The 10 Best Booths at The Armory Show

Jenkins Johnson Gallery
With works by Chase Hall, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Lavar Munroe, Rashaad Newsome, Blessing Ngobeni, Enrico Riley, and Ming Smith

An image of trade, chance, and competition looms large at the outset of Jenkins Johnson’s booth. 

Enrico Riley ’s painting Untitled: Card Players, Riches of the Past, Present, and Future (2020, $40,000) features hands around a green felted card table: Some rest, some hold their cards, and some touch their coins. The viewer is watching a game, unsure of the players. “I love how [Riley’s] playing with his palette here,” said Niama Safia Sandy, director of curatorial affairs at the gallery. “This richness in the skin tones is really coming through with his color choices.” Lime green tints the end of some fingernails, while the thumbnail closest to the viewer is bathed in purple.

The rest of the booth features artwork made over the last 50 years by artists including photographer Ming Smith, young painting phenom Chase Hall, and AfriCOBRA co-founders Wadsworth and Jae Jarrell. Mrs. Jarrell’s sculptural suede skirt and top, from 1993, feature chartreuse tie-dye around the edges and hang from a pole with a head made from found objects. The female form, Bird of Paradise (1993, $175,000), becomes a totem overlooking the rest of the art.