Each September, Armory Week transforms New York into the center of the art world, with fairs, exhibitions, and special projects unfolding across the city. From major international showcases to more intimate, experimental gatherings, the week offers endless ways to experience new voices and landmark presentations. Here’s what’s on industry insiders’ radars for Armory Week 2025.
Rachel Cole, Principal & Founder, Rachel Cole Art Advisory
This Armory week, I’m especially looking forward to two exhibitions that feel both timely and deeply moving. At Hauser & Wirth, María Berrío’s Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth is a breathtaking return from her last show in 2017. Her layered collages of watercolor and Japanese paper are lush, poetic, and filled with mythic narratives that feel both familiar and otherworldly. They encourage viewing at a slower pace— each detail unfolding the longer you spend with them.
María Berrío, Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth, 2025
On the other hand, Sasha Gordon’s Haze at David Zwirner brings such a bold, electric energy. Her hyperreal self-portraits are technically masterful and emotionally raw, exploring identity and storytelling in ways that feel almost cinematic. Together, these shows highlight two very different but equally powerful approaches to contemporary figurative painting, and I think they capture the spirit of discovery and dialogue that makes Armory week so special this year!
Sasha Gordon, It Was Still Far Away, 2024 (detail)
Maria May, Senior Vice President, Resnicow and Associates
I’m really looking forward to the Souls Grown Deep (SGD) presentation at The Armory Show. This is SGD’s first showing at an art fair and the first time a nonprofit has curated the Platform section, so it’s a lot of exciting firsts – and really important to center these artists at the fair. The nonprofit will curate My Art is the Evidence of My Freedom, a display of works by celebrated Black artists of the American South in The Armory Show’s 2025 Platform section. The display provides a snapshot of SGD’s collection, celebrating the work of Black artists who lived in—and whose artistic practices were informed by—the American South, including paintings, assemblages, and sculptures by Thornton Dial, Mary T. Smith, Joe Minter, and Lonnie Holley, as well as textile works by Gee’s Bend quilters Mary Lee Bendolph and Essie Bendolph Pettway, among others. The works on display at The Armory Show will be available for acquisition, with revenue supporting SGD’s mission of advancing recognition and visibility of the work of Black Southern artists through a variety of programs, and a resale royalty award directly benefiting living artists.
Thornton Dial, Memories of the Ladies that Gave Us the Good Life, 2004, Tin, carpet, wood, glove, washbasin, scrub brush, yard ornament, motor-oil bottle, paint brush, clothing, wire, enamel, and spray paint on wood, 98 1/2 x 82 x 10 1/2 in. Photograph: Stephen Pitkin/ Pitkin Studio, Courtesy Souls Grown Deep © Estate of Thornton Dial / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Mary Lee Bendolph, Blocks, strips, and strings, 2006, Cotton, 75 x 79 in. Photograph: Stephen Pitkin/ Pitkin Studio, Courtesy Souls Grown Deep © Mary Lee Bendolph / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
John Melick, Founder, Blue Medium
The Armory Week kicks off a packed fall calendar for galleries and museums in NYC. We have eight major openings in late September/early October this year, but there are two client exhibitions you should check out during the big week in question:
The first is Expressive Bodies at the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, spotlighting the work of eleven MFA students and recent graduates from institutions that partner in the Liu Shiming Scholarship Program. Carrying on the legacy of Chinese artist Liu Shiming, their work expresses the potential of sculpture to consider the human body through artistic gestures, materials, and narratives.
Across town, Trellis Art Fund grantee Suzanne Bocanegra will host Honor, an Artist Lecture; one of her trademark artist lectures based on a 16th-century tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled “Honor”. Bocanegra’s lectures are partly intensely personal memoirs and partly exhaustively researched cultural essays. The lecture/performance will be held on select days between September 3rd and September 14th at The Performing Garage in SoHo, so if you want to attend, book a time to stop by after your visit to the Armory Show.
Some personal side notes: Don’t forget Independent Art Fair at Casa Cipriani Downtown. I dig the manageable scale (30+ galleries), set up and flow of this fair. And as a fan of Alex Sewell’s work, visit Totah Gallery on Friday, September 5th for the opening of Diorama.
Hydrate...
Hunter Braithwaite, Senior Vice President, Cultural Counsel
Armory Week, like New York itself, is a choose your own adventure. And my adventures usually begin and end with painting. At the fair I’m excited about James Fuentes, whose group presentation includes New York legend Pat Lipsky and a personal fav John McAllister, both of whom will have solos with the gallery this fall, and ILY2, who will show Adrianne Rubinstein.
Margaux Ogden, “Bathers (Quinacridone Red, Pyrrole Red, Cadmium Yellow, India Yellow Hue & Permanent Green),” 2025, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 60 inches
Around town I’m excited to see Margaux Ogden at Embajada’s NADA takeover (come to the VIP opening September 3rd, 6-9pm), Shara Hughes’s new landscapes at Kordansky, and Derek Franklin’s paintings on concrete at Freight and Volume.
Also, don’t miss Armory Spotlight winner Storefront for Art and Architecture. As a proud board member, this is a true highlight!
Ellie Hayworth Murray, Founder, Hayworth Co.
The Armory Show remains a bellwether for the global art market, and this year we’re tracing its pulse through the lens of Miami’s rising influence. We’re especially eager to see Andrew Reed Gallery debut with new works by Cornelius Tulloch, a Bakehouse Art Complex resident artist whose practice embodies the cultural fluidity of South Florida. With Miami’s creative voices increasingly present on the New York stage, we’re energized by the ways these exchanges are reshaping the art world’s center of gravity. We'll also be sure to catch Vidar Logi’s UV prints on photo paper produced in collaboration with our friends at Powerhouse Arts. Beyond art fair aisles, alternative models like Duet at WSA organized by Kyle DeWoody and Zoë Lukov signal fresh ways of shaping dialogue between artists and galleries. While there, we'll say hello to our friends at Dio Horia Gallery while ogling new works by all-time favorite Maja Djordjevic.
Cornelius Tulloch, “Garifuna,” 2025. Oil on canvas, mixed media collage. 72 x 54 inches. Courtesy of the Andrew Reed Gallery.
Sara Fitzmaurice, Founder & CEO, FITZ & CO
Shara Hughes at David Kordansky Gallery: Opening September 4 during Armory Week is an exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery by artist Shara Hughes, who is having a big moment! Her work will also be on view at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida starting November 15 in her largest retrospective to date. The New York exhibition, titled “Weather Report”, will showcase a new group of her psychologically charged large-scale paintings, through which she creates imagined worlds that blur the line between figuration and abstraction. I can’t wait to see it!
Public Art Fund: I am especially excited for the September 3 opening of Monira Al Qadiri’s First Sun in Central Park, a majestic painted aluminum sculpture of a hybrid human-scarab figure, presented by Public Art Fund. As a board member, it is a privilege to support projects like this that bring visionary contemporary art into public space.
Al Qadiri reimagines the ancient Egyptian deity Khepri, god of the rising sun, as an iridescent, androgynous figure inspired by her visit to the Tomb of Pharaoh Ramses I. Curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress and Lassonde Art Trail Artistic Director and Chief Curator November Paynter, the sculpture reflects on the sun’s shifting personification across cultures and the intersection of gender, power, and transformation, while imagining a future where humans and animals live in greater balance and even the smallest creatures are revered for their essential role in sustaining life on Earth.
Michael Kohn Gallery at The Armory Show: I’m really looking forward to seeing Michael Kohn Gallery’s presentation at The Armory Show next week, spotlighting two incredible UK-based painters: William Brickel and Shiwen Wang. Brickel’s monumental, emotionally charged figures capture memory and identity with striking intensity, while Wang’s lyrical abstractions use natural symbols to explore cycles of time, decay, and renewal. Together, their work creates a poetic dialogue between humanity and nature.
This presentation also feels especially meaningful as Michael Kohn Gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The gallery was founded in New York and is now a true fixture of the Los Angeles art community.
Fair Highlights
Armory Show, September 5-7, Javits Center
Armory Show
The Armory Show has been a cornerstone of New York’s cultural calendar since 1994, ushering in the city’s fall art season with a showcase of premier international galleries. Now held at the Javits Center, the fair brings together modern and contemporary works across painting, sculpture, photography, and new media. For collectors and art lovers alike, it remains one of the most influential fairs in the world.
Art on Paper, September 4-7, Pier 36
Art on Paper
Dedicated entirely to the medium of paper, Art on Paper returns to Pier 36 for its 11th edition. The fair highlights the versatility of the material through a wide range of contemporary practices, from photography and drawing to large-scale installations. Collectors and newcomers alike will find both fresh discoveries and innovative approaches that expand the boundaries of paper-based art.
COLLECTIBLE New York, September 4-7, Water Street Projects WSA
Henri Judin, Pehku Daybed
After a successful New York debut, COLLECTIBLE returns this fall with an expanded edition at the dramatic WSA building in Lower Manhattan. Founded in Brussels, the fair is devoted to contemporary collectible design, uniting galleries, studios, and independent makers who push the limits of form and function. The striking industrial space, with sweeping views of the East River and beyond, sets the stage for a bold presentation of experimental furniture, objects, and design concepts. By bridging European and American perspectives, COLLECTIBLE continues to establish itself as a leading platform at the intersection of art and design.
