Sometime in the early 90s, a group of young, downtown-New York art renegades got together with an idea. Colin de Land, Pat Hearn, Matthew Marks, and Paul Morris wanted to create a communal space for emerging artists to show their work in a radical fashion. More than that, they wanted collectors and museums to buy it. But the Big Apple then, was not what it is now: violence had reached an all-time high, and the AIDS crisis had ravaged much of the artistic community, among others. Yet, amid that bleakness, the art mavericks pulled together what would become one of the most successful art fairs in the world.<\/p>\n
Now in its 25th year, The Armory Show<\/a> is known as one of the busiest moments in the art calendar, attracting the international art world\u2019s finest. But its first edition in 1994 was a rather intimate affair. Set amid downtown\u2019s iconic Gramercy Park Hotel, the then-titled \u2018Gramercy International Art Fair\u2019 was more of an eccentric jumble than a fair, where artists and gallerists set up camp for four days, showing whatever they could, wherever they could.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could not make holes in the walls, so some of the rooms found crazy creative ways to show work on beds, under beds, or as installations in bathtubs,\u201d gallerist Nicole Klagsburn told SLEEK. \u201cThe art world did not take itself that seriously back then.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":74889,"id":74889,"title":"Screen Shot 2019-03-06 at 16.52.26","filename":"Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","filesize":1323107,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/25-years-on-from-its-radical-beginnings-has-new-yorks-armory-show-lost-its-edge\/screen-shot-2019-03-06-at-16-52-26\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"screen-shot-2019-03-06-at-16-52-26","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74883,"date":"2019-03-06 16:08:33","modified":"2019-03-06 16:08:33","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1148,"height":819,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":91,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","medium-width":1148,"medium-height":819,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","medium_large-width":1148,"medium_large-height":819,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","large-width":1148,"large-height":819,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","1536x1536-width":1148,"1536x1536-height":819,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","2048x2048-width":1148,"2048x2048-height":819,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","trp-custom-language-flag-width":18,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-16.52.26.png","wpvr_mobile-width":1148,"wpvr_mobile-height":819}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"A group photo of The\r\nGramercy International Art Fair\u2019s first exhibitors \r\nand artists from 1996.\r\nPhotograph by Sylvie Ball\r\n\r\n"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" Some 35 galleries were featured for this inaugural edition, and each were allocated a room across the hotel\u2019s three top floors. For young artists \u2014 many of whom were international \u2014 this was a new experience. \u201cIt was my first time in New York,\u201d remembers British artist Tracey Emin, who was showing works with White Cube-founder Jay Jopling. \u201cOne of the rooms, which displayed my work, doubled up as my bedroom.\u201d (A suitably domestic experience for the confessional artist who, five years later, would gain international acclaim with the inclusion of My Bed<\/i><\/a> at the Turner Prize.)<\/p>\n Following these initial experimental years, the fair migrated to the nearby 69th Regiment Armory in 1999, a few blocks north, where it would host 74 galleries. It was then renamed The Armory Show, an homage to the seminal exhibition<\/a>, which took place in the same building in 1913, and introduced much of the European avant-garde to the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could literally smell the history of these famous artists,\u201d jokes German gallerist Christian Nagel, from Galerie Nagel Draxler. \u201cIn the men\u2019s room, there was a graffiti saying \u2018Here Marcel Duchamp took a piss\u2019.”<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until 2001 that the Armory Show moved to its current location at the then-derelict West Side piers \u2014 once a popular cruising spot<\/a> among the queer community, before the AIDS crisis hit. At that point, the fair was far from its radical beginnings. It had grown into the biggest art fair in the Americas, featuring 178 galleries and attracting some 25,000 visitors \u2014 from art lovers to celebrities like Madonna, Joan Rivers and David Byrne. That same year, the fair announced a key partnership with MoMA, creating an acquisition fund, supported by major commissions by artists like John Waters, Gabriel Kuri and Theaster Gates.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":74888,"id":74888,"title":"Screen Shot 2019-03-06 at 17.05.24","filename":"Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","filesize":1308903,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/25-years-on-from-its-radical-beginnings-has-new-yorks-armory-show-lost-its-edge\/screen-shot-2019-03-06-at-17-05-24\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"screen-shot-2019-03-06-at-17-05-24","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74883,"date":"2019-03-06 16:07:34","modified":"2019-03-06 16:07:34","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1295,"height":758,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","thumbnail-width":128,"thumbnail-height":75,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","medium-width":1295,"medium-height":758,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","medium_large-width":1295,"medium_large-height":758,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","large-width":1295,"large-height":758,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","1536x1536-width":1295,"1536x1536-height":758,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","2048x2048-width":1295,"2048x2048-height":758,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","trp-custom-language-flag-width":18,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Screen-Shot-2019-03-06-at-17.05.24.png","wpvr_mobile-width":1295,"wpvr_mobile-height":758}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"A work by Nam June Paik from the 1997 Gramercy International Art Fair. Presented by Holly Solomon Gallery. Photograph by Sylvie Ball. \u00a9 Nam June Paik Estate. Courtesy Gagosian."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":" \u201cThe stakes are much higher now, because of the financial pressure,\u201d Klagsburn laments. Reflecting on the early days of the fair, American artist duo David McDermott and Peter McGough recounts that \u201cit was a simple act of showing art in hotel rooms, much before the advent of high priced art fairs with expensive looking booths.”<\/p>\n In an attempt to celebrate its early radical kudos, The Armory Show launched this year the Gramercy International Prize, a yearly initiative that supports the advancement of young and pioneering New York galleries. Judged by a number of influential art world figures, this year\u2019s inaugural prize went to Lower East Side gallery Ramiken, who are presenting works by Montenegro-born artist Darja Bajagi\u0107 and the Romanian Andra Ursu\u0163a, both based in New York. Meanwhile, a special presentation of works by Mark Dion, Andrea Fraser and Ren\u00e9e Green will take place at the fair as an homage to Hearn and de Land\u2019s championing of neo-conceptualism.<\/p>\n