My first time at the larger-than-life Armory Show and my 50 favorites from the visit

 

When I looked up the ticket prices a month or two before The Armory Show, I gasped and quickly closed the tab. Then, I prayed. If I’m supposed to go to this fair, send me a ticket. A free ticket.

 

It took about 20 business days for heaven to send an answer, which came via email. ARTNOIR was hosting a guided tour of The Armory Show for anyone who was available on a Friday morning. Despite how fervently I’d prayed, I was surprised to have had my request answered. Hosted in the Javits Center’s 3.3 million square feet of space, it dwarfed my experiences at other fairs like 1-54, Affordable, or Art on Paper which I’d just visited the day before. I felt like a AAA player on their first day at the majors, like I’d traded up from the Staten Island FerryHawks to the New York Yankees. Even sitting inside the show, chowing on Ghetto Gastro beef patties in the VIP cafe felt like a fantasy, like my carriage might turn into a pumpkin if I stayed too long. 

 

The ARTNOIR turnout was large enough to warrant two guided tour groups and mine was led by Ashley Molese, a white curator and cultural producer based in Baltimore. She explained that The Armory Show’s ‘focus’ this year was the American South and she tailored our tour to Black artists, artists with roots in Baltimore, and ones who were both. Though I can’t speak to previous years, Black creativity was in abundant supply in 2025 with the Focus, Function, and Platform sections each curated by Black women Jessica Bell Brown, Ebony L. Haynes, and Raina Lampkins-Fielder. New York-based chef collective Ghetto Gastro hosted a booth (#46, #36) and stocked the fair’s snack bars. Ms. Molese took us through Ms. Lampkins-Fielder’s curation of textiles from the famed Gee’s Bend quilters on the Platform (#48), as well as a sky high tower of ghost-white tambourines inspired by the writings of Zora Neale Hurston (#34).      

 

 

When the tour ended, I timidly went my own way feeling tangled inside of myself. My cheeks were hot with quiet discomfort. There was so much to see and no one to share it with. I was struggling to take notes on the map with an ink pen after security had confiscated my skinny Sharpie (no permanent markers of any kind!) I was cold, but preferred to carry my jacket lest it add a frumpy veneer to my look. 

 

In the kaleidoscope of intriguing outfits I finally spotted some familiar faces: curatorial acquaintances like teddy raShaan and Tatianna Mack, and even former colleagues like the art teacher from my old school. The greetings helped me to find my sea legs in that ocean of an art fair. I spoke with artists I’d long admired like vanessa german (attending as a guest and not an exhibiting artist), and met ones who were new to me like Evita Tezeno. I had been speaking casually with Ms. Tezeno — a cinnamon-skinned Black woman in a colorful dress who’d styled her honey blonde hair into space buns — about Texas, and Black history, and incorporating color as an element of personal style for 15 minutes or so when she mentioned that she’d won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023 (#4). I wondered if I might write about our exchange, then saw that Vogue beat me to the punch years ago. 

 

My phone was dying and I still intended to stop by the Hank Willis Thomas opening that evening; I needed to manage my stamina and my battery. I took a break near a bar serving $31 flutes of Champagne Pommery against a lush backdrop of proud and fluffy pampas. I decided that a dinner-priced glass of champagne wasn’t in the budget, but the gentle beige tone of the grasses was a refreshing palate cleanse. There were more colors than I could process, more conversations than I could transcribe, more raw emotion than I had time to refine. I had to release the urge to archive and surrender to the experience. One prayer had been answered, and another was issued. Let me remember it all.                    

 

As (and if) memory serves, here’s my favorite fifty from The Armory Show 2025:

 

 

blacklove 🖤 and starlight 🌟

 

The Armory Show took place from September 5 – 7, 2025 at Javits Center and featured presentations by “leading international galleries and single artists from the 20th or 21st century”. I received a VIP ticket and a guided tour courtesy of ARTNOIR. This review represents my honest and independent opinions.