The wild Spring/Break Art Show takes over an abandoned Midtown office building 

By Scott Lynch

It’s Armory Arts Week here in the big city, which means there are tons of gallery openings and enormous art fairs going on all over town, anchored by the mega-glitzy Armory Show at the Javits Center.

It’s an embarrassment of artistic riches, with something for most every viewing mood. But if you can only handle one arty mob scene this weekend, the best of them has to be the Spring/Break Art Show, located once again on two abandoned floors in a Midtown office building.

Room 1121: Thomas Martinez Pilnik (Scott Lynch)

Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly founded the wild, messy curator-driven show in 2009 —it was first held at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School in NoLIta, in the spring, hence the Spring/Break name — and this year’s iteration features 120 exhibition spaces with work from more than 400 different artists.

Each curator is assigned a space within the building, whether a windowed office or a hallway, the lobby or a conference room, a row of cubicles or a storage closet, and are given free rein to do whatever they want with it.

That freedom sparks a lot of creativity among the artists and curators in the way the work is presented, and many of the exhibition space become almost like fill-blown installations. The serendipity here is non-stop. You never know what’s around each corner.

“I love that it’s so experimental, that everyone goes all in. There’s always eccentric crazy stuff at Spring/Break,” said artist and Park Slope resident Lauren Cohen. For instance, her own crammed room, which she described as “an estate sale for an imaginary character that I created during the pandemic. His name is Brian. Brian is a man who is over the age of 50, still single, and hoping to find love. We don’t know if he is alive or dead.”

Room 1027: Lauren Cohen (Scott Lynch)

You’ll encounter many other Brooklyn-based artists and curators as you make your way through the offices. Z Behl of Kensington and Jesse Gengenbach of Bushwick have dozens of pieces from six different artists (including themselves) on display in what they call the Chapel of Traumaturgy. “I like the idea that this space had a former life [in this case, the headquarters of Ralph Lauren] and now it’s living its afterlife, as a portal to the other side, for purposes of divination,” said Gengenbach.

Room 1006: Z Behl and Jesse Gengenbach (Scott Lynch)

Artists Amanda Barker and Brandy Wednesday, who are also neighbors in Prospect Park South, set up a moody, slightly disconcerting room for their work, which explores how technology, and especially iPhones and social media angles and filters, have changed the way contemporary painters represent the world around them. “Spring/Break has a different vibe than the other fairs,” said Barker. “I feel like everything’s a little bit … weird.”

Room 1008: Brandy Wednesday and Amanda Barker (Scott Lynch)

Curator Caroline Weinstock of Bushwick is working with Yea Man Spa Global collective for a site-specific installation called Sex Stories Hotline Anonymous. “People call in to us anonymously,” Weinstock explained. “Their voice is put through an AI generator to disguise it, and you can come here, pick up one of these office phones, and listen to their ‘Fuck Story.’ We’ve got some hilarious ones.”

Room 1154: Caroline Weinstock’s Fuck Stories (Scott Lynch)

And Lydia Nobles of Flatbush has transformed a one-time executive corner office into an abortion center waiting room. “Spring/Break gives artists an opportunity to build an environment that makes a statement, or creates a feeling, so you’re able to walk in and experience certain art works as the artist intended, because it’s so immersive,” she said. “For my series I interviewed people about their abortions, and made a sculpture in honor of their story. So each piece functions not only as a portrait, but also as a monument to people’s experiences with abortion access in different states.”

Room 1109: Lydia Nobles, In the Waiting Room (Scott Lynch)

There’s so much more here too. You can easily spend several hours wandering around these offices, discovering (and buying, if you’re so inclined) new art, and chatting with artists and curators about their work. School may be back in session as of today, but it’s full-on Spring/Break in the city.

Art around every corner — and down every hall (Scott Lynch)

Spring/Break is located at 625 Madison Avenue, between East 59th and 58th Streets, and is open to the public from today through Monday, September 14, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets cost $40, and are available at the door or online.