MAXIMILÍANO DURÓN/ARTNEWS
An onslaught of snow and rain on Wednesday may have kept a few collectors from making their way over to Piers 92 and 94 to see the Armory Show in New York, but the fair continued on anyway. Sales were made, Peter Schjeldahl and Museum of Modern Art director Glenn Lowry caught up at the morning press conference, and the actor Paul Rudd made an appearance. Other notable attendees included Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden, curator couple Massimiliano Gioni and Cecilia Alemani, Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist (wearing only black), Maurizio Cattelan, collector Glenn Fuhrman, and artist and filmmaker John Waters, dapper as ever.
Below is a list of sales made at the Armory Show and Volta (located a short walk to the south, on Pier 90), during the fairs’ first couple days. Some come from releases put out by publicists and galleries, while others were told to ARTnews directly. (This post will be updated as word comes in of additional sales.)
Armory Show and Volta
– Galeria Nara Roesler, which has spaces in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and New York, sold several works during the fair’s opening hours: two gold-plated brass sculptural works by Laura Vinci for $4,000 each, Vik Muniz’s Metachrome: The Abaporu, after Tarsila (2018) for $50,000, and Daniel Buren’s Prisms and Mirrors, high reliefs, situated works 2016/2017 for São Paulo (2017) for $125,000.
– Ragnar Kjartansson’s Dope & Corruption (2018), an illuminated sign emblazoned with those words in the booth of i8 Gallery from Reykjavik, sold for $75,000.
– At Jack Shainman Gallery’s booth, a two-panel painting by Meleko Mokgosi sold for $85,000, and a collage by the late painter Barkley L. Hendricks sold for $45,000.
– In the fair’s first day, New York’s Sean Kelly gallery sold a portrait by Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama’s portrait recently, for $140,000. A Hugo McCloud piece went for $60,000, a Shahzia Sikander was snatched up for $90,000, and a Sam Moyer was bought for $50,000. The gallery also sold pieces by Landon Metz, Anthony McCall, and Callum Innes.
– Hong Kong’s 10 Chancery Lane Gallery sold a work by Huang Rui to a San Francisco institution for $168,000.
– Jeffrey Gibson’s Souvenir (2018), a colorful garment-like work made from a quilt topper, canvas, acrylic paint, glass and stone beads, and fringe, had sold by 2:30 p.m. on the opening day, for a price the range of $50,000 to $70,000 at the booth of Chicago’s Kavi Gupta. The work is from the same series as those hanging above the Pommery Champagne Bar as part of the artist’s Platform commission. Many of those works are also promised to various shows that will feature his work, including those at the Denver Art Museum and the Wellin Museum in Clinton, New York, ahead of Gibson’s solo exhibition at MASS MoCA.
– The Cape Town gallery blank projects sold three Cinga Samson paintings, each for between $10,000 and $15,000.
– A Reyneir Leyva Novo work on view at El Apartamento’s booth went to the CIFO Foundation for an undisclosed price.
– London and Berlin’s Blain | Southern gallery sold one work by Amy Feldman.
– Four works by Nicola Samori that were on view at Galerie Eigen + Art’s booth found buyers. Each went for between $10,000 and $40,000.
– Seoul’s Gallery Hyundai sold works by Seung-taek Lee and Shin Sung-Hy for between $40,000 and $60,000.
– Goodman Gallery, of Cape Town and Johannesburg, brought its wares to the fair’s Focus section, where it had on view works by Tabita Rezaire. Three photographs and one film by the young African artist found buyers.
– “It’s been a busy fair, despite the weather,” dealer James Cohan said. His gallery, which has two spaces in New York, made several big sales—a Lee Mullican painting was bought for $100,000, and two Fred Tomaselli paintings sold, one for $65,000, the other for $225,000. The gallery also sold an early Robert Smithson work.
– Berlin’s König Galerie sold works by John Seal, José Davila, and Erwin Wurm, with Wurm’s 2017 sculpture Bag walking finding a buyer to the tune of $140,000.
– Lévy Gorvy sold several works by Karin Schneider for $8,500; several more were also placed on reserve by the end of the fair’s first day.
– Ludorff sold an Imi Knoebel silkscreen for $19,000.
– By the end of the first day, Marianne Boesky, of New York and Aspen, had sold pieces by Anthony Berson and Hannah Von Bart.
– Night Gallery sold out most of its booth, which featured work by Anne Libby and Claire Tabouret.
– P.P.O.W. sold a Betty Tompkins piece to a major museum, as well as work by Ramiro Gómez and Robin Williams to major collections.
– The international behemoth Pace Gallery reported that it sold out its entire booth of Tara Donovan’s Op Art-style pieces made with playing cards arrayed in frames, for $35,000 to $65,000.
– In its first Armory Show outing since 2011, Perrotin has sold works by Pieter Vermeersch to a Massachusetts. Pieces by Leslie Hewitt at the booth also went to a private collection.
– Pierogi gallery sold works by David Scher and Patrick Jacobs to private collections.
– Pieces by Theaster Gates, Glenn Ligon, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Gillian Wearing were bought at Regen Projects’s booth.
– Pearl Lam Galleries sold two Su Xiaobai works, both 2017, for $250,000 apiece.
– Repetto sold a Mary Lai work on paper for $10,000.
– Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman Gallery sold works by Derrick Adams, Deana Lawson, and Martha Tuttle.
– Ronchini Gallery sold one work by Katsumi Nakai.
– Berlin’s Wentrup Gallery sold pieces by Gregor Hildebrandt, Louisa Clement, and Nevin Aladag.
– Lisson Gallery made four notable sales: a Carmen Herrera painting ($600,000), a Stanley Whitney painting ($60,000), a Laure Prouvost painting (about $37,000), and a Tony Cragg sculpture (about $473,000).
– At Volta, Leonardo DiCaprio bought a Jean-Pierre Roy painting for $38,000 from Gallery Poulsen of Copenhagen, according to a publicist for the fair.
Independent
– Chapter NY sold out its presentation of works by Ann Greene Kelly.
– Clearing, which has spaces in Brussels and New York, sold out its entire booth, which presented works by Harold Ancart.
– New York’s JTT sold all the works at its booth, which featured Elaine Cameron-Weir and Borna Sammak.
– All of the ceramics by Elisabeth Kley, each worth between $6,000 and $12,000, on offer at the booth of New York’s Canada gallery were sold.
– Timothy Taylor, of London and New York, sold two Gabriel de la Mora works for $48,000 each and reported “strong interest” in a Simon Hantaï painting.
– New York’s Ricco/Maresca sold two drawings by Martín Ramírez ($70,000–$90,000) and 20 drawings by Leopold Strobl ($2,000–$3,200).
– By the afternoon of the fair’s first day, New York’s Invisible-Exports had sold half the Cary Leibowitz works it had on offer.
– Works by Sarah Braman and Christophe Schellberg were bought at the booth of Linn Luhn.
– New York’s 303 Gallery sold works by Hans Peter Feldmann for between $18,000 and $50,000.
– Fives pieces by Alexandru Chira were sold by Cologne’s Delmes & Zander.