Jorge Luis Rodriguez at Centro Untapped Cities AFineLyneMural of the twenty-foot long slave ship taken from the original 1993 sculpture by artist Jorge Luis Rodriguez

While our monthly guide to the art installations and exhibits in New York City aims to give a well-rounded offering for the architecture and history buff, we know that March in New York City is full of events for the art connoisseur. As such, here is a guide focused on the art festivals, fairs and exhibits going up this month:

1. PULSE Contemporary Art Fair 2016

Pulse Contemporary Art Fair has been showcasing emerging and established galleries since 2005. Eulogy For The Dyke Bar (above, from 2015) is part of Pulse’s Projects Program, promoting large-scale sculptures, installations and performances. In addition, there will be a series of panel discussions ranging from ‘Starting and Growing a Collection’ to ‘Supporting Artistic Exchange with Cuban Artists Fund,’ as part of the Pulse Perspectives Series. Pulse Play will showcase videos and new media, including discoveries within the digital realm. Over 100 artists will be exhibiting.

As part of Armory Art Week, PULSE 2016 will be on view at The Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street from March 3-6.

2. The Armory Art Show 2016

Held annually on Piers 92 and 94, The Armory Show, showcases over 200 galleries from around the world. Now in its 22nd year, 2016 offers an exciting list of programming around this year’s theme, which takes an in-depth look at African Diaspora art, and art from an international African perspective. We were excited to see on the lengthy list of programming, a March 3rd panel discussion, “Looking Back, Leading the Way,” a conversation with artist El Anatsui and Sam Nhlengethwa, moderated by Bisi Silva, Founder and Artistic Director, Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos.

The Armory Art Show will be on view from March 3-6, with The Armory Party at MoMA on March 2.

3. ADAA: The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory

The Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory is an annual event organized by The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit membership organization made up of the nation’s leading galleries in the fine arts. All ticket proceeds benefit the Henry Street Settlement. This year, there will be 72 ADAA members exhibiting a variety of works from masters like Picasso, Miro and Dali, to photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen. The below collage by Frank Stella is in the joint gallery booth of the Dominique Levy Gallery and Marianne Bosky Gallery.

ADAA: The Art Show, part of Armory Art Week, is located at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue and will be on view from March 2-6, with the Gala Preview on March 1.

4.  SCOPE New York 2016

Located just one block from The Armory Show, SCOPE New York, now in its 16th year, will present 60 international exhibitors in an open floor-plan. In addition, SCOPE will host events that include performances and talks. SCOPE Art Show is regarded as the largest and most global emerging art fair in the world.

As part of Armory Art Week, SCOPE New York will be located at the Metropolitan Pavilion West, 639 West 46th Street, and on view from March 3-6.

5.  Spring/Break Art Show 2016

This will be the fifth year for the popular Spring/Break Art Show, with a theme for participating curators of ⌘COPY⌘PASTE, and works that represent “new appropriation, copyright pilfer, whistleblower melange, and the art historical miss-match.” One good example is in room 4118 of the exhibit entitled Shifted Memories, curated by artist Fanny Allié, and Ketta Ioannidou where seven artists encode, store and recall past recollections, in an act of removing selected data from its original position, copying and pasting it to create a duplicate.

Spring/Break is located at the Skylight at Moynihan Station, 421 Eighth Avenue at West 31st Street, main post office entrance. As part of Armory Art Week, Spring/Break will be on view from March 2-7, with proceeds from ticket sales helping to support the initiative to offer free exhibition space to independent curators.

 

6.  Art on Paper 2016

The imaginative Art on Paper Show, made up of artists who use paper as a major influence in their work, will be held at Pier 36, 299 South Street downtown. Expect to see a wide range of inventive and colorful uses that may include drawings, paintings, photography, silkscreen prints, and sculpture works of paper as in the image above, a totem inspired by Native American Totem Poles, made out of books.

As part of Armory Art Week, the Art on Paper Show will be on view from March 3-6.

7.  New City Art Fair 2016

Hosted by hpgrp Gallery New York, New City Art Fair is now in its fifth year. This small contemporary Asian art fair focuses on emerging Japanese artists in media ranging from painting, drawing and photography to sculpture and mixed-media. As part of Armory Art Week, this year New City Art Fair will exclusively feature Japanese galleries, including Einstein Studio and Harmas Gallery, who have made the trip to New York from Tokyo.

As part of Armory Art Week, New City Art Fair will be located at the hpgrp Gallery, 434 Greenwich Street from March 1-3, and this is a Free event.

8. Moving Image New York

Moving Image New York, familiar to New Yorkers for being behind Midnight Moment in Times Square for the past three years, is a festival that showcases moving image-based artworks. Here you will find a selection of commercial galleries and non-profit institutions exhibiting single-channel videos, projections and video sculptures.

As part of Armory Art Week, Moving Image New York is located at The Waterfront Tunnel (the former Tunnel nightclub) at 269 Eleventh Avenue between 27/28th Streets, and will be on view from March 3-6. This is a free event.

9. Bronx:Africa

The Bronx:Africa exhibit is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the art and influences of African culture, taking place at a variety of locations. Viewers will move through studios of African art, African fashion and textiles on the First Wednesday Bronx Culture Trolley on March 2. Participants will also be introduced to a variety of African food ingredients, an African food tasting, panel discussions exploring African spirituality and death, and a discussion on What is African Art Today.

Bronx: Africa, which is part of the Longwood Arts Project, will be on view through May 4, 2016. Check schedule for locations and events.

10. VOLTA 2016

VOLTA 2016 will exhibit the works of 100 galleries, not-for-profits, and artist-run spaces from 50 cities, including artists from 43 countries. Each space will highlight one particular artist with a solo exhibit. The image above is one of six new paintings by artist Justine Frischmann that will be on view through the George Lawson Gallery.

As part of Armory Art Week, VOLTA will be located on Pier 90, West 50th Street and 12th Avenue, from March 2-6

11. FUSION Harlem

The West Harlem Art Fund in partnership with Iconic Linx is presenting FUSION Harlem during Armory Art Week. It is a thematic event series comprised of art exhibitions and panel discussions with such notable figures as Bill T. Jones, Hrag Vartanian, Editor-in-Chief, Hyperallergic; Prerana Reddy, Director of Social Engagement, Queens Museum, and many more. As part of the programming, walking tours will be offered by Welcome to Harlem and The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Events begin on March 1 and end on March 3rd, with Jazz at The Piano Lounge, National Jazz Museum. Check program schedule for event locations.

12. Independent 2016

Independent, formerly held at the Dia building, will be held at Tribeca’s Spring Street Studios and 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, with large windows overlooking St. John’s Park. The show will highlight 43 exhibitors, two of whom recently relocated their galleries to Harlem – Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and the co-founder of Independent, Elizabeth Dee of Elizabeth Dee Gallery. Along with its new space, Independent will present a new addition to the fair named Independent Projects, featuring the work of female artists. As part of Armory Art Week, Independent will be on view at Spring Street Studios, 50 Varick Street, from March 3-6.

13.  ARTchives Method and Documentation Series at Centro

ARTchives Method and Documentation Series at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library and Archives is currently hosting a solo exhibit by renowned sculpture artist, Jorge Luis Rodriguez. You might recognize his name as being the very first Percent for Art sculpture artist, whose sculpture entitled Growth was installed at the East Harlem Art Park (1985) during the Koch administration.

At Centro Library, Mr. Rodriguez maps four decades of his artistic career, including A Monument to the 500 Years of Cultural Reversal of America, which is an indictment of the negative aspects of the colonization of the New World. This exhibit includes prints of the American continents as they looked before and after Columbus’s journey, and the actual ceramic slaves used in his original sculpture, commissioned by Mayfair 93, which was a twenty-foot long medieval slave ship. The solo exhibit of the work of Jorge Luis Rodriguez is on view at The Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library and Archives, Hunter College Silberman Building, 2180 Third Avenue, at 119th Street, through March 25, 2016.

Next, check out the urbanism oriented art installations and exhibits to see in March.Â