13th annual Armory art show opens in NYC
A visitor walks past a sculpture at the Armory Show 2011. (March 3, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
Helen Nicoll, 61, of Water Mill, laughs at the notion that she is an "art connoisseur" just because she is scouting through New York City's 13th annual Armory Show, where 274 galleries from 31 countries are exhibiting and selling works of art.
"If that's what you want to call it," she said as she, her husband and friends strolled through the art show Wednesday.
Nicoll is among the 60,000 people expected to attend the city's weeklong museum and gallery art fair that will include a Times Square public art exhibition at which life-size white papier-mâché sheep are grazing on asphalt.
The Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94 on West 55th Street, open through Sunday, is a football-field-sized warehouse of museum and gallery exhibitions that include paintings, sculptures and contemporary art pieces.
For example, there is a mock subway door with a screen that shows a video of a sparsely occupied subway car in which the passengers bounce to the sound of a rattling train.
Other exhibits range from a wall-sized oil painting of a child soldier from Sierra Leone toting a machine gun to a tree garden of cherry blossoms and orchids that chime in spring.
"I love art," Nicoll said. "This is very exciting to see a broad range of global contemporary art . . . so I am looking and seeing what attracts my eye and then I have to ask the question: 'Do I want this in my house?' " she said.
Fordham University art professor David Storey, 62, of Manhattan, said the Armory Show was "a complete spectrum of contemporary art from across the globe that includes Bushwick, Brooklyn. People need to just come here and see all of this work in one place."
Tucked in the middle of this array is a cherry blossom tree and orchid garden created by artist and Syracuse University professor Sam Van Aken, who has genetically engineered his trees to grow cherry, peaches and plums on the same tree.
Other Manhattan exhibitions include Volta NY, Pulse, and Scope NY. Reduced or free admission to galleries and museums across the city will be offered.
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Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
