The 2025 Armory Show, now under the direction of Kyla McMillian, has brought a fresh energy to New York’s Javits Center with bold curatorial shifts, particularly in the emerging gallery section. This year’s standout booths offer a thrilling mix of conceptual depth and sensory experience, from Victoria-Idongesit Udondian’s powerful critique of Africa-China trade ties using porcelain busts to Jacqueline Surdell’s reinterpretation of Renaissance grandeur through massive knotted rope sculptures. The fair also pulses with queer narratives, from RF. Alvarez’s dive bar painting reclaiming art history to Robert Martin’s deeply personal installation memorializing a lost uncle and the safe havens of gay bars. For a moment of calm, Leonel Vásquez’s amplified water sounds provide a soothing sanctuary.
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