Manhattan can’t have all the fun during Armory Week. Whether you’re a restless collector looking for the next big thing or an artist whose home base actually makes the location more convenient, Brooklyn has plenty to offer fairgoers this weekend. Here’s ARTINFO’s list of where and when to go see the other borough’s answer to the big players.
1. Art’s Not Fair — Friday, March 9
Marisa Sage’s Like the Spice gallery in Williamsburg is hosting its own version of an art fair, miniaturized to fit within a single space. “Art’s Not Fair,” launching with a VIP party on Friday, March 9, and continuing through Saturday and Sunday, is a non-commercial event. Participating artists will “be able to create something because they really wanted to do it and not worry about whether it’s going to be sold,” Sage told ARTINFO.
The gallery will be sub-divided into a series of booths housing projects like a Web site created by Brian Larossa and the first-ever video created by painter Jenny Morgan. The basement will be occupied by Chino Amobe’s VIP Lounge, a take on the art-fair standard that replaces the traditional leather chairs with gallons of green slime and black lights (a much-needed improvement). “Have you ever heard of Family Double Dare?” Sage asked. “It’ll be like that. And a techno-rave.”
Advantages: All the trappings of a real fair, from badges to catering to swag bags, without the yucky feeling of lots of money changing hands.
Location: Like the Spice gallery, 224 Roebling Street in Williamsburg.
2. Brooklyn Armory Night — Saturday, March 10
If you’re looking for convenience, Saturday night is the time to go to Brooklyn and see art. For Brooklyn Armory Night, Williamsburg galleries will all be celebrating new shows and keeping their doors open late. Count on an epic gallery crawl, punctuated by copious glasses of wine and cans of PBR.
Alongside Sage’s Like the Spice faux-fair, Pierogi gallery’s the Boiler will be showing a “videophoric” night of screenings; Front Room has Melissa Pokorny’s farcical, architectural sculptures; and Parker’s Box showcases Stefan Sehler’s reverse glass paintings. Thankfully, a helpful guide to the shows and the bars you should go to afterward is available in the form of Pernod’s Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn app.
Advantages: Every gallery in the neighborhood is open until 10 p.m., plus lots of cheap beer.
Location: Various Williamsburg galleries (map here).
3. Beat Nite — Saturday, March 10
Every six months the many, many alternative art spaces sprinkled throughout Bushwick – the neighborhood where a vast number of New York’s artists actually live – stay open late, unveiling new shows, hosting performances, and generally having a great time. This year, organizer and Norte Maar gallery director Jason Andrew had the foresight to time the event for Armory Week. “Great art can and does exist far from the glamor and commercialism of the greater art world,” Andrew told ARTINFO. “And the awesome bar scene doesn’t hurt either.”
In addition to exhibitions at veteran neighborhood art spaces like English Kills gallery and Factory Fresh, newer and less traditional venues like the apartment gallery Cojo Art Space and basement space Airplane gallery will be making their Beat Nite debuts. And don’t worry if you can’t find the door into one of the basement galleries — just follow the crowds of intrepid art explorers.
Advantages: More cheap beer, plus being privy to some of the most underground, exciting, and fiercely independent pockets of the New York art world.
Location: Various Bushwick galleries (map here).