NEW YORK, NY.- The Armory Show announced that Jarrett Gregory, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Eric Shiner, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum have been appointed as curators for The Armory Show 2017.
Gregory will oversee the Focus section, which will evolve beyond the geographical focus of its past seven editions to encompass 15-20 solo artist presentations of new or rarely seen work by today’s most relevant and compelling artists.
Shiner will work with artists to develop and realize ambitious projects for Platform, a new section devoted to large-scale artworks, installations and performances that invite artists to respond to and engage with the expansive spaces of Piers 92 & 94.
Recently The Armory Show outlined a new vision aimed at more thoughtful, tightly curated presentations through the introduction of new and evolved exhibitor sections and programming. The Focus and Platform sections are among the new curatorial initiatives that support the fair’s exhibiting galleries while deepening relationships with international curators and collectors.
Benjamin Genocchio, Executive Director of The Armory Show, said: “As we approach our 23rd year, we remain committed to providing new opportunities for our galleries to create a sense of discovery and encounter at the fair. We are particularly excited to support this mission by selecting dynamic curators for the Focus section and new Platform initiative. Jarrett will bring together an exciting group of artists from around the world, making an argument for their importance today. With Platform, Eric will work with artists and galleries to curate projects that are unique in their site-specificity, creating real and compelling dialogues with the industrial environment.”
Jarrett Gregory said: “I am very excited to be curating part of the 2017 Armory Fair and in particular the Focus section, which for the first time will not be restricted by geographical parameters. Within this freedom I anticipate that geography, in a looser definition, will be more important than ever. The artists I am considering each convey a sense of urgency toward our own historical moment and I am interested in addressing complex subject matter within the context of the fair.”
Gregory has mounted numerous retrospectives, surveys and group exhibitions, most recently she curated the LACMA iteration of Pierre Huyghe’s retrospective (2015), which was awarded Best Monographic Exhibition, Nationally by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). In 2013 she curated the exhibition Stephen Prina: As He Remembered It. Prior to joining LACMA, Gregory was Assistant Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, working on exhibitions Ostalgia (2011); Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty (2009); Dorothy Iannone: Lioness (2009); Younger Than Jesus (2009); After Nature (2008); and Paul Chan (2007), among others.
Eric Shiner said: “It is a great pleasure to be welcomed back to The Armory Show as a curator for the second time. Platform is an exciting addition to the fair and I am thrilled to inaugurate the first edition with a number of incredible projects that engage the industrial nature of the Piers.”
Shiner has served as the Director of The Andy Warhol Museum since 2011. In this time, Shiner has organized a number of acclaimed exhibitions for the museum, including Factory Direct: Pittsburgh, an exhibition that showcased the artwork of 14 established contemporary artists invited to conduct artist residencies in Pittsburgh-based factories. In addition, Shiner led The Warhol team in creating Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal, the largest traveling exhibition of Andy Warhol artwork in Asia, as well as the first retrospective of appropriation artist Deborah Kass, Before and Happily Ever After. In 2013, Shiner curated for The Armory Show Armory Focus: USA, which presented a broad snapshot of the country’s contemporary cultural practice.
In April The Armory Show announced a number of key developments for 2017: The Armory Show and The Armory Show – Modern will merge into a single fair for 20th and 21st century artworks with Galleries forming the core section of the fair. The former Modern section, established in 2009, will transition into Insights, a more concentrated presentation of solo-artist, dual-artist or thematic exhibitions of 20th century artworks. The successful Presents section will expand as a powerful platform for emerging galleries to showcase new work through solo- and dual-artist booths. After seven editions spotlighting artists from specific geographies, the Focus section will evolve to encompass solo and curated presentations of new or rarely seen artworks by today’s most compelling artists. The 2017 edition will introduce Platform, a new curatorial initiative devoted to large-scale artworks, installations and performances that respond to and engage with Piers 92 & 94. Through Armory Live, visitors will experience interactive talks, performances and screenings at the fair and online.
