Ewan Gibbs named The Armory Show’s 2009 Commissioned Artist

Ewan Gibbs. New York, 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

The Armory Show has commissioned British artist Ewan Gibbs to create the visual identity for the 2009 fair. Gibbs’ artwork, which will feature iconic images of New York City, will set the aesthetic for the fair’s look, will be featured in all of the fair’s advertising and marketing materials and will be showcased in the catalogue. 

This will be the eighth year The Armory Show has commissioned an artist to define the image of the fair and a pivotal moment in the history of the show. The eleventh edition of the fair will introduce The Armory Show - Modern, a new section on Pier 92 dedicated to dealers specializing in Modern and secondary market works, while its celebrated contemporary program continues on Pier 94.

According to Executive Director Katelijne De Backer, “Ewan Gibb is the ideal artist to represent both sections of The Armory Show 2009. His meticulous, meditative drawings reference early Modern movements like Pointilism while remaining firmly contemporary. And his choice of New York as a subject is clearly close to our heart, as the city’s support of the arts is a vital part of our fair’s success.” 

Ewan Gibbs attended Goldsmiths College in London and is known for painstaking grisaille drawings on graph paper composed of minute pixel-like marks. Gibbs initially became known for images of hotel rooms based on photographs from brochures and advertisements, and has since worked on series of baseball players, cities at night, hotel facades and New York City. He has an upcoming solo exhibition at SFMoMA and his work is in the collection of institutions such as MoMA, SFMoMA, the Tate, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others. He is represented by Timothy Taylor Gallery in London, Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago, Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin, Texas, and Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado. 

The Armory Show introduced its annual commission in 2002 with artist Karen Kilimnik. It was followed by partnerships with Barnaby Furnas (2003), Lisa Ruyter (2004), Jockum Nordström (2005), John Wesley (2006), Pipilotti Rist (2007), and Mary Heilmann and John Waters (2008).  In 2006 The Armory Show began publishing an annual series of editions by its commissioned artists to benefit the Pat Hearn and Colin de Land Cancer Foundation and the Pat Hearn and Colin de Land Acquisition Fund at The Museum of Modern Art.