The Armory Show: Symbols on Surfaces
Written by Vittoria Benzine
Published on September 27th, 2026
Since 2021, The Armory Show art fair has marked the art world’s return from summer break. This year is a little different—art fair behemoth Frieze bought the 32-year-old Armory Show in 2023 and moved this year’s edition to later in September, so as not to compete with Frieze Seoul. Thus, New York’s hometown art fair opened on Thursday, and closes on Sunday.
Many art worlds exist, all overlapping to varying degrees. New York’s street art community, for instance, only intersects occasionally with the city’s fine art scene.
Many art worlds exist, all overlapping to varying degrees. New York’s street art community, for instance, only intersects occasionally with the city’s fine art scene. Sure, you’ll find Banksy or KAWS in the world’s top art fairs, galleries, and museums. But, when I brought one critic friend of mine to see the fabulous aerosol masterpieces throughout L train Bushwick recently, the sight of one measly cartoon character made her stomach churn. Another critic I know eyed the Phoebe wheatpaste in my home years ago, curious who it was. Somehow, he’d never witnessed her work throughout all of downtown. Street art and graffiti are languages for the initiated, after all.
Straightaway, eagle-eyed aficionados at this year’s Armory Show will find a new canvas by Miami graffiti writer turned Brooklyn-based fine artist José Parlá nestled amidst the punchy booth of London-based Ben Brown Fine Arts, near fair’s entrance. It’s a classic Parlá, all bright hues and elegant, sharp scrawls. Across the way, New York gallerist Marianne Goodman is showing an archetypal neon sign by Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan. A similar work shines right outside of Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center. Although that work isn’t technically street art, it is most definitely on the street.
New York street art forefathers Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat are art market staples.
New York street art forefathers Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat are art market staples. The Armory Show may not be quite as highbrow as Frieze proper, or the infamous Art Basel, it’s still a world-class event. As such, these blue-chip darlings do appear—together, in fact at the expansive booth belonging to London-based art dealership Archeus / Post-Modern. Another Haring is hanging opposite famed pop artist Roy Lichtenstein with Dusseldorf-based Galerie Ludorf, too. (Archeus / Post-Modern, alone, though, has arranged a clever cluster of three iconic Flowers by Andy Warhol. Only one is by the father of Pop art. The other two are by American imitation artist Sturtevant, and Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, altogether evoking street art’s Pop-adjacent affinity for repetition.)
Yes, subtle and nuanced street art moments lurk, for those with eyes to look. Before Haring ever brought his beloved scrawls to the subway, legendary street artist Dan Witz started painting little acrylic hummingbirds on New York City’s streets, pioneering the artform. New York-based Blumka Gallery is sharing a suite of new oil on panel paintings by Witz. The collection blends the artist’s approximately thirty-year interest in depicting mosh pits with fresher art historical references drawing on the radical Impressionists’ derision for the stodgy academy of 19th century France, whose artists they called the pompiers—since their Roman soldiers’ helmets looked like French firefighters’.
New York-based Blumka Gallery is sharing a suite of new oil on panel paintings by Witz.
Elsewhere, Miami-based Fredric Snitzer Gallery is offering a few new canvases by Brooklyn-based painter Deborah Brown, who’s been immortalizing her Brooklyn neighborhood in all its painted glory since the pandemic. These loose, vibrant canvases starkly contrast those of Henry Glavin, on view with New York-based Halsey McKay. Glavin’s streets are buffed pristinely.
Maybe street art and fine art don’t love each other; exchange abounds between them anyways. Two mature canvases by late New York-based naive painter Donald Baechler immediately evoke street art, layering singular, iconic images atop collaged surfaces evoking a wall papered over with advertisements, wheatpastes, all that delicious urban detritus. Baechler showed with Tony Shafrazi Gallery, a critical street art hub, at its height in 1983. Reviewing the exhibition, the still-active critic Donald Kuspit immediately drew comparisons between Baechler’s work and graffiti.
Reviewing the exhibition, the still-active critic Donald Kuspit immediately drew comparisons between Baechler’s work and graffiti.
When famed critic Roberta Smith wrote Baechler’s obituary in 2022, she noted that he resented such associations. Despite his opinion, the observation remains intuitive. An artist can only have so much say. Look at Brooklyn-based art star Mickalene Thomas—though she’s created plenty of public art, she’s hardly associated with the streets. Still, the suite of layered, collaged Thomas prints on view in a nook at New York-based two palms clearly resemble defaced fashion ads.
Indeed, all art genres benefit by pushing beyond their bounds. Every year, The Armory Show features a Platform section devoted to oversized artworks. This year’s edition, organized by SculptureCenter curator Jovanna Venegas, focuses on the Caribbean—and offers excellent ideas for boundary-busting street art in the process. I was particularly taken by the mixed media relief sculptures of French artist Gaëlle Choisne, wherein colorful ooze containing odds and ends like hair and keys ekes from membranes made of metal grates. Here, Choisne visualizes and transcends the powers that be. The walls street artists paint aren’t just surfaces, but symbols.
Vittoria Benzine is a street art journalist and personal essayist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her affinity for counterculture and questioning has introduced her to exceptional artists and morally ambiguous characters alike. She values writing as a method of processing the world’s complexity. Send love letters to her via:
Insta: @vittoriabenzine
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