The artists you can’t afford to miss at The Armory Show 2020

With the onset of March brings an abundance of art shows to New York city—The Spring/Break Art Show, NADA, Independent Art Fair and more all set to open within the next week. At the heart of NYC’s spring art spectacular, is The Armory Show at Piers 90 and 94. Now, in its 26th year, there are few art fairs as broad-ranging and all-encompassing as The Armory, with 200 exhibitors from 32 countries on view this year alone. In particular, we are excited for this year’s Focus section, curated by Jamillah James of the  Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which will present individual exhibits by need-to-know artists including Amir H. Fallah at Denny Dimin Gallery and Anne Samat at Marc Straus Gallery. Elsewhere, Mickalene Thomas at Yancey Richardson and Sheida Soleimani at Edel Assanti Gallery will be on top of our list of what not to miss.

Here are just some of the many things we are looking forward to from this year’s edition. 

Mickalene Thomas—Yancey Richardson

New York gallery Yancey Richardson is set to have an unmissable booth, showcasing the late conceptual artist John Baldessari’s dots paintings and Rachael Perry’s camouflage scenes. We are particularly excited for trailblazing New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas’s colourful photographic portraits where her sitters are situated in elaborate settings studded with rich detail. 

Cassi Namoda—Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

Ever since creating a cover for Vogue Italia’s sustainability issue in January, Mozambican painter Cassi Namoda has been everywhere seemingly. We can’t get enough of her narrative driven scenes of life in the South East African country, rendered in blocky brushstrokes and a beguiling use of pastel colour inspired by painters like Helen Frankenthaler. 

Amir H. Fallah—Denny Dimin Gallery 

Within the fair, the Focus section is one of the most exciting, featuring solo- and dual-art presentations from some of the most forward-thinking practitioners working today. Californian artist Amir H. Fallah will be exhibiting a new series of paintings, entitled A Hybrid Heart, alongside a sound installation and stained glass sculpture. His mesmerising and highly textured works explore alternative narratives around identity.

Sheida Soleimani—Edel Assanti Gallery

Irani-American multimedia artist Sheida Soleimani is quickly becoming a name you need to know. Listed as one of Artnet’s leading artists for 2019, we will be hot footing it over to Edel Assanti Gallery to catch her confrontational work that explores Iran’s recent domestic and foreign policies through staged photography and collage.

Giuseppe Desiato—Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi

Berlin’s Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi will be presenting an exciting selection of the performative photography by Italian artist Giuseppe Desiato. Working since the 1960s, the Neapolitan artist makes constructed images and assemblages, frequently of a transgressive nature. Alongside his photographic work, there will be a selection of mixed media paintings in an abstract expressionist style recalling the work of Willem de Kooning. 

Tracey Emin—Galleria Lorcan O’Neill

The Roman gallery will be presenting a vital selection of the British artist’s recent paintings depicting intimate and visceral scenes, scrawled and scratched with dripping acrylic. Somehow the human body still never seems quite as raw and poignant than when realised by Emin.

Gabriella Sanchez—Charlie James Gallery

LA-based artist Gabriella Sanchez is an artist you need to know from this year’s fair. Presenting at Charlie James Gallery, the multidisciplinary practitioner probes the construction of Mexican-American identity in her large-scale text-based canvases. Her graphic works utilise the principles of collage to reveal the artifice inherent in representation.

The Armory Show 2020 runs from 5 to 8 March at Piers 90 and 94.