Join us at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show

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March 21-24 at Pier 94 in NYC

Booth 242

Trade Day: Thursday March 21st

Purchase Tickets HERE

Register as Trade HERE

HOURS

To preview work that ArtStar will be featuring, click HERE

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Interior designers are invited to join us for a reception in the ArtStar booth on March 21st from 4-6pm. Meet our curatorial team, preview new artists and explore our new framing options!

 We will be offering a trade discount to registered interior designers.

Questions? Email us at hello@artstar.com

Yesterday we braved the wind (and today, the snow) to hike over to Pier 94 in New York for the VIP opening of the Armory Show, New York's blue chip contemporary art fair. The show as ever, was a mix of the expected blue chip names with a few interesting corners. Likewise, the curated USA focused section was excellent and we were pleased to see one of our favorite galleries, Samson Projects from Boston represented. Below are some of our highlights, as well as our picks from the Armory Show's sister fair, VOLTA - an always excellent solo projects invitational which has finally found a true home at 82 Mercer. To see the full range of highlights, click HERE and be sure to stop by the fairs which are on until Sunday.

Peter Liversidge at Ingleby Gallery #armory

Glenn Kaino "A perfect circle" at  Honor Fraser #armory

Julia Dault at Bob Van Orsouw Gallery #armory

Michael Zelehoski at Ethan Cohen - gorgeous 3d structures collapsed onto a flat picture plane. #volta

huber.huber at Widmer + Theodoridis #voltashow

Congratulations to our friends at Dagny + Barsow who are called "the next Opening Ceremony" by New York Magazine. And that part about "rotating art exhibits" that "drive home the O.C. vibe"? That's US!  We always love a good collaboration and this one with one of NYC's most up and coming stores definitely fills us with joy.  Oh, and can we mention how much we love this necklace? Perfect for Armory week, no?

Last night we went to Chelsea to for the Will Ryman opening at Paul Kasmin Gallery. Entitled "America" the show's main feature is a replica of Lincoln's childhood cabin coated in gold resin and is filled with consumer objects from shackles to telephone cords that "[question] both the history and the evolution of consumer capitalism in America." Ryman, says the gallery, "strives to create work that explores the contradictions of the human condition." The show is definitely one to catch before the madness of Armory week descends and well worth waiting in line to get inside the cabin and spend a few minutes inside its glittering, sanctuary-like interior.

As an annual right of passage, nothing compares to the Armory Show for signaling the official start of the art fair season in New York. From the parties to the private tours to the ancillary fairs, Armory Week is the main time when we recharge our visual batteries and feat our eyes on the incredible selection of art that comes to New York.  Beyond the main Armory Show at Pier 94 which hosts the top blue chip galleries there are many ancillary fairs around the city that are well worth exploring including Scope, Independent, SPRING/BREAK, Volta, Fountain and more. Finally, since this Armory Show celebrates its centenary in 2013, be on the looking out for special anniversary features and events celebrating 100 years of the art fair that changed New York.

For a full rundown and preview slideshow check out ARTINFO's coverage.

Our Picks:

Fountain Art Fair - Held at the Lexington Avenue Armory from March 8-10th, the Fountain Art fair is both manageable and youthful with a focus on alternative galleries and younger exhibitors. We're looking forward to our friends at Uprise Art's booth who will be showing the work of Robert Otto Epstein.

Volta - Focused on invitational solo artist's projects Volta is always near the front of the pack of the ancillary shows. This year they head to a new venue at 82 Mercer in Soho, much airier than their former midtown digs, and we're interested to see what they'll do in the new space. Their website could also use a bit of an upgrade to lighten up the dark graphics but we like that you can search by Artist or Gallery. We're looking forward to the Kadar Brock piece (above) at The Hole. DCKT and other cool downtown galleries show here.

Moving Image Art Fair - Now into it's 3rd year this fair wins for coolest venue, taking place at the Waterfront Tunnel at 269 11th Ave in Chelsea which proves to be a great venue for showing contemporary video. In past years we've been been pleasantly surprised by the calibre of video art on display and the narrow tunnel lined with suspended video screens actually draws the viewer along the length of the hall, unlike booths which are difficult to nagivate between in the space. Screen shot above from Shopping Heads by Michel Auder from Newman Popiashvili gallery.

Check out the illustrated version of our founder Chrissy Crawford by Nicole Yates. Look for it appearing soon in newsletters and on the blog to denote special posts and picks by Chrissy!

Ok, so this post isn't really about our Oscar picks per se (Lincoln was great but soooo long), but rather about one of our favorite Oscar pics of all time. Taken by iconic British photographer Terry O'Neill, who was dating Faye Dunaway at the time, O'Neill captured Dunaway sitting by the pool the morning after the 1977 Oscars during which she had won a statue for Network. Equally languorous and anti-climactic, the photograph stands as one of the most realistic portraits of Hollywood life and O'Neill's unstaged photo is surely as great as any of the films that one that year. O'Neill and Dunaway married in 1984.

If you're out in Chelsea tonight, don't miss Firelei Baez at Morgan Lehmann in the Study: Project Space. We've been fortunate enough to work with Firelei on a special artists' studio project at the Affordable Art Fair and to represent two pieces from her Natural Grooming Series and her work is always multi-layered and fascinating. Her interest in anthropology, post-colonialism & women's studies is expressed in her use of color, texture and pattern leads to a complex and ever changing body of work. Opening tonight at Morgan Lehmann, 6-8 pm, through March 23rd.

Creative Time has released a sneak peek of their Heard-NY installation by Nick Cave that is part of Grand Central Terminal's centenary celebrations and the video is getting is so excited!  Says the organization, "for HEARD•NY, artist Nick Cave will transform Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall with a herd of thirty colorful life-size horses that will peacefully “graze” and periodically break into choreographed movement accompanied by live music. The project, which is open to the public free of charge, is presented by Creative Time and MTA Arts for Transit as part of a series of events celebrating the centennial of Grand Central." Check out the video above. The piece will be running from March 25-31st daily at 11am and 2pm and is free and open to the public. Wild horses couldn't keep us away!

If you're in New York's Midtown, fear not that you're in a cultural wasteland - there's a wonderful show on at Pop Gallery in the Atrium that is absolutely not to be missed. "Madiba, Images of Nelson Mandela by Benny Gool" is a moving exhibition of Gool's documentary portraits of one of this (and last) century's most enduring faces. From a blind South African boy feeling Mandela's face to Mandela peering through jail bars upon his return to Robbin Island Gool documented Mandela's life over 3 decades and the results are remarkable. By simply witnessing the passage of one man's incredible life with his camera, Gool has captured more than the man but a force of history and change.