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Photos: The Always-Bizarre Spring/Break Takes Over An Office Building In UN Plaza
By
Scott Lynch
Published Mar 6, 2019
Modified Mar 6, 2019
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Scott Lynch / Gothamist
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Mar 6, 2019
Modified Mar 6, 2019
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Now in its eighth year of bringing weird and wonderful art into unlikely spaces, Spring/Break, traditionally the best show in town during jam-packed Armory Arts Week, has once again settled into a new venue and, once again, totally made it their own.
Opening today and running through next Monday, this year the curator-driven contemporary art fair has taken over almost the entire second floor of 866 United Nations Plaza, a nondescript glassy office tower over by the East River. There are some 85 curatorial teams in all, and each one has been given an empty office, or a hallway, or a conference room, or a reception desk, or a section of a long, unfinished area, in which to do whatever the hell they want. The presentations in each space vary wildly, and much of the fun of Spring/Break is that you never know what's going to happen around the next corner.
There are plenty of showstoppers here. Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw brought a monumental sculpture called "Tipping Point," depicting a torso riddled with arrows, in the back of which is working refrigerator filled with marzipan versions of the same. Graham Wilson's installation "High Maintenance" is a storage closet wallpapered in craggy, bright pink insulation, with about a dozen electric fans buffeting around a bouquet of helium balloons. And beware the strange, psychedelic Eternal Navigators of Doom Organization, who will try to sell you cursed real estate.
There are paintings and drawings, interactive performance pieces, immersive environments, sculptural work and textiles. Everything's for sale—prices are generally much lower than at the glitzier fairs happening this week—so the curators and/or artists are almost always hanging around their space, and happy to chat about the work.
Spring/Break is located at 866 UN Plaza on the corner of First Avenue and 48th, and is open daily through Monday, March 11, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tickets are about $20, and you can easily spend two or three hours taking it all in.
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Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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