Benjamin Gennochio has taken the opportunity of joining The Armory Show to lay out his own vision of how to run better art fairs.
Here’s what he said to The Art Newspaper:
- “Most art fairs bore me”
- “If you change the fair to another time of year, then suddenly the outdoor space becomes available. In March that’s not really possible”
- “I still feel New York deserves a first-rate art fair”
- On Frieze: “It’s in a tent on Randall’s Island, it’s a one-day art fair, and it’s not on the same scale as other fairs. The Armory is also a profitable business; the operating profit runs into the millions.”
- “I’m not a boring person, I like creativity and I like engagement. And that’s what I want to bring to this”
Then he got on the phone with ArtNews:
- “I want to find a new model that works in this environment. Basel, they’re headquartered in a remote Swiss village near the German border—this is a whole different model, this is a city that cares enormously about art. So I’m going to totally rethink this. It’s like an art fair 2.0.”
- “What does it mean to be an art fair in 2016? Don’t you think they’re all so stale? They’re all so stale and there is very little excitement. And I don’t know why that is, but come on, we should be able to make it more exciting.”
- On Frieze: “I’m on record saying that looking at art in a tent is like eating chicken from a bucket. I mean what were we doing out there, in a tent on a toxic island in the middle of the East River?”
- “Basel is the Marriott of art fairs—you know what you’re going to get, from room to room. And that’s exactly what they’re going for, that Swiss efficiency, but it’s so boring. I honestly think New Yorkers can do a better fair.”
- “I’m a creative person and I’m kind of a wild guy. I’m not someone that does something by the numbers—I have a vision.”
Benjamin Genocchio, editor-in-chief of Artnet News, appointed executive director of Armory Show (The Art Newspaper)
