The inaugural edition of the Atlanta Art Fair took place from October 3-6, coinciding with the city’s third annual Art Week. When I arrived at the event on a Friday afternoon–only the beginning of the second day–gallerists told me the fair had already exceeded their expectations.
The fair hosted over sixty galleries, about 25 percent of which were within the Atlanta area. Others came from all across the country, from art capitals like New York and smaller cities like Albquerque and Birmingham. Luis De Jesus, a Los Angeles-based gallery, displayed three female artists–all based in three different states.
As a reflection of the international reach of the fair–and the attraction for the city of Atlanta–many gallerists came from across the ocean. One of the first booths I came across was Makasini Contemporary, based in Turku, Finland. About halfway through, my meandering stalled at Stoney Road, a fine arts publisher based in Dublin, Ireland. I was in awe of the prints on display of Irish artist Brian Harte’s work, which evokes the likes of Matisse in its eclectic and colorful depictions of interior space.
David O’Donaghue, the booth manager and founder of Stoney Road, told me he knew little about the Atlanta art scene before arriving at the fair. “The people are very friendly, he told me, “more laid back than New York.” But the pleasure of the fair was not all about Southern hospitality and sunny weather–though I did tell O’Donaghue how lucky he was to have nearly missed the hurricane. “It’s a very colorful fair,” said O’Donaghue, “The quality is superb.”
Atlanta’s first major commercial art fair was organized by AMP, a creative events firm that has been producing art fairs since 2011: other events include New York City’s Art on Paper, as well as the San Francisco and Seattle Art Fairs. Stoney Road is a frequent participant in Art on Paper–that connection led them to Atlanta.
The fair is not organized by locals–which may be a point of contention for some ATLiens.
“Don’t expect anything authentic or unique to [come to] Atlanta out of this event,” one user commented on an Atlanta Art Fair Instagram post advertising ticket sales. “It’s really just a money grab.”
However, local, up-and-coming Atlanta galleries see it differently. At the booth of Wolfgang Gallery, based in West Midtown, co-owners Anna S.K. Masten and Benjamin Deaton told me they are sympathetic to local reservations. “A lot of the pessimism comes from a good place,” Deaton said “People have been vultures, and come in from out of town. They want to capitalize on Atlanta. Yet, as Masten said, “It was really exciting to know that people are paying attention and are interested.”
“It’s years-long listening on my end,” Kelly Freeman, Director of AMP, told Forbes.com about the fair. “The creativity, the economic viability of the city, and this undercurrent of hustle and collaborative, cooperative work from the art space, it’s unparalleled right now.” The presence of outsiders in the Atlanta art scene, according to Freeman, are the product of its growth, quality and increasing attraction of national attention.
While I already believed Atlanta’s art scene was capable of holding their own against art giants like New York and Los Angeles, actually seeing it–local Atlanta galleries showing next to flown-in New Yorkers–was more than satisfying.
As I left Pullman Yards, I thought about something Masten told me. “This was the final push Atlanta needed to establish itself as an art city,” she said. Atlanta already was an art city; but the Atlanta Art Fair was proof for the out-of-towners.
-Abby Charak
