Here are my comments on The Armory Show 2006, based on the catalogue you sent me.


The catalogue is a stunning production: selecting works by John Wesley, the commissioned artist of The Armory Show this year, for the presentation on cover and in several pages of erotic images before starting the list of exhibiting galleries and at the end of the catalogue - presenting John Wesley's Print Edition - is a tour de force of the designer Conny Purtill. I also love the Font selected to print this catalogue, easily readable, - even without using my reading-glasses!


My impression of the images selected by the exhibitors to show the works of the artists they represent is that The Angel of the Bizarre (quoting Baudelaire) is haunting The Armory Show this year. A flap overview of the catalogue captures humorist images, sometimes humour noir ones - Michael Kohn Gallery, Robert Miller Gallery - and comics characters - Matthew Marks Gallery, Scai -. A more attentive look, page by page, allowed me to focus on sophisticated art works - Pace Wildenstein , Peter Kilmann Gallery - of elaborate technique and intriguing meaning - Johann Konig gallery.



I did not see any cultural programme, like in ARCO, Madrid or MiArt, Milan. I also noticed the absence of South American galleries. Only one gallery from China, Courtyard from Beijing. China is guest country at MiArt 2006 with 16 galleries represented, from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and a debate about Chinese contemporary art, among a lot of debates and lectures on questions concerning contemporary art.



Josette Mazzella di Bosco Balsa, March, 2006
Hong Kong