MuseumChick | Danee Gilmartin

Since my apartment is a mere 8 blocks north of Pier 92, I threw on my black beret, multicolored scarf and fuzzy wool coat, grabbed Mr.MuseumChick and risked my life walking across the West Side Hwy to get to the Armory Art Show. So much art, so close together in a relatively un-curated state can get overwhelming- thankfully there was a champagne bar to help with that.

When I’m at art fairs, I try to focus on finding pieces that I find inspiring and passionate, but about 30 minutes in I begin to just get attracted to pieces that would look good in my living room. It’s an art fair paradigm.

Here are three pieces that I would love in my living room:

Jason Martin’s painting-cum-sculpture,  “Untitled 2010″.  Both the white and purple-pink swirling make it hard not to touch the artwork.

Then, I could see this 2011 work by Steven Bindernagel commanding the entire wall above my couch.

After my husband reminded me that we are not buying anything today, we walked the relatively quiet white stalls and had some fun.

Here are some other pieces I found eye-catching:

This piece was so amusing. A small camera above the video screen sensed the viewers’ eyes and created a black puff of smoke over the eyes (similar to a censored smudge). Over time the black smudge raised and created different shapes.  I must have taken about 20 pictures of this piece.

Liquor bottle caps and wire made up this dimensional wall sculpture by El Anatsui. I loved all the movement in this piece.

Ivan Navarro’s giant neon “Armory Fence” from Chelsea art dealer, Paul Kasmin blocked off the whole “booth”.  Some people thought it was gimmicky and I read that booth-neighbor, Peter Blum found it bothersome but I  thought it was intriguing and a rather good introduction to Navarro’s first solo show at the gallery, being held simultaneously.

©2011 Danee Gilmartin All rights reserved