Completely overwhelming is the best way to describe the New York art fairs last weekend. Biggest of all is the Armory Show, taking up two piers (92 and 94) on the New York waterfront. Enormous and packed with art, the Armory Show and various other smaller art fairs are a great way to see a lot of art in one space.

Wandering through these halls, you get a sense of which artists are hot this year, having big museum shows and/or have recently passed away (an awful but a sad fact of the corporate art world). We saw many paintings by Helen Frankenthaler (1928 - 2011) and John Wesley and sculptures by John Chamberlain (1927 - 2011), whose work is currently featured in a major show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, John Chamberlain Choices.

The Armory Show includes artwork from different media: painting, sculpture, video, installation. Each year The Armory Show includes a focus section with this year showcasing Scadinavian art. This area was very busy with a number of booths and artists from Scandinavia, showing a lot of installation art.

As design lovers, the seating areas in the art fairs are often almost as interesting as the art itself. These are sponsored by companies like Roche Bobois and are a great place to take in the scene and people watch.

Images: Rachael Grad