"Heavy hitters" absent from Armory 2011 exhibitor list

The exhibitor list for the 2011 Armory Show, New York's largest art fair, has been released and as Lindsay Pollock points out, some of the "heavy hitters" in the New York market that participated in the 2010 fair will not be taking part next March. Names include David Zwirner and PACE and they join the 72 other dealers who will not be returning to the fair. Also skipping the fair are a couple of LES dealers such as Lisa Cooley, James Fuentes and Laurel Gitlen which is interesting in light of The Art Newspaper's recent article on the appeal and success of dealers based in the Lower East Side.

The total number of exhibitors is only down from 289 to 274 so absentees have largely been replaced, the new faces composed of a mix of European and Latin American dealers. Perhaps more noteworthy than who is attending Armory is where those that are not expected have flocked to: the Art Dealers Association of America Art Show, a fierce competitor of Armory and taking place on the same dates. Big names showing at the ADAA show include: Blum & Poe, L&M Arts and Marian Goodman Gallery.

Miami Heat?

Links to cliff notes on Art Basel Miami 2010.

• Artworld Salon's debrief. More favorable press for Edward Winkleman and partner galleries' new venture: "Seven: Admired newcomer. Innovative team salon approach seems to be working. Likely to be imitated."
• The Art Newspaper's Art Basel Miami Beach Daily Edition
• Did Miami Basel prove the market is back?...
• ... Not according to the NY Times though "in some peoples’ eyes, a positive consequence of the slower pace is that institutions have more of a chance to buy."
• Online catalogue of galleries

Eastward bound via Paris and Marrakech

To the East we go! As I've mentioned before, Paris and above all the East (Beijing, Hong Kong, Russia) are the new hotspots in the art world. Not only are the traditional art centers in the West feeling the pressure to compete with their younger Eastern counterparts, a taste for the East has also been palpable in recent auctions with a growing contingent of buyers demanding Chinese art. Below are a few recent links on the emergence and growth of thriving new markets.

• PARIS. France's "premiere" art fair: FIAC. The five best booths according to ARTINFO.
• MARRAKECH. "Morocco is developing economically and will be very important in the Middle East." It only makes sense then that it should get its first art fair in Marrakech.
• DUBAI. Mahmoud Said's 1929 painting sold for $2.5 million at Christie's Dubai, setting a world record for Middle Eastern Art. The modern and contemporary auction netted $14 million, far exceeding the estimate of $6.7 million.
• BEIJING. Poly auctions opens fall season with strong sales of diverse Chinese antiquities.
• SHANGHAI. "Dizzying array of art" at the Shanghai Biennale.

FRIEZING LINKS

LONDON. Another year, another Frieze Art Fair... and so much to cover! Here's a selection of the best links on the fair.

• If you couldn't be there, here's the next best thing: Sotheby's Frieze Week Video Project and the Frieze site itself.
• “People come to London in October to find new artists, and that should be in the auction rooms as well as at Frieze."
• "Is art in some kind of reactionary, recessionary funk?," asks Art Salon.
• ARTINFO's rating of the best and worst booths. Predictably, all the site had to see in blue-chip works were $ signs. I'm so tired of primary market snobs thinking that blue-chips aren't worthy of a critique on the merits. The site's more interesting articles are here and here.
• "Frieze News in Brief" and "Solid Sales at Frieze" both from The Art Newspaper.
• The fair's hipster grass-roots section known as "Frame." Although this year saw a brand new satellite fair called "Sunday" for emerging galleries that don't make it into Frame, according to ARTINFO, Frame "remains the place for young galleries to flourish." Still, the stakes for participating in Sunday are not high ($1,600) when compared to the costs of a booth in Frame ($8,000), itself a fraction of an ordinary booth in Frieze. Overall, "the consensus among those attending was that Sunday was a worthwhile addition to the many events going on during Frieze week."
• The big fish and the fresh cash were Asian and Eastern European. Surprised? Hardly.