Finger On It — Anna Jackson

PULSE New York, the sis­ter spin off of PULSE Miami, occu­pies a niche mar­ket that hov­ers some­where between the estab­lished and the alter­na­tive and rep­re­sents the slick­est of con­tem­po­rary art from across the globe. After its knock­out debut in 2006, PULSE New York is back this Feb­ru­ary and set to head up this year’s art parade.

PULSE is a bi-annual fair that shows annu­ally in Miami and New York. Designed to engage a diverse audi­ence through the pre­sen­ta­tion of new trends and exhi­bi­tion con­cepts, it also aims to estab­lish local and global rela­tion­ships while reflect­ing the cul­tural rich­ness of its host city. The pre­miere edi­tion hosted 61 gal­leries from 12 coun­tries, each show­ing work in a vari­ety of medi­ums from a range of estab­lished and younger artists. The show drew 8,000 vis­i­tors and this year’s show is expected to attract more. Fol­low­ing the suc­cess of the pre­miere, PULSE New York will pur­sue the same four-day for­mat and will return to the 69th Regent Armory on 26th Street and Lex­ing­ton Avenue. The show will run con­cur­rently with the acclaimed Armory Show and com­pli­men­tary shut­tle buses will be fer­ry­ing vis­i­tors between the two events. As the fren­zied search for new tal­ent inten­si­fies, PULSE New York 2006 was evi­dence that the trend of buy­ing in the mid­dle mar­ket is as strong as ever. Last year’s sales exceeded expec­ta­tion, with a num­ber of gal­leries sell­ing out. PULSE is not only more afford­able than more estab­lished fairs, but its mix of well-known and to-be-discovered artists, com­bined with a unique char­ac­ter and charisma, makes for an excit­ing pur­chase. Some gal­leries reported that their sales at PULSE New York exceeded sales at pre­vi­ous, larger art fairs. Often, col­lec­tors pre­fer the charm of buy­ing from an art fair to a more for­mal gallery envi­ron­ment and oth­ers, swept up in the buzz of it all, make their first ever pur­chases at such fairs.

With such pop­u­lar­ity, it’s no sur­prise that exhi­bi­tion spaces are hard to come by. Elim­i­nat­ing that flea mar­ket feel­ing, all exhibits must be curated or solo shows. Invited exhibitors fill the major­ity of spaces and 13 are avail­able through IMPULSE; an ini­tia­tive designed to sup­port up-and-coming gal­leries. Appli­ca­tions for the IMPULSE sec­tion are reviewed by a rotat­ing inter­na­tional com­mit­tee that includes big names such as Andrew Mum­mery (Lon­don), Ken Tyburski (New York) and Gwenolee Zurcher (Paris). PULSE’s suc­cess is, in large, due to the qual­ity con­trol in its selec­tion process—there is never a short­age of things to show, but rather the ques­tion of what’s worth seeing.