Art & Object Fall Fair 2024

FEATURE STORY

How to Shop the Art Fairs

A collector’s guide to navigating the event, finding what you want, and sealing the deal.

BY ALAN BAMBERGER

For anyone experiencing an art fair for the first time, they’re like wondrous, unbe lievable fantasy-lands come true, expansive exhibition spaces filled with booth after booth, gallery after gallery, and a seemingly endless abundance of creative expressivity.

What could be better than to be immersed in beauty, able to see tons of quality works by accomplished artists and reputable galleries all in one place? If you were physically traveling from gallery to gallery in any significant art

center or geographic area, seeing that amount of art could take days or even weeks. And that’s just for starters. Not only are art fairs great for seeing loads of art in short periods of time, but especially with more established high

er-profile fairs, much of it is courtesy of top national and international galleries. But even with regional fairs, you tend to see the best of what exhibitors have to offer. And to have them come to you rather than you go to them is a special

COURTESY OF INDEPENDENT 20TH CENTURY / PHOTO: ALEXA HOYER

38

Art&Object | Fall 2024