It all began with Laura Carpenter. In 1993, the Gramercy International Art Fair took place in the bedrooms and bathrooms of New York Ciity’s Gramercy Park Hotel. Suitcases served as storage space, sculptures were placed on bedside tables, and pictures were taped to the walls. The fair, organized by Matthew Marks Gallery, was an instant success, inspiring alternative hotel fairs that dealers would organize around the world, creating temporary art galleries out of transient bedrooms.
Santa Fe’s contemporary art fairs began when Laura Carpenter migrated to Santa Fe from Dallas in 1992 with the ambitious notion of propelling art-oriented Santa Fe into the forefront of the international contemporary art scene. In 1995, Carpenter organized a contemporary art fair at a local hotel—La Posada—in which most of Santa Fe’s contemporary galleries participated, along with several prominent Manhattan galleries. Local and globetrotting art tourists wandered from room to room—it was an exhilarating forum of art, ideas, dialogue, deal making, and fun. Sales were made, new connections established. Santa Fe’s first contemporary art fair was a hit.
Santa Fe’s second and third art fairs, in 1995 and 1997, were organized by Megan Fox and held at the Hotel Santa Fe. However, by 1998 the hotel-based art fair format was exhausted. “Like most novel ideas, it was fraught with a lot of impracticalities,” said Marks. Besides, the art market had revived and artists began making works that were bigger and no longer in keeping with the small size of hotel rooms.
Megan Fox left Santa Fe in 1998, and the torch was passed to Charlotte Jackson, who took on the organization of the fair as a labor of love: “I just couldn’t let the fair die.” In 2001, the fair moved to the Sweeney Center, and in 2003 Jackson added “Art Santa Fe Presents” to the event. The first keynote speaker was Robert Hughes, who talked to a rapt audience. In 2006, the Sweeney Center was torn down, making way for a new center to be completed in 2008.
THE magazine asked several of the participants, as well as local people involved in the arts, for their thoughts on art fairs in general, and specifically for their expectations of ART Santa Fe 2007. Their responses follow:
Art Santa Fe is a new and true treasure for Santa Fe. I credit—and salute—Charlotte Jackson and her associates for undertaking the formidable task of bringing a world-class contemporary art event to this city. In the past thirty years, our gallery has participated in more than forty regional and international art fairs. It has been my experience that the success or failure of any major art fair depends upon the quality of the exhibiting galleries, the enthusiasm and participation of the dealers, and the cooperation of municipal officials, local collectors, artists, and art-supporting businesses. The vision of the producers and their ability to realize that vision are essential parts of the equation. The organizers must be able to create interest, excitement, and attendance. And in a chic, sexy, and innovative way they must get the message to the masses. In my opinion, this group is doing all that. Be prepared to be astonished! Linda Durham, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
ART Santa Fe 2007 is the perfect art fair for Modernbook Gallery. Since Santa Fe has such a rich history with art, our expectation for this fair is high. ART Santa Fe will definitely be a showstopper and enjoyable for art lovers of all tastes. The organizers are very organized, well informed, and we are pleased with their professionalism. In general, art fairs for Modernbook Gallery are a great place to meet and see our collectors and colleagues; we are hoping to find new clients in Santa Fe and to further expose our great group of gallery artists to the public. Modernbook Gallery will be featuring Fan Ho, Brigitte Carnochan, Maggie Taylor, Jerry Uelsmann, Geir Jordahl, among others. Mark Pinsukanjana, Modernbook Gallery, Palo Alto, California
Anybody who’s had one too many days/drinks/dates/art openings/property tax bills around here can tell you that the Santa Fe city government is dim-witted on the significance of contemporary art. Remember when it charged over $10,000 a month to SITE Santa Fe for the privilege of regularly bringing in world-class art and introducing Santa Fe to a whole new demographic of cultural tourist? But, in the midst of trying to screw contemporary culture one more time, the city inadvertently performed a huge favor for our bi-annual art fair. When ART Santa Fe booked the Sweeney Convention Center in 2005, the city said “OK, you’ve got the main floor but we’re going to book the upper level to United Asshats of Ohio.” (Or something along those lines). Not wanting to have the UAO wandering around the art fair, ART Santa Fe gamely leased the upper floor and filled it with independent artists, emerging art spaces, and generally strange stuff. And thus The Project Space at ART Santa Fe was born. I expect ART Santa Fe 2007 to be a cool, mid-level fair with earnest, quality, intriguing galleries, but what will really set it apart from other fairs is the specific culture that has arisen from the project booths. It ain’t corporate, it ain’t grand, but it’s beautiful. It’s funky art. It’s art with a black eye. It’s double-jointed, circus-freak art. It’s art that will make ART Santa Fe 2007 not only a good art fair, but a damned fine time. Zane Fischer, writer and artist, Santa Fe
ART Santa Fe 2007 will be a great event for the New Mexico art scene. Although 516 ARTS is a nonprofit organization located in Albuquerque, this type of world-class art fair benefits venues like ours by bringing new audiences to our art space and exposing the artists we are showing to a national and international group of contemporary art lovers, collectors, and dealers. I hope visitors to Art Santa Fe will stop in Albuquerque to check out the high-caliber work coming out of the city’s burgeoning art scene. More and more, the arts communities in Santa Fe and Albuquerque are working together to grow our mutual audiences and showcase the diverse art of our region. Art fairs in general seem to be a critical economic engine in the art world. Although they are not as inclusive as some would like, I think that competition is healthy and that setting high standards benefits everyone. Suzanne Sbarge, Executive Director, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque
After searching online, I found the ART Santa Fe 2007 homepage. Previously, I knew nothing about ART Santa Fe and, in fact, had never heard of it. My impression of the fair from their website is that it is yet another contrived event calculated to drive the art market in Santa Fe—more stuff for rich folks. Enough is almost never enough. When I looked at a paragraph on the site, the words that jumped out at me were: “glamorous,” “collectors,” “purveyors,” “business,” and “sophisticated.” Frankly, I’m not interested. Since the late 1980s, I have been wondering about life paths in the arts that are not dominated by the marketing of material goods, that do not reinforce the culture of elite acquisitiveness, and that do not further magnify the distance between the cultural marketplace and artists and artisans themselves. I think about the amateur impulse, the drive to do something for the joy of it. The word amateur comes from the Latin “amare,” to love. Alex Traube, New Mexico CultureNet, Santa Fe
We are very excited about what has been happening with the art-fair scene, especially with the revival of Art Chicago and the excitement surrounding the Miami art fairs. There is an impressive and new energy that has been introduced among the participants as well as the visitors—a breath of fresh air and ideas. Landfall Press will be participating in ART Santa Fe 2007. We feel it is essential to support Santa Fe’s national and international reputation as a viable contender with other urban art scenes. Since we deal with contemporary artists, developments like the Railyard District—next to SITE Santa Fe—further the exposure of the expanding contemporary arena. Christina Ziegler Campbell, Landfall Press, Santa Fe
Art fairs, like gun shows, are wonderful and awful at the same time. For one thing, you can get anything you want without a background check. The best art fairs are in hotels and hotel rooms. Personally, I can’t go into a hotel room without thinking about sex—immediately and constantly, which is much better than thinking about art. It’s kind of interesting to look at paintings spread out on a bed in a hotel room, as it raises the odd question, posed only in hotel room art fairs, such as “Which do I like better, that sunset landscape over the bed, or the sunset landscape on the bed?” You make the call. Room service? Tom Collins is a journalist and recovering art critic, and lives in northern New Mexico.
For the past ten years we have been doing art fairs around the world—New York, Chicago, Brussels, and Palm Beach, to mention just a few. Art fairs have become our major means of meeting new clients. In fact, this year we will be among the first participants in David Lester’s unique Sea Fair venture, which will bring together twenty-five of the world’s most important galleries on a new 225-foot mega-yacht that will sail to the East Coast’s most famous communities, from Martha’s Vineyard to Miami. There will be a four-day fair at each port of call during the four-month voyage. As auction houses have attempted to poach traditional galleries’ clients, art fairs have become one of the most efficient ways to make contacts with new collectors around the world. While each fair has a different atmosphere, clientele, and focus, what they have in common is that people who come to fairs, such as ART Santa Fe 2007, will see that we offer material on par with any gallery in the world. After attending art fairs, many people visit our gallery later. Without a doubt, art fairs will continue to represent an important part of our business for years to come. Billy Siegal, William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe
