Armory Show 2026 puts Caribbean art at its centre in New York
The Armory Show in New York opens its 2026 edition on 24 September with the Caribbean at its centre.
The fair runs 24-27 September at the Javits Center in Manhattan, at 429 11th Avenue. Around 230 galleries from more than 30 countries will take part, according to a preview published on 21 September The Art Newspaper. That makes it one of the city's largest art fairs. It is open to the public for four days.
Walk in one way and you start in the Caribbean. Walk in the other and you start in New York. The floorplan uses the building's two main entrances to tell two different stories.
The south entrance leads straight into the Caribbean focus. It gathers galleries and artists from the region and the wider Americas. The north entrance leans towards the United States, and especially New York.
Several stands show how wide that southern story stretches. Havana-founded gallery El Apartamento brings a group exhibition of Cuban artists. Haitian American artist Kathia St. Hilaire has a solo presentation with Perrotin, the gallery with spaces in Paris, New York, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Painter Shara Mays, who works between California and Colombia, appears with Ronchini in London. Brazilian artist Antonio Luiz Morais de Andrade appears with Galeria Raquel Arnaud in São Paulo.
Two curated sections, Focus and Platform, both start from the Caribbean. Focus, a section for solo- and dual-artist presentations, meaning stands devoted to one or two artists, is curated by María Elena Ortiz. It explores how the Caribbean has long served as a meeting point for diverse communities, according to the fair's website The Armory Show. Platform, the section for large-scale works, meaning sculpture and installations too big for a standard stand, is curated by Jovanna Venegas of SculptureCenter in Queens. It places large sculpture by leading voices from the Caribbean at the centre of the fair The Armory Show.
New work gets more room this year. The Presents section, for younger galleries, and the Solo section, for single-artist stands, have each grown by around 20% on last year. Solo will include around 25 exhibitors. Presents will include around 55 galleries. The Gramercy International Prize, which gives a free stand to a New York gallery showing at the fair for the first time, goes in 2026 to Margot Samel.
Two museum buying prizes also launch at this year's fair. The Pérez Art Museum Miami in Florida and the Bronx Museum in New York will both present acquisition prizes, which allow museums to select and acquire works directly from the fair for their collections ARTnews. For visitors who cannot get to Manhattan, an Online Viewing Room stays open until 4 October The Armory Show.
For first-time visitors, this means choose your door. Start south for Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and Colombia. Start north for New York.
