I-gramming Armory Arts Week, Like a Pro

Whether you are in New York or across the Atlantic and if you are an Instagram (i-gram) novice or a pro, this guide will help you achieve your goals this Armory Arts Week. Do you want to see what’s trending on the art market? Know where to find the best parties? Visit the fairs from the palm of your hand? Engage in some virtual networking? Or, just see the hottest art works? This guide will in two steps introduce you to the accounts and hashtags that will help you navigate New York’s art world on Instagram. And, in step three I will give you some pointers on how to get your profile art-star worthy. Get your phone ready – you have a lot of following to do.

1. People

The best way to find out what’s hot or not is to follow key influencers, or as I like to call them – art world i-gram stars. Like and comment on their pictures, tag them in your own posts to get your name out there, and follow their followers to engage with other art enthusiasts. If you need inspiration to spice up your own account, take cues from these i-gram art-stars, they are the best.

Previous: @vajiajia at 303 Gallery. Above: @vajiajia: Can I buy a vowel #blinkypalermo Dia:Beacon.

Sleek

JiaJia Fei, @vajiajia, Director of Digital @TheJewishMuseum. Queen B of social media for museums. Her account is sleek, sexy, and contemporary, featuring angular architecture, outfit-subject coordinated pictures, and sick color coordination. Want to stay chic? Then learn from the best. JiaJia also has great i-gram stories!

Elena Soboleva, @elenasoboleva, Manager of @Artsy Projects. Lots of images of art works but also snap shots from parties and art events. Elena is always stylishly dressed as she travels the globe hitting the most important art events in the art world. She will be presenting #MixedReality an installation with @studio.drift and @Microsoft at The Armory Show.

Nina, @artstagram_, Photographer @samuelscreative. Beautiful, crisp shots – exhibition views, art works, and some people looking at art taken in galleries and museums in New York. Captions are humorous and spot on sprinkled with cute emojis. She posts several posts a day allowing followers to get a good overview of whats on right now.

@klausbiesenbach: FOREVER YOUNG! congratulations to your 84th birthday #yokoono @yokoooofficial.

Star-Studded

Klaus Biesenbach, @klausbiesenbach, Director @momaps1 and Curator-at-Large @themuseumofmodernart.  Art, nature, MoMa colleagues, trustees, board members, and snap shots with famous artist friends (like @yokoonoofficial, @hankwillisthomas, @marinaabramovicinstitute) accompanied by heartfelt captions. Klaus is generous with his work life that often spills into his private life. Don’t mind the pictures of his office view. Keep an eye out for pictures from the MoMa Benefit on Wednesday night!

jerrysaltz: “Pregnant Maria” by Alice Neel, 1964. In great show “Alice Neel Uptown” @davidzwirner curated by @hilton.als No one has painted the pregnant body better, ever. This is a don’t-miss show. On 19th St – double space show. Go. 🔥🔥🔥 I think of Marsden Hartley and Alice Neel as perhaps the early 20th century’s great American painters.

Opinionated

Jerry Saltz, @jerrysaltz, Senior Art-Critic for New York Magazine. Opinionated, passionate, and loud. A breath of fresh air in a filter-controlled picture perfect feed, he engages with art history and gets censored a lot. I hope he goes off on a tangent for Armory Arts Week.

Kimberly Drew, @MuseumMammy, Social Media Manager (SMM) @metmuseum. Witty captions, good taste, and comments on current affairs with a strong African-American focus. Definitely worth following.

Ayana Evans, @ayana.m.evans, performance artist (hat also happen to be Editor-at-Large at @cultbytes). Evans is literally blowing up, this spring alone she has a performance piece commissioned by the Barnes Foundation and will be participating in a performance art festival in Mauritius. Her i-gram covers performance art, black and women’s issues, and self-promoting (as it should, she’s an artist). If there is any good performance art during Armory Week she will be there.

2. The Art Fairs

What, when, where, and who – complete with @handles and #hashtags. Most artists and galleries have i-gram accounts, find the ones you like and follow them. Explore further by looking through what they like and who they follow. Don’t be afraid to, like, comment, and Direct Message (DM). There’s a reasons #like4like has 302+ million public posts, i-gram connects people!

Aiko Hachisuka, Postcard, 2016, 11R @11rgallery, NYC.

The Armory Show – @thearmoryshow #thearmoryshow #armoryshow

The Armory Show is the largest and most instagrammable fair with big name galleries, big name artists like Yayoi Kusama and Ai Wei Wei, and large scale art works scattered around the fairground. Prime time for posting your #artselfies and to follow the action is during the preview vernissage on Wednesday March 1st, between 6-8pm. Dress to the nines and bring a selfie stick.

Special Projects Manager: Rachael Buchwald @curatorscloset
Partners: Alexandra Chemla @chemstagram_(CEO @ArtBinder),Carter Cleveland @carterac (CEO @Artsy)

March 1, Preview/Vernissage, March 2-5, Open to the Public, Thur-Fri 12-8pm, Sat 12-7pm, Sun 12-6pm, Pier 92-94, 711 12th Avenue at 55th Street.

Don’t Miss: @tiwani_contemporary (London), @vsf (Various Small Fires, LA), @Institutodevision (Bogata), #vitamincreativespace (Guangzhou)

Full list of exhibitors here.

Derrick Adams, @derrickadamsny “Young Man in Sojourn Blue,” 2017 (Mixed media collage on paper) 24 in. x 18 in. Tilton Gallery.

Independent – @independent_hq #indepedentNY2017 #independentpreview

Independent is held in a sun-drenched harmonious space, typical of Tribeca’s ware house architecture, and boasts both small and big name galleries. The chic fair also has a Brussels edition. After rushing around stuffy convention centers Independent is a safe haven where you finally can snap some photos in great natual lighting.

March 1, Preview, March 3-5, Open to the Public, Spring Studios Tribeca.

Make sure to see: @canada.nyc (NY), @clearing_new_york_brussels (NY, Brussels), @tiltongallery (NY), #spruthmagers (Berlin),@galerieperrotin (Paris, NY).

Full list of exhibitors here.

Ernest Jolicoeur, “Atrium,” 2016, acrylic on canvas over wood panel, 35 x 47 inches. De Chiara Projects.

VOLTA NY – @voltashow #voltany2017 #10YearsofSoloFocus

VOLTA is a globally conscious art fair presenting solo exhibitions, with 96 galleries and artist-run spaces across five continents and 46 cities, by artists from 38 nations. The vibrant art fair with an additional outpost in Basel, Switzerland, is headed by Amanda Coulson, Bahamian/American art critic and curator based in Nassau. Swing by when you visit The Armory Show and use your filters generously to accentuate the bright colors the fair has to offer.

Artistic Director: Amanda Coulson, @coulson_amanda

March 1, Preview, 2-5, open to the Public, Pier 90. 

I’m looking forward to: @dechiaraprojects (Stoneridge, NY), @ethancohengallery, (NY)

Full list of exhibitors here.

SPRING/BREAK Art Show – @springbreakartshow #springbreakartshow

Although SPRING/BREAK Art Show is hit or miss overall, there are always some cool booths to be seen and lots of bargain buys if you are shopping.  All curators have responded to a call-for-submission, many exhibitors return yearly but there are also many new faces. Snap your pictures of booths curated by the star curators of tomorrow!

Founders and Directors: Ambre Kelly @ambrekelly and @andrewgoriandfriends

“Black Mirror,” Feb 28th, Press and Collectors Preview 11am – 5pm, Vernissage 5pm -9pm. March 1-6, Open to the Public, 11am-6pm, Times Square.

Keep an eye out for these curators: @acrepairco (Toronto, CA), @emerald_gruin (NY,NY), @cocodolle,  @epstie (Marie Salomé, Paris, France), @dustinyellin (NY, NY)

Full list of curators here (scroll down).

newartdealers: Melissa Brown, channeling the collective power of imagination, will become an oracle who sees the future in the contents of her purse in her performance “Bagomancy: Predicting the Future with Josie the Bag” 👜👝👛 part of NADA Presents in Collaboration with Kickstarter. Saturday, 3/4, presented with Essex Flowers 🎲🃏.

In addition…

NADA – @newartdealers #nadanewyork #newartdealers, full list of exhibitors here. Moving Image – @movingimageartfair #movingiamgeartfair, full list of exhibitors here.  SCOPE – @scopeartshow #scopeartshow, full list of exhibitors here. Art On Paper, (don’t miss @mijumijumijumiju  @gallerypoulsen ), full list of exhibitors here.

3. You

elenasoboleva: When the clouds come we gone. ☂ #ellaellaeheheh #hannaliden at @56henry.nyc

First, I-gram with a purpose. Do you want to share experiences with friends? Are you an artist that wants to get your work out there? Are you a collector that wants to buy art? Are you a life-style i-grammer? Are you looking for  job? In what industry? Always keep your purpose in mind, let your content deviate but only on occasion.

Second, post or re-post good pictures. Think about what message you want your photograph to convey…bad lighting, bad framing, and out of focus pictures won’t get you there.

Third, the best thing about I-gram is that you can see what marvelous ways other people want you to see their world. It’s all a facade. (Spoiler alert!) The most instagrammable art works are not the ones that will make you swoon IRL. If you’re not getting paid don’t sweat it. Have fun!

Oh, and don’t forget to follow our #armoryartsweek coverage @cultbytes.