The Armory Show is set to kick off the New York fall art season once again, with its 30th-anniversary edition slated to run at the Javits Center in the United States, from September 6 - 8, 2024. This year also features the fourth iteration of Armory Off-Site, which has partnered for the third time with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. This partnership yields a meaningful presentation of public art and performance art across New York City, as well as large scale art and mixed media art at the Center. The Armory-USTA partnership prioritises work by artists from underrepresented backgrounds, on view at the US Open Fan Week (August 19 - 25) through the Men’s Finals (September 8). Read on to learn more about the artists participating in this important presentation, its celebration of the athletic form and its relationship to tennis.

Claudia Peña Salinas

Mexican artist Claudia Peña Salinas is showing Tetl Mirror I (2024), which presents Aztec and Mayan mythology in a minimalistic visual language. The piece is created through research conducted by the artist on sites of worship for Mesoamerican deities. Salinas used found objects to create the artwork, and its title translates to ‘Rock Mirror’ in the Aztec language Nahuatl.

The artwork is presented by EMBAJADA, San Juan and is part of the US Open’s commitment to embracing Latin culture in light of the many great players from Latin America to pick up the racquet. For example, there was Maria Bueno (1939 - 2018) of Brazil, who is Latin America’s most successful player ever, having won 19 Grand Slams, including seven singles titles. There is also Guillermo Vilas (1952) of Argentina, who was considered the ‘King of Clay’ before the reign of Rafael Nadal and is remembered for his iconic 1977 victory against American tennis superstar and former World No. 1 Jimmy Connors at the US Open. Another big name in Latin American tennis is Gigi Fernández (1964), who won 17 Grand Slams, six French Opens, five US Opens, four Australian Opens, four championships at Wimbledon and two gold medals at the Olympics.

Eva Robarts

American artist Eva Robarts has brought her mixed media sculpture art piece Fantasy of Happiness (2022) to the US Open, through the gallery Ruttkowski;68 (Cologne, Düsseldorf, New York, Paris). Like Salinas, the contemporary artist has created her artwork out of found objects, which she sees as abandoned spirits of the city. Fantasy of Happiness is composed of discarded tennis balls trapped in a rusting chain fence, creating an interesting juxtaposition of social classes when viewed by elite audiences who have come to watch tennis games played at its highest levels.

An Te Liu

The Taiwanese-Canadian sculptor An Te Liu is showing Venus Redux (2018), created as an abstract version of the crouching Lely Venus (AD 96 - 192). Liu’s mixed media art piece combines the beauty of the goddess Venus’ feminine form with a sense of force and grace that evokes images of female tennis stars mid-match. The work is presented at the art exhibition by Blouin Division, Montreal, Canada.

Tomokazu Matsuyama

Lastly, Japanese artist Tomokazu Matsuyama is showing the installation art piece Runner (2021), an abstract mixed media depiction of a runner mid-stride. The artwork transforms the body of an athlete into a disorientingly rich and fluid form and it is presented by Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago.

The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center—where these works are displayed—is an important symbol of equity. The centre is named after the legendary tennis player Billie Jean King (1943), who holds 39 Grand Slam titles, including 20 Wimbledon titles and was named one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century” by LIFE Magazine. She is famed for defeating Bobby Riggs (1918 - 1955) in the ‘Battle of the Sexes’, 6-4,6-3,6-3, which is considered by many sports enthusiasts to be a watershed moment for female athletes.

Beyond this presentation, Armory Off-Site is also showing several city-wide projects by artists including María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Oliver Herring and David Salle. Audiences will also have Armory Live to look forward to, which will commence with a keynote discussion for the seventh annual Curatorial Leadership Summit, chaired by Lauren Cornell, Chief Curator of the Hessel Museum of Art and the Director of the Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Armory Live’s programme shall also include Kyla McMillan, director of Armory Show in conversation with Sarah Douglas, editor-in-chief, ARTnews and artists Sanford Biggers, Dominique Fung and Nicholas Galanin in conversation with independent art curator Eugenie Tsai, among other discussions and events. The art fair will feature a newly redesigned theatre for its live component, which will be open for public engagement. Additionally, there will be a recreated hotel room inspired by the fair’s original 1994 edition at the Gramercy Park Hotel.

While this is far from an exhaustive list of the compelling contemporary art, talks and events for audiences to experience at the art festival, it serves to highlight the celebration of tennis and athleticism that the works at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center present. The presentation is doubly important, both for the underrepresented practices that it spotlights and the tryst between sports and art that it underlines.

With research inputs by STIR intern Srishti Ojha

'The Armory Show' 2024 will run at the Javits Center from September 6 - 8, 2024. Armory Off-Site’s presentation of artists from underrepresented backgrounds is running at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center from August 19 - September 8.