Art Hipsters Hit 30 Rock
The avant-garde’s version of Democracy Plaza.
The Mammoth Armory Show of contemporary art—taking up two West Side piers—is making an effort to become less numbing this year by including fewer galleries. Abby Messitte and Elizabeth Burke of Clementine Gallery couldn’t get a booth, so they’re putting on a counter-Armory—right in the middle of town. They’ve persuaded Tishman Speyer to give over the Rockefeller Center plaza for “Art Rock Center,” an alternative fair of about fifteen international galleries March 7–14 (the Armory is March 10–14). It helped that Jerry Speyer has bought work from Clementine. “The initial thought was that we would do galleries that weren’t in the Armory show,” says Messitte, though that might change. It’s not immediately clear how the Today show’s front patio, which has hosted the beloved Jeff Koons sculpture Puppy as well as the loathed “Democracy Plaza,” will function as a venue for cutting-edge art. They’re considering using shipping containers, but, says Messitte, “they’re so claustrophobic.”
—Karen Rosenberg