The 400-member International Association of Art Critics United States has selected its favorite exhibitions for 2012, including Ann Hamilton's swinging installation at the Park Avenue Armory. Hamilton, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor, created the major multimedia installation for the Armory's soaring drill hall in New York City. The installation, the artist's first large-scale project in New York in over a decade, was on view in December and early January. In the event of a thread, Hamilton wove together an exploration of time-based performance, the act of public speaking, and the poetic accumulation of material for which she is well known.

Hamilton's show was honored as Best Project in a Public Space. Other top honors went to Mike Kelley's posthumous retrospective at the Watermill Center, the Société Anonyme show at Yale Art Gallery, and the Museum of Moder Art's Willem de Kooning retrospective.