Art Market Monitor has a few reporters wandering around the Armory Show art fair and the VIP events. There will be occasional posts throughout the week. The first comes from Roberta Maneker who went to St. Regis for a showing of young Japanese artists:

The two-bedroom suite in the St. Regis Residences was filled – really filled – with a diverse group of attention-paying VIP collectors eyeballing very current Japanese art presented by Nancy Seltzer and Osaka’s MEM, Inc. Gallery.  Entitled “The Girls from Kyoto and other Japanese Contemporary Masters,” the collection featured art in various media, dominated by two videos works running in separate rooms, one with a mesmerizing rhythmic beat (think tom-toms). Both of these video artists also had produced C prints derived from the videos.

Among the more riveting works on the walls were a group of three wood panels (Hug 5,6 and 7), in graduated sizes, by Sawako Tanizawa, who deployed fuzzy-edged dark brown acrylic on beautifully gold-leafed panels, with the clever result that the viewer is not sure if the gold leaf (the limbs doing the hugging) are painted on an acrylic ground, or vice versa. (With one champagne too many, you might see Fay Wray and you know who). One of the suite’s bedrooms featured mostly works on paper, with some of the artwork displayed, museum style, in the open drawers of an armoire, and smooth swing on the sound system.
The exhibition drew a good crowd, which included investor Wilbur Ross and Fried Frank’s Art Fleischer. You know an event is a success when people are taking pictures of people taking pictures.