The Art Show at the 7th Regiment Armory. The Armory Show at Pier 94. Pulse New York at the 69th Regiment Armory. Scope New York at the Damrosch Pavilion. DiVA at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Battery Park. Red Dot New York at the Park South Hotel. LA Art at the Metropolitan Pavilion. This weekend seven art fairs will assemble close to 450 art dealers from more than 50 countries in venues all around town.

Photograph left: The Armory Show, 2006.

Fair organizers have adopted the Art Basel Miami ethos that too much of a good thing can only be better. For the first time, the Art Show, as the Art Dealers Association of America's fair is known, changed it's original schedule in order to be on concurrently, from February 22 - 26.

Each fair has its own style and its own niche, but not without some overlap. The Art Show, which dates from 1962 and was instrumental in shifting the post-war focus of international art from Paris to New York, presents blue-chip art of all periods. The Armory Show, named for the 1913 Armory Show that introduced modern art to America, is truly international and contemporary. It was first presented in February 1999 at the 69^th Regiment Armory, the site of the legendary 1913 show. Scope New York, now in its sixth year, presents contemporary emerging artists from around the world. Pulse New York, in its second installment, is an invitational show that brings together art dealers with a highly curatorial bent. DiVA, the first to present film and video, premiered as a one-night event in 2003. This year it will land in six cities, from Taipei to Brussels. New to New York, Red Dot will transform hotel suites into home-like settings to tantalize collectors of work by new and emerging artists.

Photograph left: Portrait of Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy the studio of Yayoi Kusama and Robert Miller Gallery.

Each show has special events for collectors, with presentations and panel discussions on a broad variety of subjects. While the Art Show is the only fair that donates all of its proceeds to charity (the Henry Street Settlement House), other fairs have a variety of VIP events that benefit good causes.

In addition to the huge array of art fair fare, a number of special events have been scheduled to satisfy the appetites of local and visiting art hounds. Creative Time presents the world premier of Eve Sussman's video opera, The Rape of the Sabine Women, to be screened free of charge through February 27^th at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village. Sound Art Limo, presented by AC Institute, will offer 25-minute rides through the city accompanied by current and historical sound pieces, departing from Pier 94 between 3 and 7 pm, February 23-25. Scope, in partnership with Beautiful Decay and Good Peoples, is hosting Culture on the Verge, a late night mix of music and style on the Lower East Side.

Illustration below: Limited edition print, Untitled (Hydra as Gomorrah), video still from The Rape of the Sabine Women © Eve Sussman, 2006, courtesy of Creative Time.