Our Top 7 Picks from New York’s Armory Show 2025

Heading to this year’s fair? Here’s where to start.

This year, New York’s Armory Show has long been a bellwether for trends in contemporary and modern art. This year, amid market uncertainties, gallery closures, and volatile auction results, the fair radiated a sense of optimism. Artists and galleries alike embraced experimentation, pushing new ideas and mediums while highlighting the human element—the creators who keep the art ecosystem alive. From seasoned veterans to fresh voices, the 2025 Armory Show offered a vibrant and diverse panorama of artistic expression. Here are our top seven picks from the fair.

1. Ever Baldwin at Marinaro: Media-Blurring Sculptural Paintings

Ever Baldwin, based in Catskill, New York, presented a series of works at Marinaro that blurred the line between painting and sculpture. Baldwin’s oil paintings—abstract yet figurative—interact dynamically with charred, bleached, and painted pine frames carved by the artist themselves. In works like Attendants, Baldwin explores their own gender identity alongside historical, forcefully gendered inanimate objects. The frames recall figureheads from Western ships, historically male-dominated vessels steeped in anti-woman superstition, creating a layered dialogue about history, identity, and artistic form.

Why it stood out: Baldwin’s work merges tactile craftsmanship with conceptual depth, creating a visual language that is both historic and contemporary.

2. Léonard Pongo at Retro Africa: Untouched Beauty of Congo

Léonard Pongo, a Congolese Belgian artist, showcased his giclée print Untitled (Primordial Earth) at Retro Africa, a piece that straddles the line between painting and photography. Pongo avoids post-production, allowing the natural landscapes of Congo to speak for themselves. The work highlights both the beauty of Congo’s environment and the environmental degradation caused by cobalt mining.

Why it stood out: Pongo’s work reflects ecological consciousness and cultural pride, presenting a meditative vision of Congo’s past and potential future.

3. TARWUK at White Cube: Multi-Dimensional Exploration

Artist duo TARWUK brought a solo exhibition to White Cube, featuring paintings and sculptures that explore interconnectivity and dualities: the seen and unseen, life and death, violence and peace. Borrowing theatrical apparatus and sculptural forms, TARWUK collapses frameworks to interrogate societal and personal tensions, creating immersive, multi-layered experiences.

Why it stood out: TARWUK’s work challenges viewers to contemplate interconnectedness and transformation, blending performative and static mediums seamlessly.

4. Ifeanyi Oganwu at Tafeta: Reimagining Design and Cultural Exchange

Ifeanyi Oganwu, featured by Tafeta, reinterpreted Gerrit Rietveld’s iconic ZigZag chair, pushing the geometric design even further. Oganwu’s work underscores the complex interplay between Western art history and African design influences, inverting traditional narratives and highlighting architectural reparations.

Why it stood out: The work is a profound meditation on cultural exchange and artistic reclamation, merging modernist design with historical context and African heritage.

5. Vikrant Bhise at Anant Art: Fragmented Histories and Ambedkarite Thought

Delhi-based Anant Art Gallery, debuting at the Armory Show, presented works by Bushra Waqas Khan, Probir Gupta, and Vikrant Bhise. Bhise’s painting They Made Us Wear I draws on Ambedkarite philosophy, advocating equality, equity, and emotional connectivity across social divides. Formally, the painting evokes the fragmentation of Picasso’s Guernica, blending human, natural, and symbolic elements to comment on resistance, personal geography, and societal erasure.

Why it stood out: Bhise’s work combines political consciousness with visual sophistication, creating art that resonates emotionally and intellectually.

6. Joshua Woods at GSP°T: Black Diaspora Through Fine Art Photography

Harlem-born photographer Joshua Woods, known for his work in fashion, made his fine art debut at GSP°T, showcasing Passages, a series rooted in the Black diaspora and familial memory. Using found materials, Woods constructs doors and windows to frame intimate portraits, drawing inspiration from his grandfather’s industrious life. His work is both meditative and emotionally rich, offering a reprieve from the bustling Armory environment.

Why it stood out: Woods’ transition from fashion to fine art photography emphasizes cultural heritage, personal narrative, and the beauty of resilience, providing a poignant counterpoint to the fair’s commercial bustle.

7. Nick Mauss at 303 Gallery: Reverse Glass Paintings and Historical Poetics

Nick Mauss, whose practice spans curation, writing, and fine art, exhibited at 303 Gallery. Mauss’s reverse glass paintings, typically untitled, create intricate, figuratively abstract narratives that act as visual poems. This often-overlooked medium engages viewers in complex historical and social contexts, blending formal experimentation with accessible storytelling.

Why it stood out: Mauss revitalizes a historic medium to engage audiences with both the past and the present, offering layers of interpretation and aesthetic pleasure.

New Energy at the Armory Show

Amid a challenging art market, this year’s Armory Show stood out for highlighting artists’ voices, new galleries, and unconventional media. From the meditative landscapes of Léonard Pongo to TARWUK’s multi-dimensional sculptures and Baldwin’s media-blurring abstractions, the fair emphasized human creativity and resilience. Many galleries showcased first-time participants, injecting freshness and unpredictability into the fair’s atmosphere.

Key trends observed at this year’s fair:

• Emphasis on artists’ personal narratives, not just their works.

• Revival of overlooked mediums, like reverse glass painting and sculptural oil frames.

• Interdisciplinary approaches, merging photography, sculpture, painting, and performance.

• Cultural reclamation, as seen in Ifeanyi Oganwu’s reimagined design pieces.

The Armory Show continues to be a vital platform for emerging voices, offering insights into global artistic discourse while connecting collectors, curators, and audiences to the human stories behind the works.

Conclusion: Why These 7 Picks Matter

The Armory Show 2025 demonstrated the resilience and innovation of contemporary artists, even amidst economic and social uncertainties. Our top seven picks—Ever Baldwin, Léonard Pongo, TARWUK, Ifeanyi Oganwu, Vikrant Bhise, Joshua Woods, and Nick Mauss—represent a spectrum of creativity, from deeply personal narratives to socially engaged practice, and from historical reinterpretations to cutting-edge experimentation.

For collectors, art enthusiasts, and cultural observers, these artists signal where the art world is heading: toward inclusive, interdisciplinary, and human-centered creativity.

Whether you are attending the fair in person or following it online, these works remind us why the Armory Show remains one of the most important cultural events in the world—a place where artistry, experimentation, and cultural dialogue converge in compelling, thought-provoking ways.