Stone Ice Cream and Secret Codes at Spring Break New York
A Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich carved from stone, a secret language baked into clay and drawings made with crayons are among more than 100 projects at the Spring Break Art Show in New York.
The Manhattan edition, organised around the theme 'Hide 'n Seek', is staged on the ninth floor of the former CBS News office building at West 57th Street and 11th Avenue. It runs from 24 to 28 September, according to The Art Newspaper.
More than 100 projects spanning all media were brought in by dozens of curators, independent exhibition-makers who select artists and shape how work is shown. The theme was tried first on a much smaller scale in Los Angeles in February.
The idea is simple. Hide things. Seek them out.
The fair's open call asked for work built around codes and hidden messages, referencing what it described as seeming malfeasance in the face of American imperialism, as set out on its official theme page. Co-founder Andrew Gori oversees the fair, which lists its new address as 555 West 57th Street in New York City.
The organisers list this as the 15th New York City edition. It combines curatorial exhibitions from independent curators with Special Projects from galleries, nonprofit organisations and project spaces, plus a curated Artist Spotlight section.
One of the largest groupings comes from curator Todd Bienvenu. He organised more than 60 artists to make work with children's materials such as crayons, markers and construction paper. Pieces are priced from US$100 to US$8,000 each.
Romanian-born artist Adina Andrus invented a secret language of 2,000 symbols linked to childhood memories. She has remade the symbols as ceramic wall sculptures, fired clay works made to hang, priced from US$2,750 to US$6,550 each.
Artist Louis Sarowsky contributes Rock with me, an installation, a room-sized arrangement of objects, of foods carved from natural stone. A Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich and an orange creamsicle cost US$1,300 each. A waffles-and-fruit breakfast plate is US$4,500. A blueberry muffin is US$1,800.
Sarowsky also shows Rock Basel (2026). It is a stone version of Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian, with the banana carved from honeycomb calcite and the duct tape carved from marble. It is priced at US$2,300.
For anyone new to art fairs, this means no quiet white walls. Expect crowded rooms, low prices alongside higher ones, and artists on hand to talk. The fair lists regular show days as 24 to 28 September from 12pm to 7pm, following collectors and press previews and an opening night on 23 September.
