Joe Amrhein and Susan Swenson, owners of Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, were planning to skip the Armory Show this fall for the first time in 25 years until they received an unexpected call last month from the fair's director. The gallery initially chose not to apply this year due to rising booth costs that can exceed tens of thousands of dollars, as they plan the next phase of their business, which could include relocating to Lower Manhattan.
Armory executives Kyla McMillan and J. Tyler Woodall appealed to Pierogi by referencing their shared history with the fair. In 2016, Amrhein had suggested that the Armory use an empty space to display Jonathan Schipper's installation of a Volkswagen Golf crashing into a wall, and the presentation of large-scale art has since become a cornerstone of the show. The executives recently negotiated a smaller exhibition space for Pierogi at a lower rate, enabling the gallery to return.
"We had been on the fence about it since the economy is very uncertain and it's a big investment," Swenson explained. "We're not one of the big box galleries. Some of them have their own economies now." The gallery's situation reflects broader challenges facing smaller art dealers in today's market.
The Armory Show has evolved significantly from its humble beginnings, when it exhibited several New York gallerists on three floors of the Gramercy Park Hotel in the mid-1990s. Since 2021, the fair has established itself at the spacious Javits Center near Manhattan's Hudson Yards, where it will host approximately 230 galleries from more than 35 countries from September 4 through 7.
The show also operates under new ownership. Two years after Frieze acquired the Armory Show and EXPO Chicago, its parent company, Endeavor Group Holdings, sold its roster of art fairs for $200 million to Hollywood superagent Ari Emmanuel. The former Endeavor CEO envisions Frieze as a key component of a new global events company he formed this year, potentially positioned to compete with Art Basel's dominance in the contemporary art market.
However, with a reported downturn in the market, galleries have been carefully weighing their options. Major blue-chip institutions that were once mainstays at the Armory have drifted toward Frieze's spring fair, the Art Dealers Association of America's (ADAA) Art Show before it was abruptly canceled this year, or TEFAF New York. Some are skipping New York fairs entirely.
David Zwirner hasn't exhibited at the Armory Show since 2022 and chose to show at ADAA several years before that. Pace Gallery's last appearance at the Armory was in 2021. Gagosian hasn't participated since 2020, back when it was held at Piers 92 and 94, while Lisson hasn't been at the fair since 2019. Other galleries are busy courting international buyers in Asia and the Middle East, where Art Basel Qatar will launch in Doha in February 2026.
The situation is complicated by the fact that Frieze is competing against itself. Its three-year-old Frieze Seoul fair overlaps with Armory next week, forcing galleries to choose between the two events. "Everybody is asking where we should be investing our energy and time and our focus," David Norr, partner at James Cohan Gallery, told Hyperallergic. "The cost of shipping, travel and built-in expenses in participation in these fairs continues to go up."
Some galleries are simply skipping the season altogether. Jack Shainman stepped back from showing at New York fairs in recent years to focus on its exhibitions in Chelsea and the newly renovated Clock Tower building in Civic Center. After wildfires ravaged Los Angeles in January, Night Gallery chose a gallery residency at Arsenal Contemporary instead of participating in several international art fairs.
"This is both a result of the market and our ability to be in multiple places at once," Night Gallery spokesperson Shy Watson said. "We are trying to create alternative models of exhibition, promotion, sales, and community." These changes reflect broader shifts in how galleries approach their business strategies.
The Armory is accustomed to a relatively high degree of turnover. This year, 55 galleries are participating in the fair for the first time, with another 20 returning from a hiatus, roughly in line with figures from 2024, according to a fair spokesperson. The relative absence of large commercial institutions at the show presents an opportunity for New York galleries to cultivate new collectors and promote their artists to a broader audience.
"We feel like a large gallery there even though in most art fair contexts we're very much in the middle," said Norr of James Cohan. "It feels like you're giving back some attention to a local ecosystem that's not only familiar, but wants engagement." This sentiment reflects the opportunities available to mid-sized galleries at the fair.
Swivel Gallery owner Graham Wilson, who is participating for the first time, was excited that Armory reached out with an opportunity to showcase his roster of artists. Swivel will feature Alejandro García Contreras's ceramics in the Presents section, which spotlights galleries under 10 years old, as well as an installation from multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Simon Benjamin in the Platform section, curated this year by the Georgia-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation.
"The visibility of the fairs is 20 times more than an artist can get at a solo exhibition at a gallery," Wilson noted. The draw of being able to meet new patrons so close to the city's largest concentration of galleries remains a key appeal for many participants.
Yancey Richardson, who is showing at Armory for the 16th year, appreciates that it's only 12 blocks from her Chelsea gallery. "It's nice to go and do a fair in another city or another country and develop a clientele there, but we also meet new clients here in New York," she said. "Then those people will come often to visit the gallery during the year once they meet us."
Anat Ebgi opened a satellite location in Tribeca two years ago partly because of the success her Los Angeles-based gallery has had meeting clients at Armory. "A lot of clients come by on the first day and we see them at the gallery the second day, and then we see them back at the fair later in the week," Moira Sims, the gallery's New York director, told Hyperallergic. "It feels like a prolonged engagement with clients at this fair in particular."
Some gallery owners are making extraordinary efforts to participate in multiple events. Jennifer Carvalho, who owns Carvalho gallery in Brooklyn, had participated in South Korean art fairs for several years but never with Frieze Seoul, and had a positive experience at the Armory last year. Next week, she's planning to fly to Seoul to install a solo exhibition for London-based artist Yulia Iosilzon and attend previews before catching a 6am flight back to New York.
She lands at JFK Airport at 11am on Thursday, just in time for the Armory's VIP opening. "I've invested in a flatbed seat and I'm just going to drink as much water as possible," Carvalho said. "My team said they'll have green tea waiting for me. I have an exceptional team." Her commitment exemplifies the dedication many gallery owners show to maximizing opportunities in today's competitive art market.
