Lifestyle Mirror

Get your art game on. The Armory Show is celebrating its 100th on Piers 92 and 94 in Midtown Manhattan starting this Thursday and will be up through Sunday, March 10. And the whole thing is going to be one huge art extravaganza. Visitors will be experiencing over 2,400 modern and contemporary works of art from leading international galleries including Gagosian and Lisson. Needless to say, it’s a lot of art in one—well, two—places for five days.

But for those who can’t make it to New York (or won’t wait ’til Thursday), Artsy—“the Pandora of the art world”—is hosting the exhibition online for the entire world to see.

With a database of more than 21,000 images and partnerships with over 400 leading galleries and 75 museums, foundations, and artist estates, Artsy has one of the largest collections of contemporary art online, making it easy for users to browse, purchase, and discover. The website is also making history yet again during its nascent existence—it launched publicly in October 2012—with its partnership with The Armory Show, making more than 2,500 of the fair’s artworks from 90 percent of exhibitors available online for the first time in the exhibition’s history, well before the brick-and-mortar show even begins.

“I remember attending my first art fair, and the stimulation and excitement of that experience,” says Artsy founder and CEO Carter Cleveland. “But I also remember the overwhelming realization that I had only hours to browse hundreds of booths and thousands of artworks.” Having part of the Armory Show online means exclusive access to one very hectic art show from the comfort of your own home—without the $30 fee it costs to attend.

What’s more, Artsy’s guest curators and impressive collection of boldface names—including Eric Shiner, Dasha Zhukova, Howard Rachofsky, Peter Brant, and John Elderfield—share their selections from the exhibition’s works, giving you one heck of a guided tour by art world experts.

And though witnessing the Armory online can’t quite replace seeing the world’s most impressive art in the flesh, this virtual experience does manage to leave the jostling, neck craning, and travel out of it. And that’s all fine by us. —Sasha Levine (@sashalevine)