BFA Visual and Critical Studies Department faculty member Liz Magic Laser is helping The Armory Show celebrate its 100th birthday by serving as its 2013 commissioned artist. Laser’s commissioned project—aptly described in promotional materials as “the complex web of opportunities and compromises that define the relationship between market forces and artistic production”—includes works and experiences that openly critique the business of art and the fair’s corporate structure (see video below).

Laser’s work across performance, theater, and installation promises to provide plenty of provocation. Official merchandise like t-shirts printed with the average household income of fair goers and pithy discussions about the psychology of consumerism continue her satirical exploration of the actions and rhetoric of U.S. political institutions, as well as the formulation of collective belief and desire.

Laser has achieved international acclaim through exhibitions at venues such as the Mälmo Konsthall, the Performa 11 Biennial, and MoMA PS1. She is the recipient of awards and grants from organizations including the New York Foundation for the Arts and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Noah Horowitz, executive director of The Armory Show, noted that working with Laser to commemorate the fair’s centennial is fitting. Her “ambitious oeuvre raises prescient questions of the artists’ voice in the collaborative process and public life,” he stated in the press release announcing her commission. “With gestures veering from comedic to politically provocative, she will activate the fair’s heritage as a site of innovation and discovery.”

The Armory Show is taking place at Piers 92 and 94 (711 12th Avenue) in New York City from March 7 – 10. For more information, visit thearmoryshow.com.