Anatomy of a Satellite Fair

Jonathan Neil has a very good article in the Art Newspaper on the popularity of satellite art fairs.  Those secondary fairs and shows that populate areas around a major show.  They are helpful because the main show then becomes much more of an art destination site because of the activity at so many levels. There are many satellite fairs around Art Basel Miami, the Frieze. The upcoming NY Armory show has several established and new satellite shows with Scope, Pulse, Volta, Pool, Fountain and Red Dot and new shows the Independent, Verge and Critical Design. The Armory show has also grown in size this year going from 239 dealers (perhaps the numbers are low since 2009 was such as poor performing year) to 289 dealers.

Neil makes a very good pointing, stating in his opening, Fairs work just like real estate, and when commercial rents go south, opportunities pop up. 

Where, one feels compelled to ask, do they all come from? And why, in this economy, don’t they go away?

The answers are quite simple. First, by way of clarifying what we mean by a “satellite” art fair, let’s establish what we already know: the Art Show is in no way a satellite. On the contrary, it is a centre of gravity on its own and has been for more than 20 years. Its move to coincide with the dates of the Armory Show are less a challenge to the latter’s status as New York’s “main fair” than a gesture of acknowledgement that a two-sun solar system can be beneficial to all involved—galleries, collectors and the public at large. Satellite fairs, in contrast, require heat, in the form of audience and buzz, which they cannot generate on their own.

Yet the presence of those two shows together points up just how they differ: the ADAA is a self-governing trade organisation that uses its professional network and reputation to maintain certain collectively held high standards of “curatorial excellence”, whatever that may mean; notably, the proceeds from the gala preview and admission to the show go to benefit the Henry Street Settlement, a not-for-profit social services organisation. In contrast, the Armory Show, owned by Merchandise Mart Properties, is, in essence, a real estate deal. A large property is secured, space is parcelled out, applications are considered by a selection committee (anyone who has bought property in New York City is achingly familiar with how capricious a process like this can be), leases are signed and payments made. By the time the doors open, the fair organisers-cum-event promoters are in the black (hopefully); ticket and concession sales are gravy (and with $5 espressos, it’s rich gravy indeed). In the end, the risk is the galleries own.

Most satellite fairs hew to one or other of these models, or they land somewhere in between. An enterprising promoter with access to a big enough piece of property on the right dates and with the right rolodex can put up a fair in no time at all (i.e. Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook’s “Independent” fair in Dia’s former digs in Chelsea). It doesn’t much matter how one spins the curatorial conceit—“solo shows”, “artist-run”, medium-specific—the mechanics in most cases are pretty much the same.

To read the full Art Newspaper article, click HERE.