The Armory Show : Armory Focus : MENAM 

Pier 94 - New York City

Scenography by Karim Bekdache

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to The Armory Show 2015.
Since its founding in the Gramercy Park Hotel in 1994, our fair has undergone a number of significant transformations, spanning nomenclature, location, and scale, amongst others. Through these changes, however, the Armory remains a distinct celebration of the artists, galleries, curators, collectors, and wide-ranging visitors who shape it year in and year out, temporarily transforming Piers 92 and 94 in central Manhattan into the epicenter of the art world for one week in early March.
While international in scope, The Armory Show is a singularly New York phenomenon. This can be felt in the dense energy onsite at the fair and is echoed in the exciting lineup of Armory Arts Week events planned in partnership with the city's most celebrated cultural institutions. We are especially thrilled that the current edition coincides with the New Museum's 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, in which our Commissioned Artist, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, has been selected to participate. Additionally, we are excited that our sister fair, VOLTA NY, has moved next door to Pier 90.
Having received a record number of exhibitor applications, we are pleased to present 199 leading galleries from 28 countries, making this year's edition the most ambitious and also the most focused in my tenure as director. The result is a diverse range of the most sought-after modern and contemporary artists. Pier 92 - Modern will represent art from major historical themes including Minimalism, Pop, Art Povera, the Zero Movement, and Gutai; while Pier 94 - Contemporary will host a rich array of international art, from new and unseen works to career highlights by living artists.
This year's regional focus initiative, entitled Armory Focus: Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean (MENAM), is curated by Omar Kholeif of the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and presented in collaboration with Lead Cultural Partner, Edge of Arabia, and Lead Education Partner, Art Jameel. Hinging on the concept of the Global South, the galleries and artists participating in Focus: MENAM explore the parallel history of unification and separation across multiple countries, dispelling notions of regional isolation. This section will be a journey through history and geography, embracing the recent flourishing of artistic practices and institutions in this territory, culminating in a weekend-long symposium organized by Fawz Kabra of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
this second edition, Armory Presents will highlight 20 single and dual artist booths by galleries less than ten years old. The majority of these presentations willspotlight the work of emerging artists, but several urge audience majority of these presentat anew, and at least one will showcase the work a seminal artist's estate - a compelling testament to the multifaceted interests of a younger generation of gallerists working today.
Elsewhere at the fair, curated booths and solo presentations abound. And we are particularly honored to showcase Parviz Tanavoli: Selections from the NYU Art Collection on Pier 92, a special project presented in coniunction with Grey Art Gallery at New York University, which highlights some of the key early works of this renowned Iranian artist.
Once again, we are pleased to have award-winning Brooklyn-based architects Bade Stageberg Cox working with us to infuse the fair with their unique sensibility and intuitive approach to design. In addition, visitors will benefit from a wonderful culinary program created in tandem with our restaurant and hotel partners, as well as our most enhanced amenities and lounge spaces to date. I like to express our deepest gratitude to all of those who have helped build this year's edition: our exhibitors, first and foremost; our sponsors and cultural partners; Edge of Arabia, our Lead Cultural Partner, and Art Jameel, our Education Partner, for helping us realize the Focus: MENAM initiative to its fullest extent; the Museum of Modern Art, our longstanding lead museum partner and host of the annual Armory Party benefit; our Centennial Committee of leading international collectors; all of those individuals who generously open their homes to us; our communications firms; our Gallery Selection Committees; our parent company MMPI; and, of course, our visitors from near and far whose attendance is the bedrock of everything we do. Lastly, my thanks go to The Armory Show team, itself, and our wide network of consultants and curators who have worked yearlong to make this great event possible.

Noah Horowitz,
Executive Director, The Armory Show

https://www.artsy.net/article/editorial-omar-kholeif-says-weve-got-the-middle