Call for applications

Applications are now open for The Armory Show 2021. Kicking off the fall art season, the fair will take place from September 9–12, 2021 at the Javits Center in central Manhattan. With its new dates and venue, The Armory Show is your gateway to New York’s art scene—a place of meaningful discovery for dealers, collectors, curators, advisors, and artists.

The 2021 edition will include important new developments such as a striking new floor plan by renowned Los Angeles architects Fred Fisher & Partners, integrating all exhibitors under one roof; expanded digital programs; and strengthened partnerships with the city’s cultural institutions.

Building upon the success of 2020, The Armory Show will further integrate presentations of modern and contemporary art by eliminating the modern section and opening the main Galleries section to both 20th and 21st century work. This shift will facilitate stronger presentations and a renewed sense of discovery in the fair’s core section.

To further support galleries during this tenuous time, the fair has expanded its array of rate-subsidized exhibitor sections. A new section, Solo, will showcase single artist presentations and participants will benefit from a discounted booth rate.

The Armory Show will continue to offer its successful, rate-subsidized Focus, Platform, and Presents sections. Presents, for young galleries showing new work, will now comprise galleries 15 years old or younger (the cutoff was formerly ten years). The fair’s curated sections, Focus and Platform, will provide additional opportunities for subsidized participation as well as increased connections with the curatorial community.

The fair is proud to announce its 2021 section curators: Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, will curate Focus, Claudia Schmuckli, Curator-in-Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, will curate Platform, and Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will chair the Curatorial Leadership Summit.

Galleries may apply to one or more of the following sections:

Galleries—core presentations: Leading international galleries present outstanding 20th and 21st century artworks across a range of media.

Focus—curated presentations: Solo- and dual-artist presentations of today’s most relevant and compelling artwork, organized around a specific theme. Curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi.

Platform—large-scale and site-specific presentations: Large-scale installations and site-specific works that respond to and activate the fair’s expansive, state-of-the-art venue. Curated by Claudia Schmuckli.

Presents—young gallery presentations: Galleries no more than fifteen years old showcase recent work through solo- and dual-artist presentations. Applying galleries must be founded after January 2006 and proposed artworks less than three years old.

Solo—single artist presentations (new for 2021): Presentations that focus exclusively on the work of a single emerging, established, or historic artist working in the 20th or 21st century.

To apply, use the unique URL supplied by fair management or request credentials at thearmoryshow.com/applications. For questions, contact exhibitor [​at​] thearmoryshow.com.