Despite art market 'doomsayers', Armory Show dealers see signs of 'a good turnaround' in opening sales

While the upcoming US presidential election may be on people’s minds, very few works at The Armory Show actually referenced it. One was a woven work by Qualeasha Wood titled This is America, Season 248, Episode 45 (2024) at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery’s stand. Conceived after the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump in July, the tapestry combines a photograph from the event with imagery from social media, television news stations and a self-portrait of Wood mocking “Black Republican women such as Candace Owens who subscribe to the glorification of the American Dream”, according to a description of the work from the gallery. A spokesperson for the gallery said Thursday that the piece had not sold yet, though it did sell a painting by Angela Heisch for $75,000 and a work by Zoë Buckman for $50,000.