NJ Collector Beats an American Museum to an Eui-Jeong Yoo Ceramic, and Other Notable Transactions During the Last Hours at the NYAAJ

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NJ Collector Beats an American Museum to an Eui-Jeong Yoo Ceramic, and Other Notable Transactions During the Last Hours at the NYAAJ

NEW YORK, New York
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November 16, 2016

Sam Francis (1923-1994), Untitled, 1986, Courtesy of Masterworks Fine Art

The New York Art, Antiques, and Jewelry Show (NYAAJ) at Pier 94 wrapped up successfully on Sunday November 13, 2016. This year’s event marked many meaningful firsts for the fair.

The fair presented its first edition at its new NYC venue, Pier 94, relocating from the Park Avenue Armory which served as the fair’s venue till last year. This relocation allowed the fair to conceive a larger event in Manhattan with a broader selection of art and collectibles and helped the fair’s exhibitors expand their client base. “We have made several sizable sales here this year, all of which were to new, never-before-met clients. We are very happy about that. One might call the vibe at the fair ‘calm and collected’ and collected it was indeed. We really enjoyed being able to engage new clients. We are not keen on showing at overly crowded fairs where we have to weed out nine out of ten visitors just browsing,” opined a seasoned exhibitor.

Case in point: healthy business continued throughout the span of the fair, despite the many protests that erupted across New York City at the wake of the presidential election and impeded traffic city-wide. Notable sales include an important Maurice Utrillo sold in the six-figure range by Art Link International (Forth Worth, Florida); works by Delaunay and Joan Miro sold by Dinan & Chighine (London, UK); monumental Art Deco fawn vase and a rare American Art Nouveau Tiffany lamp sold by Ophir Gallery (Englewood, NJ); a massive Sam Francis unique monotype and Picasso’s Jacqueline, ca. 1958, both handled by Masterworks Fine Art (Oakland Hills, CA).

© Eui-Jeong Yoo, Courtesy of Koo Gallery

The inaugural CONTEMPORARY SPOTLIGHT section, another first at this edition of the fair, also saw healthy business. Conceived as a show-in-show, a designated area within the fair’s expanded footprint dedicated to galleries presenting post-war and contemporary art and design, the section attracted exhibitors hailing from ten different cities around the world. The section kicked off on a high note reporting multiple sales during the Opening Preview, and business continued till the last hours of the fair. Notable sales from the final day of the fair include paintings by Takashi Taruya of mischievous tsukumo-gami characters, sold by Paul Fisher Gallery (West Palm Beach, FL) and a ceramic sculpture by Eui-Jeong Yoo represented by KOO Gallery (Seoul, Korea). The sculpture was snapped up just half an hour before closing by a New Jersey-based collector new to the fair, while it was on hold by a notable American museum. Both galleries were first-time exhibitors in New York.

© Takashi Taruya, Courtesy of Paul Fisher Gallery

“We are thrilled to observe such positive dynamics this relocation has brought to the fair,” declares the fair's director Barbara Goodwin. “The importance of November in the New York art market calendar combined with the merit of Pier 94 as an established destination for serious buyers, we anticipate unprecedented growth in the years ahead.”

The fair returns to Pier 94 on November 8 through 12, 2017.

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