The Print Fair opens November 3 at the Park Avenue Armory. Organized by the International Fine Print Dealers association, the IFPDA, this is the fair’s 21st annual incarnation in New York. Ninety galleries or independent dealers from around the world offer high-end impressions from across historic and stylistic spectrums, with old master prints of Rembrandt or Dürer rubbing shoulders – or embossments at least – with Ukiyoe prints from Edo, Hoppers and Beckmanns, and contemporary artists such as Kiki Smith, Jasper Johns and John Baldessari. (The fair runs from noon to 8pm through Saturday, and noon to 6pm through Sunday. The Armory is at Park Avenue between 66 and 67th Streets.)
Contemporary printmaking and multiples have a fair of their own, however, with the Editions and Artists Books Fair down in Chelsea. Running the same dates, E/AB 2011 is staged at the old Dia Center on 22nd Street. This fair was founded in 1998 and is free in a bid to forge new audiences for contemporary multiples. They recoup their generosity, however, in the limited edition catalogue, sporting a cover by Fred Tomaselli, offered at $200. (548 West 22nd Street, between 10th & 11th avenues, 11 to 7pm through Saturday, and 11 to 4pm on Sunday.)
And as with art fairs around the world, New York’s November fairs see a veritable print week with a slew of satellite fairs and with galleries focusing events and programming upon the frenzy for multiples. Art International Fairs, for instance, present their second annual Fine Print & Drawing Fair, opening Thursday night, at the Lighthouse International Conference Center. Describing itself as a “boutique event,” the fair has a dozen or so exhibitors, mostly from around the United States. (111 East 59th Street, between Lexington and Park avenues, Friday and Saturday, 10-7pm, Sunday 10-5pm.)
The International Print Center, New York, opens their fortieth presentation of their New Prints Program Thursday night, running through January 7, 2012. This juried exhibition includes new works by several dozen artists including Polly Apfelbaum, Alex Katz, William Kentridge, Whitfield Lovell, Ed Ruscha and Jessica Stockholder. (508 West 26th Street, Room 5A, betweeen 10th and 11th avenues, regular gallery hours.)
And in Bushwick, recession-friendly for the budget-conscious collectors, The Cannonball Press presents Prints Gone Wild, in which everything is under $50 . (389 Melrose Street, between Flushing and Knickerbocker avenues, Friday, 6pm to midnight, and Saturday, noon to 6pm.)
