I attended the 2013 Armory show searching for fresh, cutting-edge inspiration. It was tough work exploring aisle after aisle of art, but I managed to do it all in one day! My top 10 picks range from traditional drawing and craft to installation and photography. Make sure to check out my New, hot art and design Pinterest board to see the other notable art pieces.
10.Exploded View: Commuters by Jim Campbell
custom electronics, LEDs, wire, and steel
This piece makes me think of a clear, starry, night sky. I’ve thought about making something like for my bed canopy.
9.Jeezelpete (Variation 2) by Mark Fox
3D intaglio construction in 35 colors
You can see right through the corrugated pieces, but if you view closely from an angle, you can glimpse all the remarkable colors on the inside surfaces.
8.Seahorse, Scrap Metal by Vik Muniz
digital c-print
The photograph of a metal seahorse sculpture merely looks pretty at first glance. The rocks to the left of the seahorse are actually car doors, which makes this a huge sea creature! The artist plays with the sense of scale by making gigantic installations with scrap metal, photographing them, and showing the final piece as a comparatively much smaller photo.
7.Sentient-Soppin
See-Source-Serum by Shane Hope
3D-printed PLA molecular models on acrylic substrate
Reminiscent of impasto paintings, where artists apply thick layers of paint on the canvas, Hope instead uses a 3d printer to create highly detailed and textured works. I also think they’re fun, because they look like melted plastic toys.
6.paper fort 3 by Takehito Koganezawa
coloured pencil on paper
Koganezawa’s small sculptural work is simple and strikingly graphic. I especially love the use of conventional paperclips. Being graphic and colorful themselves they work quite well.
5.untitled by Chiyu Uemae
stitchwork
Yellow lines bisect a field of white hash marks. What appears to be an abstract painting is stitchwork.
4.untitled by Alice Hope
30,000 pieces of anodized aluminum ball chain
After seeing Uemae’s stitchwork, I thought this was a tapestry and almost dismissed it. I gave it a close look and was surprised to find the abstract piece was actually metal chain!
3.Crochet II by Louise Bourgeois
Mixografia®
Vivid red string mounted on paper has a slightly folk art feel to it, yet string is not used at all. It’s paper molded and printed in a special process resulting in a highly detailed embossed-like effect.
2.Untitled by Piotr Ukla’ski
knotted fiber on canvas
Ukla’ski’s minimalist, pointillist painting is actually composed of hundreds of knots in a canvas. This would look amazing on a throw pillow.
1.through a break in the clouds of numberless nights #2 by Hiroshige Fukuhara
pencil, black gesso on wooden panel
The delicate line work in Fukuhara’s drawings don’t jump from their wood surfaces. The graphite is so subtle it’s almost like he drew his compositions with smoke. You have walk around the drawings to catch the light just right and reveal his amazingly detailed scenes. At the show he even continued the drawings onto the walls of the booth.
One reply on “Top 10 picks: The Armory Show 2013”
Those are wonderful picks! They’re great work of art.