Roughly 70 exhibitors from the Americas and Europe are participating in the Winter Show, which previews on January 23.
By Laura Beach
NEW YORK CITY — A first look at the 71st Winter Show, planned for January 24-February 2 at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, reveals a cosmopolitan enterprise attentive both to its heritage as America’s top fair for historic art and design as well as its longstanding place in the cultural calendar of one of the world’s most international cities. Among its new exhibitors, six have overseas addresses. Related programs likewise emphasize a worldly breadth of taste.
As The Winter Show executive director Helen Allen recently explained, “The Winter show is truly the only encyclopedic fair in America now. When we put together the roster, we make sure that we are looking at our audience. Even the contemporary material we’ve added is rooted in traditional artistic mediums. The show offers a broad range of material from antiquities through the present, but it is all work that is highly crafted.”
The Winter Show kicks off with a preview party benefitting East Side House Settlement on Thursday evening, January 23. The annual Design Luncheon, this year hosted by design co-chairs Christine and John Gachot, Elizabeth Graziolo and David Netto, is set for Friday, January 24. Young Collectors Night, this season honoring writer and activist Adam Eli and designer Adam Charlap Hyman, is scheduled for Thursday, January 30. Connoisseurs Night gets underway on Friday, January 31.
Americana, once the backbone of the show, now dominates only a handful of stand-alone exhibits, among them Levy Galleries, Hirschl & Adler and the multi-dealer “Focus: Americana” booth. Back by popular acclaim and again curated by Alexandra Kirtley of the Philadelphia Museum of Art — with an assist from exhibit designer Erick J. Espinoza, creative director of Anthony Barrata, Inc. — “Focus: Americana” arrays offerings from The Winter Show alumni David Schorsch & Eileen M. Smiles, Kelly Kinzle Antiques, Levy Galleries, Nathan Liverant and Son, Olde Hope, Jeffrey Tillou Antiques, Allan Katz Americana and Elle Shushan.
One of seven Winter Show exhibitors participating in the curated display “Focus: Americana,” Olde Hope is offering this Goddess of Liberty weathervane attributed to J.W. Fiske, New York, circa 1875. NYC & New Hope, Penn.
The “Focus” booth is a flexible concept, one which Allen hopes to use in different ways in coming years, in the future perhaps offering a collective presentation by young or emerging dealers who might otherwise struggle to participate, either because of the high cost of exhibiting at The Winter Show or the challenge of sourcing material for the rigorously vetted fair, which brings together roughly 70 internationally known dealers from the Americas and Europe.
Allen and team have designed programs to appeal to the show’s essential constituencies, among them auction buyers in town for the Americana sales, which kick off at Christie’s and Sotheby’s the week of January 20, and for the Old Masters and Antiquities sessions, which get underway the first week of February. Announced this far are, on January 24, “The Art of Welcoming the World: Diplomatic Rooms”; on January 25, “Art & The Great Expositions: The World Wide Web of Taste 1890-1910” and “Taste and Tastemakers: How Objects and Collectors Influence Taste Throughout History”; on January 26, “Ann & Gordon Getty: Patronage, Philanthropy and Legacy” and “From Generation to Generation: How HIV/AIDS Changed the Design Community”; on January 28, “Past as Prologue: Collecting Americana for Tomorrow”; and, on February 1, “Voyages of Creativity: The Influence of Travel on Design” and “The Piece I’d Never Part With: Treasures for New Tastemakers.”
“Abby” by Brett Bigbee, 2005-10, oil on linen, 70-1/32 by 53-7/8 inches. Alexandre Gallery, New York City.
At home and abroad, Allen prospected for new exhibitors, which in the 2025 Winter Show will include Alexandre Gallery, specialists in Twentieth Century American art; Modern and Contemporary specialists Galerie Gmurzynska of Zurich; Hixenbaugh, purveyor of antiquities from the ancient Mediterranean; Hollis Taggart, New York dealers in Modern American art; Kunsthandel Nikolaus Kolhammer, specialists in modern and contemporary Viennese furniture and art; São Roque, Lisbon dealers in Portuguese art and antiques; and the Dutch firm Zebregs & Röell, offering cross-cultural fine and decorative works from the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. Returning to the show after an absence are Blumka, experts in Medieval and Renaissance works of art; Didier Aaron, known for French fine and decorative arts of the Seventeenth through Nineteenth Centuries; and American arts authority Jonathan Boos. Arader Galleries, H. Blairman & Sons, Daniel Blau, Charles Clark, Spencer Marks and John Szoke Gallery are stepping away in 2025.
Allen notes, “The Winter Show has firmly established itself over the past 71 years as the event that launches New York’s art and social seasons in the new calendar year. Our many collaborations and partnerships reach a wide audience.” Recalling the show’s charitable origins, she adds, “We are deeply committed to raising awareness and funds for East Side House and supporting its vital work in empowering communities. The show is a celebration of our shared dedication to art, education and the transformative power they hold.”
The Park Avenue Armory is at 67th Street and Park Avenue in New York City. For information, go to www.thewintershow.org. To purchase tickets, call 718-292-7392 or email events@eastsidehouse.org.
