NEW YORK—In a recent article in Art+Auction magazine, I made reference to a syndrome I dubbed “Art Fair A.D.D.” That is, an inability to focus on any one thing at any given time, whether it’s the dealer with whom one is talking, the art advisor lingering in the booth across the aisle, one’s Blackberry or even artworks.

Yes, symptoms include the inability to remember any artwork in particular, as they all tend to blur past, swept up in the tide of conversations, the headache brought on from attempting to parse the fair’s color-coded map, and, well, a kind of bleary, general disorientation.

Luckily there are those whose job it is to remember what they like. These folks manage to emerge from the fog sufficiently to be really taken with certain works—and often even to buy them. Wandering distractedly through The Armory Show one day last week, I flagged down a handful of art worlders and asked them what works they found most impressive.

Curator Peter Eleey, who just left Creative Time to join the Walker Art Center, raved about Trisha Donnelly’s mixed media work (two inflated black balloons placed inside a vitrine and mounted above a door) in Casey Kaplan’s booth.

Collector Susan Hort singled out the installation of Paul McCarthy’s work at Hauser & Wirth, while Adam Lerner, executive director of The Laboratory of Art and Ideas in Belmar, Colorado, was taken with the display of works by the late Gordon Matta-Clark at David Zwirner.

“He’s such an important artist,” said Lerner. “It’s great to see him in the context of newer work.”

Collector and real estate developer Aby Rosen was reticent to name names, but said he found lots of exciting work by younger artists, particularly drawings, and gave props to the emerging New York galleries in the fair.

Christopher Eamon, curator of the Kramlich Collection, raved about Walead Beshty’s work at Wallspace, in particular an ambitious sculpture that incorporates 24-karat gold.

Madeleine Hoffman of the Judd Foundation liked the juxtaposition of Louise Nevelson, Tara Donovan and Tim Hawkinson at PaceWildenstein’s booth. She praised the photographs of exploding flowers by Ori Gersht at CRG, and called Palm Beach dealer Sarah Gavlak’s booth “very girly and wonderful and smart.”

Vancouver-based collector Laing Brown found a memorable and unusual 1971 work by Robert Mapplethorpe at Alison Jacques, a mirror cross-hatched with a grid that made it look, the collector opined, almost like a prison.

Independent curator Amy Smith Stewart recommended Adrian Paci’s video at Francesca Kaufman. And collector Ella Fontanals-Cisneros—who is on the board of the Miami Art Museum and is a founder of Miami Art Central—liked Sabine Hornig’s and Rivane Neuenschwander’s photographs at Tanya Bonakdar, Vanessa Beecroft’s photographs at Lia Rumma and a mixed-media work by Tom Sachs at Thaddeus Ropac.