Dallas Art Fair Preview Photos

The Dallas Art Fair boasts growing numbers over the past three years, and in its fourth year seems to have elevated to a new level of maturity with over 70 galleries in attendance. Housed in the Fashion Industry Gallery (F.I.G.) near the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art and Crow Collection—with new Rem Koolhaas, the Winspear, and Santiago Calatrava in close proximity—Dallas certainly has the architecture to support such a fine event.

And, that it is, fine. F.I.G, with 70,000 square feet of space, provides the perfect backdrop for such an event and the founders, Chris Byrne and John Sughrue, created an unusually intimate fair. Each DAF exhibition space felt private, more like a gallery setting. There was nothing hurried or cubical-like about it. For these reasons, I was impressed. Viewing art at the Dallas Art Fair was enjoyable—an experience I don’t often have at fairs.

It seems Dallas too is poised to develop as an international art market, and longtime DAF exhibitors are not worried that Houston has a foothold in the market with two new art fairs as of last year. The census is that Texas can support 3 fairs! For some gallery owners it was a first to visit Dallas, or attend the fair; for others, like Holly Johnson (Dallas) and Turner Carroll Gallery (Santa Fe), it has been rewarding to participate in DAF’s growth.

Preview photos from the Dallas Art Fair, 2012, are below (photographs by Rowan Ogden.) Join the fair, opening today-Sunday; more details here. For a list of participating galleries, visit: http://dallasartfair.com/exhibitors.