THE ARMORY SHOW was in a smaller, more convenient location at Pier 94 at 55th street this year.

Young men and women in skinny trousers and pointy shoes – slightly disheveled – (artists?) were milling around outside on Friday just after noon.

Painting of a young artist. Image: telegraph.co.uk

Young men in sharp suits – slightly less disheveled and looking very focused – (young dealers, no doubt) and slick, expensive looking men and women in slick, expensive looking outfits - also looking very focused - (established dealers) headed inside.

Well-groomed women accompanied by well-groomed men, looking slightly less focused – (Collectors) regrouped around the entrance.

David Hockney, American Collectors, 1968. Image: artic.edu

Inside, everything was grey – preparation, perhaps for the explosion of colour and form in the booths. Grey carpets kept noise down to an elegant hush, and lower ceilings gave the space an intimacy that it had lacked in recent years.

Friday afternoon, the Canadians were out en masse. We walked in, turned the corner and walked straight into dealer Jessica Bradley, who gave us her recommendations, as she had already been to several shows and previews. Toronto consultant Olivier Fuller pulled up next to us. Halfway down the second aisle we chatted with dealer Clint Roenisch and Catherine Dean who were chatting to Emily McInnes of Toronto’s CONTACT photography festival. She had become separated from her significant other, artist Michael Awad, who was on his phone when we saw him a few minutes later. After some awkward hand signaling, we continued on, only to glimpse Toronto art consultant Marshall Webb, shepherding a client around the aisles.

A few booths later we and we ran into Robert Enright and Meeka Walsh from Winnipeg’s Border Crossings magazine, who seemed relieved that the aisles were more spacious than they had been at Scope.

(Star sighting: We passed Sofia Coppola, pushing a pram down an aisle.)

Sofia Coppola. Image: zachklien.com

“Enough about the people!”, you’re thinking, “what about the art?”

We found it to be quite good, but there were no real surprises. We saw a lovely Mark Manders sculpture Small Unfired Clay Figure 2006-6 at Zeno X, (VoCA loves his work - he had a super show at Tanya Bonakdar in Chelsea, more on that below).

Mark Manders, Small Landscape, 1997. Image: Zeno x gallery

Over all, there was a fair amount of painting, and some good pieces like a set of Fiona Banner’s The Bastard Word Studies, 2007 at Frith Street Gallery that made made us eager for Banner’s upcoming exhibition at the Power Plant in Toronto, opening March 2, 7 - 11 pm.

Fiona Banner, detail from Parade, 2006. Image: thepowerplant.org

Oh, and we noticed what we think may be a burgeoning trend. Mirrors. Lots and lots of art with mirrors, none of it excellent, which is odd since mirror offers so much potential – think Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Uomo e donna alla balconata (lui e lei alla balconata. Image: polito.it

There’s an idea for a curator. You heard it here first. Most notable were some weak photographs printed on mirror to from Candice Breitz at White Cube.

There were some good Chloe Piene drawings at Galerie Barbara Thumm.

Chloe Piene, Big Hand 02, 2006. Image: mikeweissgallery.com

And we liked the set of sculptural coffee tables by Nicole Wermers at Produzentengalerie from Hamburg.

Nicole Wermers, Sandtisch, 2006. Image: acgebbers.com

Overall, there seemed to be a majority of okay work by well-known artists, confirming our belief that art fairs are not the ideal place to buy. They are convenient places for collectors to do research under one roof. Unlike previous years, (and previous fairs) there was no particular artist that stood out. We didn’t see any Jeff Wall lightboxes, for instance, despite the fact that he was opening a solo exhibition at MoMA.

THE SCOPE ART FAIR, in a pavilion at 62nd and 10th was a more interesting, if not rewarding, experience. Again, we saw little inspiring art, but there was the feeling of possibility there. We might have seen something inspiring, One piece of note was Wu Junyong’s piece Opera III, 2007 at Chinese Contemporary.

Wu Junyong, Opera, 2006. Image: chinesecontemporary.com

In CHELSEA the next day we saw the aforementioned Mark Manders show at Tanya Bonakdar.

Mark Manders, Unfinished Factory, 2006. Image: tanyabonakdargallery.com

Work by Simon Starling showing at Casey Kaplan confirmed our belief that Starling is, while an interesting artist, the poster-boy for a generation of what we like to call CONCEPTUALISM LITE. His boat piece autoxylopyrocycloboros, 2006 and Gold Toned Okapi were strong, if familiar.

Over at Pavel Zoubok, we visited our friend, Berlin-based artist Stefan Saffer, whose folding paper pieces were on view. He explained that the work – cut from a single page - fits back together if you were to lay it out properly. The gallery deals in collage-based work.

Stefan Saffer, Land, 2004. Image: katemacgarry.com

Leo Koenig was showing Kelli Williams, which we found to be quite good. Not our cup of tea, but exceptional quality and well-intentioned work. Lots of porn imagery.

Kelli Williams, Double Happiness, 2005. Image: leokoenig.com

Check out this article on Leo Koenig - and Kelli Williams - from the New Yorker.

The next day at THE GUGGENHEIM, we ran into artist (and Jeff Wall assistant) Adam Harrison with Vancouver collectors extraordinaire Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft. On the fifth floor, we found the overly didactic wall text for the Tacita Dean exhibit rather bothersome. Lucky were the viewers who opted to view the work first, read later. We understand that the curators might feel the need to explain, but the work suffered for it. The beauty of Dean’s work is in watching, understanding, appreciating it.

Tacita Dean, Kodak, 2006. Image: frithstreetgallery.com

Later that afternoon we took in Not for Sale at PS1 in Queens.

The curatorial premise was that each work was one that the artist, for whatever reason, was reluctant to sell. This, while interesting on a work-by-work basis, did little to tie the works together to create a unified show. Some (but unfortunately not all) of the wall labels offered the artists’s explanation.

There were some great moments, most of them very small. Favorite pieces were Richard Tuttle’s Gold, 2001 - who wouldn’t want to keep those? and Christo’s smallest package.

Richard Tuttle, Gold, 2001. Image: barbarakrakorgallery.com

Christo, smallest package.

In one room, the best work in the show, a very small bronze wall sculpture by Joel Shapiro completely overshadowed Sarah Sze’s sprawling corner installation.

Joel Shapiro, Untitled, 1991. Image: metmuseum.org

That night, we took in some galleries during Williamsburg’s late night opening, but we won’t mention the Gothic ink drawings by Elisabeth Kley at Momenta Art, or the slick, strangely empty video, Spherical Vision, 2006 at LMAK Projects. We will, however, draw your attention to a series of large-scale, intricate, industrial fantasy-scapes in graphite by artist Michael Schall and some excellent and unbelievably detailed drawings of exotic birds by Jonathan Allen, both at Pierogi.

Michael Schall, Mining the Crevasse, 2007. Image: pierogi2000.com

We saw a lot, but we missed so much! VoCA welcomes your comments on any good, bad or other things you may have caught in NY…