Programs Announced for The Armory Show 2026

 

Visibility and experimentation drive new collaborations and ambitious activations.

 

Armory Live at The Armory Show 2025. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh / CKA.

 

The Armory Show has revealed details of its 2026 program, taking place September 24–27 at the Javits Center and anchoring an expanded Armory Week, September 21–27. Spanning large-scale installations, performance, talks and participatory projects, the 2026 edition creates new opportunities for experimentation, collaboration, and engagement across the fair.  

 

Highlights include the tenth edition of Platform, foregrounding artistic practices from the Caribbean and its diaspora; large-scale installations as part of Armory Sculpture; El Museo del Barrio’s interactive presentation of Lulu Varona for Armory Spotlight; a live performance by Tavares Strachan presented by Marian Goodman Gallery; the debut of Armory After Hours, presented in partnership with TodayTix; and new and returning acquisition funds and prizes supporting artists and galleries. 

 

Discover the 2026 programs below: 

 

LARGE-SCALE INSTALLATIONS

2026 marks the tenth edition of Platform. Titled Passages and Thresholds and curated by Jovanna Venegas (SculptureCenter), the section features large-scale sculptures and installations that examine technological forms emerging across the Caribbean, from architecture to materiality, exploring ideas of reconstruction, resilience, and self-determination. 

 

Projects will be installed at the center of the fair and include: Bony Ramirez presented by REGULARNORMAL; Patricia Claro presented by Collectio; Lucia Hierro, presented by Marc Straus Gallery; María Magdalena Campos-Pons presented by Galerie Barbara Thumm; Rafael Domenech and Gaëlle Choisne presented by 193 Gallery; Zenobia Lee presented by Sea View; Lisu Vega presented by Gladwell Projects; Paloma Izquierdo presented by HESSE FLATOW; Margarita Cabrera, presented by Jane Lombard Gallery; Remy Jungerman presented by Fridman Gallery; Valerie Brathwaite presented by Henrique Faria; Curtis Talwst Santiago presented by Uffner & Liu; Hew Locke presented by Cristea Roberts Gallery; Jesús Hilario-Reyes presented by Company Gallery; Sandra Brewster presented by Southern Guild; and Ania Freer and Cornelius Tulloch presented by AIRIE.Foundation.

 

 

Armory Sculpture is a section inspired by the 1913 Armory Show, presenting ambitious, large-scale sculptures throughout the fair’s floorplan. 

 

Projects include: Sonya Clark’s Edifice & Mortar (2018), presented by Goya Contemporary; Tusukane (2023) by Kaloki Nyamai, presented by Carolina Nitsch and Galerie Barbara Thumm; Shhrine (2025) by Manuel Mathieu in collaboration with Juliette Karagueuzoglou, presented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau; and Geographic Avenger Beached (1974-2026) by Rafael Ferrer, presented by Henrique Faria.

 

CONVERSATIONS

Armory Live, presented for the first time by RBC, runs September 25-27 and consists of insightful discussions with significant artists, curators, writers, collectors, and institutional leadership. 

 

Highlights include two conversations with Focus and Platform curators Jovanna Venegas (SculptureCenter) and María Elena Ortiz (Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth) and artists including Gaëlle Choisne, Jesús Hilario-Reyes, Zenobia Lee, Sofía del Mar Collins, Kiván Quiñones, Manuel Mathieu, and Yanira Collado. Stéphane Aquin (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) will moderate a conversation on the Canadian art market, with Corrie Jackson (RBC), Cheryl Sim (PHI Foundation), and David Moos (David Moos Art Advisory). 

 

 

The ninth edition of The Armory Show’s Curatorial Leadership Summit (CLS), chaired by Drew Sawyer (Whitney Museum of American Art) will take place on Friday, September 25. CLS gathers leading curators to reflect on their shared responsibility to the art and artists of our time. This year’s Summit will examine questions of scale within the institutional context, considering regionalism and localism in the wake of globalism, as well as the evolving magnitude of exhibitions and programming amid rising costs and increasing concerns around sustainability. The summit will culminate in a public discussion with artist Lucy Raven.

 

ACTIVATIONS, EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES

Marian Goodman Gallery will present Special Blue: Act I, a new live performance conceived by Tavares Strachan on September 24 and 25. Shown in the context of The Armory Show’s focus on artistic practices from the Caribbean and its diaspora, Special Blue: Act I draws upon Strachan’s longstanding engagement with the region as both a lived geography and a point of departure. Moving between the gallery’s booth and the wider fair, Special Blue: Act I will unfold as a shifting composition of sound, movement, image, and object. Paintings, activated objects, and performers form an evolving environment in which rhythm, repetition, and interruption become ways of thinking about presence, belonging, and the histories we carry with us.

 

As this year’s recipient of Spotlight, El Museo del Barrio will present a participatory textile installation by Lulu Varona, inspired by the practice and philosophy of deconstruction developed by Raphael Montañez Ortiz. Visitors will be invited to transform a collective textile across four workstations, embroidering symbols, words, and phrases that evoke the legacy of El Museo del Barrio or unpicking existing stitches. Through this ongoing process of construction and deconstruction, the work will evolve over the course of the fair through the contributions of its participants. 

 

Vote.org will showcase artist-designed merchandise by Lisu Vega, Zoë Pulley, and more. The project supports Vote.org's mission to make voter registration accessible to every eligible American ahead of the 2026 midterm elections this November, and brings together a small group of artists whose practices thoughtfully engage with ideas such as migration, belonging, identity, first-generation experiences, and civic engagement. 

 

The Armory Show will introduce Armory After Hours, a special evening event held within the fair on Friday, September 25, from 7–9 pm. Presented in collaboration with TodayTix and celebrating the fair’s 2026 Caribbean focus, the event will feature a processional performance led by DJ Foreigner and a live ensemble of percussionists. Inspired by Caribbean carnival, steel pan floats, and mas bands, the procession will move through the fair, blending Afro- Caribbean percussion with a live DJ set before culminating in Platform for an expanded celebration. The event is produced with support from Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle and Hibiki. 

 

ACQUISITION FUNDS & PRIZES

During the run of the fair, The Armory Show will award several prizes and acquisition funds, showcasing the fair’s commitment to providing support to artists and galleries. Recipients will be announced during the fair. 

 

Prize details are as follows:  

 

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Acquisition Prize establishes a $20,000 acquisition fund to support the museum’s permanent collection and The Green Family Foundation Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) at PAMM. Coinciding with this year's Caribbean-focused theme at the fair, the prize will acquire work(s) by exhibiting artists in the Focus section for PAMM’s collection, furthering its commitment to advancing Caribbean art and artists. The prize is made possible by the Diane Moss Director’s Discretionary Fund.

 

The new Bronx Museum Acquisition Prize, dedicated to the Presents section of The Armory Show, supporting the acquisition of work by an exhibiting artist for The Bronx Museum’s permanent collection. Providing $15,000 toward an acquisition, the prize is created in recognition of The Bronx Museum and The Armory Show’s shared commitment to providing foundational support for emerging artists.

 

 

Courtesy of Delfina Foundation, London. Photo by Anne Tetzlaff.

This year will be the second iteration of the Delfina Foundation Artist Residency Prize. The residency will be awarded to an artist of Caribbean descent exhibiting with a gallery participating in the Focus section. This prestigious, twelve-week residency in London during 2027 is made possible by support from Suzanne McFayden and Centro León, Dominican Republic. The winning artist will join a residency cohort with seven other international artists during 2027 at Delfina Foundation, where they will spend three months researching, experimenting, and networking, provided with bespoke curatorial support, and embedded in the London art scene.  

 

The Pommery Prize, a $10,000 award presented to an artist featured in the Platform section and the opportunity to display the exhibited work inside the Pommery Cellars. The prize is generously supported by Champagne Pommery.  

 

The Sauer Artist Prize, a $10,000 award presented to an artist featured in the Focus section. The prize is generously supported by Sauer. 

 

The Armory Show takes place at Javits Center from September 24–27, 2026. 

https://www.thearmoryshow.com/tickets