The Armory Show is taking an ambitious step to highlight a vast and artistically rich region with Focus: African Perspectives – Spotlighting Artistic Practices of Global Contemporaries. Moving beyond conventional ideas of the African continent and its “counterpart,” “the Western hemisphere,” this year’s Focus will provide a glimpse of international artistic production from contemporary African viewpoints: emerging curators, artists, galleries and art spaces that connect scenes and markets through global networks. From Lagos to London to Luanda – and presented together for the first time in one location – this year’s Focus will examine the artistic developments and manifold narratives arising from African and African Diasporic artists, emphasizing geographic fluidity and global connections.

The 2016 Armory Focus will be curated by Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, founders of Contemporary And (C&), an online platform for international art from African perspectives. “We are very honored that a prestigious institution such as The Armory Show has commissioned us as the curators for Focus 2016,” says Grosse. “We feel that by approaching us in particular, The Armory Show shows a deep sensitivity and understanding toward the complexities of contemporary artistic productions from Africa and the Diaspora.” “We are excited and proud to be given the possibility of providing a further platform for positions of global contemporaries from African perspectives,” adds Mutumba.

The Armory Show announced today the participating galleries for the 2016 edition, taking place March 3-6, 2016 in New York City. Established in 1994 and held annually on Piers 92 & 94, The Armory Show is New York’s premier international art fair. In its 22nd year, The Armory Show will host 205 galleries from 36 countries worldwide – the fair’s largest international representation to date.

While the presence of American and European galleries remains extremely strong, exhibitors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America represent a growing proportion of the fair’s international exhibitors. The galleries represented at The Armory Show 2016 have locations in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Pier 94 – Contemporary will feature 113 premier galleries. Joining the strong list of returning galleries is an international roster of new exhibitors for 2016 including: Laura Bartlett Gallery (London), Galerie Guido W. Baudach (Berlin), Galerie Bugada & Cargnel (Paris), Contemporary Fine Arts (Berlin), Galeria Fortes Vilaça (Sao Paulo), Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town), Bruce Haines (London), Rhona Hoffman Gallery (Chicago), INK Studio (Beijing), Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels), Paul Kasmin Gallery (New York), Magazzino (Rome), OMR (Mexico City), Ota Fine Arts (Tokyo), Galerie Francesca Pia (Zurich), Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco), STEVENSON (Cape Town, Johannesburg), Galeria Luisa Strina (Sao Paulo), Timothy Taylor (London), Vilma Gold (London), Vistamare (Pescara) and WENTRUP (Berlin).

Galleries exhibiting for the first time include: Hezi Cohen Gallery (Tel Aviv), Vera Cortês Art Agency (Lisbon), Habana (Havana), Kadel Willborn (Dusseldorf), Meessen De Clercq (Brussels), Francesca Minini (Milan), Galleria Massimo Minini (Brescia), Gallery MOMO (Johannesburg, Cape Town), MOT International (London) and SIM Galeria (Curitiba).

Highlights from Pier 94 – Contemporary include a number of stand-out solo presentations: at Galerie Guido W. Baudach (Berlin) visitors will experience mixed-media works by post-internet artist Yves Scherer. At Gallery Espace (New Delhi), three decades of print works by Indian-born Zarina Hashmi. Hales Gallery (London) will present recent works by the renowned Guyana-born British painter, Frank Bowling. Galerie Nordenhake (Berlin, Stockholm) will show an extraordinary selection of John Coplans’s austere photographic self-portraits. And Praz-Delavallade (Paris) will exhibit Matthew Brandt, the American-born photographer whose work continually pushes the bounds of his medium; and Two Palms (New York) will present a new series of large-scale monotype by Cecily Brown.