New this year is Armory After Hours, an evening event inspired by carnival. A processional performance, led by DJ Foreigner, will feature steel pans and a live DJ set.

The Armory Show, which this year takes place two weeks later than usual and thus avoids a clash with Frieze Seoul, runs from 24–27 September at the Javits Centre in New York City. Roughly 230 galleries from 30 countries are set to take part.

Armory Week runs from 21–27 September. Armory After Hours takes place on 25 September from 7pm–9pm.