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Armory Show Opens on West Side

By DNAinfo Staff on March 2, 2011 6:35pm  | Updated on March 3, 2011 5:59am

Elizabeth Ladzinski

DNAinfo Reporters/Producer

MIDTOWN — Manhattan's annual Armory Show kicked off Wednesday at Piers 92 and 94, giving visitors a visual smorgasbord of the world's leading contemporary and modern art.

A total of 275 exhibits lined the halls, containing pieces from artists from 31 countries. The show is expected to bring in more than 60,000 attendees and generate more than $40 million in economic activity.

Contemporary art is shown in Pier 94, while modern art is shown in Pier 92. Lauren Pearson, communications director for the show, said that there are fewer exhibitors in the modern art section this year, but only because the exhibitors asked for more space, lowering the number of artists that can be shown.

"Hundreds of galleries apply for an exhibition space, but we try to only choose the best quality exhibitions based off their application at the time," Pearson said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg had nothing but praise for the show.

"It’s what makes the city special," Bloomberg said of cultural institutions, which he said draw tourists and give residents something to be proud of.

"This week our city will be bursting with even more creative energy than usual," Bloomberg said.

The show has given way to a week's worth of events and activities, now known as the Armory Arts Week.

Each year the show commissions an artist to create a "visual identity" for that year's show. The work of 2011's commissioned artist, Gabriel Kuri, centers around exploring everyday consumption. He used found objects such as bags, tickets and receipts to create his art.

"He zones in on all the things involved that we consume and forget about, and then blows it up just so you're forced to look at it," said Cecily Horton, 53, from Houston, Texas. She is a member of the board of the Blafford Art Museum, where Kuri recently finished his first solo North American exhibition.

Other attendees noted that this year's show seems to have more new faces than shows in the past.

"There's a lot of galleries here that I haven't seen before," said Tamar Arnon, 45, from Hong Kong, who's been coming to the show for 6 years. "I'd say 20 or 30 percent [of the show] are new galleries."

Cecily Sherman, 76, from Philadelphia, agreed.

"I think there are a lot of new names, which is exciting," said Sherman, who has been coming to the armory show as a private collector since the first year it began.

Arnon said that this year's show wasn't the best she's seen, adding that she liked 2007's show the best.

"It's good, it's not the best, but it's good," she said of the 2011 show.

Jill Colvin contributed reporting.