AFC’s World Wide Art Fair Rankings

by Art Fag City on October 22, 2009 · 22 comments Events

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
art, art fag city, paddy johnson, art fairs, basel, frieze, the armory show
Image AFC

What are best contemporary and modern art fairs in the world? Dealers, artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts ask me this question all the time. People want to know where their time is best spent. AFC’s definitive art fair rankings answer these questions! Editors note: This list reflects only 25 to 30 the fairs we’ve seen this year.


Art Basel entrance. Photo AFC

1. Art Basel, Basel Switzerland

Art Basel Switzerland easily tops our fair list this year, the mammoth fair offering quality, variety, and vast auxiliary programming. It’s not perfect of course — you need to take out a second mortgage if you want to eat at their cafeteria and the acoustics in the “conversations” room ensure attendees hear far more ambient fair noise than speakers — but the good outweighs the expensive and the inaudible. Basel’s Unlimited, a section dedicated to over-sized work is, as far as we know the only one of its kind, and new programming such as Statements, the emerging art wing offered up a view into some of best new artists working today.


The Miami Convention Center Default Google Map Thumbnail. Originally from Joel Holmberg at nasty nets.


Art Basel Miami. Photo AFC

2. Art Basel, Miami, Florida

Featuring the largest and strongest selection of work at the Miami fairs, Art Basel, easily nabs our number two position. The directionally challenged will surely enjoy the straight navigational lines of the Miami convention center’s “borg cube,” that makes it easy to find any gallery emerging, contemporary, or secondary market. Critics describe this organizational choice as mall-like but frankly, I like a fair that doesn’t pretend to be something other than what it is. Within reason anyway. Downsides to Basel Miami largely pertain to the convention center’s corporate ickiness: No free WiFi, Jaguar cars and salesmen permanently stationed out front of the fair, and an Entenmann’s  stronghold on all dining options.

  • 2008 Basel post here.
  • Why art handlers aren’t getting much action here.


Frieze fair entrance. Photo AFC


The Amory Fair interior. Photo AFC

3 &4 TIE: Frieze, London, UK and The Armory, (International and Modern) New York, NY

The pluses and minuses of these two fairs are such that were eventually forced to declare a tie.  The breakdown below:

Location: Frieze fair wins. Unlike the Armory, Regent’s Park is easy to get to. Frieze has a stunning entrance, the booths seem more open, and their fair lighting is the best of all the art fairs we’ve attended. With that said, believing that the tent makes the fair less mall-like lets marketing tell you what you’re seeing instead of figuring it out for yourself.

Special Sections: Toss up. The Armory International introduced a specialized field for modern art this year, where as Frieze launched Frame, an emerging section. Given our focus on contemporary art, we obviously prefer the latter, though this is a matter of interest more than anything else.  Notably this kind fair diversification finds its retail  equivalent at The Gap Inc.  The brands falling under their hood (the higher end products of Banana Republic and the inexpensive Old Navy clothing as an example) match to The Armory’s Modern Art pier and Volta respectively (Merchandise Mart owns The Armory Show International, The Armory Show Modern, and Volta – emerging).

Quality of the art: This is a bit of a lottery for the fairs — they can’t control what dealers will bring — but The Armory wins this year’s prize.  Frieze galleries simply brought too much familiar work to the show.  Boring!


NADA entrance. Photo AFC

5. NADA, Miami, Florida

Serious emerging artists need to make it a point to attend Art Basel Switzerland and  NADA Miami, if it’s at all within their financial means.  While Basel provides the largest amount of good work in a single space, NADA hosts the best new galleries of any event we’ve attended. Even with the new spaces the larger fairs have dedicated to emerging art, NADA still knocks that competition out of the park.

6.  VOLTA, New York, NY

While Volta’s Executive Director Amanda Coulson will tell you their clean toilets make up for exhibition booths that resemble office cubicles, we’re not quite so convinced. That said, after only two years in operation the fair has established an outstanding reputation for strong emerging programming. It is New York’s best fair venue for emerging contemporary art and hanging pine cone trees.


Liste Fair entrance. Photo AFC

7. Liste, Basel Switzerland

Want to visit a fair location more poorly suited to exhibiting art than Volta’s office cubicle spaces? What about attending a fair that showcases more bad art than good?  Liste’s emerging art fair is for you! Foxy Production, Peres Projects, Doggerfisher, and David Kordansky Gallery were big highlights in that fair. The steep stairs and bicycle candelabra were something else.


VOLTA entrance. Photo AFC

8. VOLTA 5, Basel Switzerland

There’s been some dispute at AFC about whether Liste or VOLTA was a stronger fair, but ultimately Liste came out on top despite its poor location.  It’s hard to take any fair hosting the red enamel Buddha schlongs of Debanjan Roy seriously, even if it also showcases Katharina Grosse and Terry Haggerty.


Pulse Miami exterior. Photo AFC

9. Pulse, Miami Florida

Pulse Miami has size and cheesiness going for it, if that’s what you look for in your art.  I probably visited this fair five times over the course of a week in Miami, and the more I looked at it, the more cliche the art seemed to me. This slowly evolving opinion likely has to do with the layout of the fair, which is usually so well executed that the art looks better than it actually is, at first.


Zoo Entrance, Photo AFC

10. Zoo Art Fair, London, UK

We’re not great fans of the Zoo Fair here. They aren’t particularly friendly to press, and their fair isn’t anything to write home about. As a general rule of thumb, fairs opting to make money in the short term off substandard galleries lose much more in the long term through lost credentials. In short, you guys need better exhibitors. The editions portion of the fair was passable.


Kristian Kozul, Mechanical Bull, 2008, TZR Galeri. Image via: C-Monster

11. Pulse, New York, NY

What happened to Pulse this year? It was so awful we were forced to create the Sci-Fi Art Awards, specifically for this fair! Not good.


Aqua Parking lot. I forgot to take a picture of their exterior last year (sorry guys).

12. Aqua, Wynnwood, Miami, Florida

This fair made me dislike Russell Crotty’s intensely factory like production. He was exhibited everywhere in Miami, the largest display of his work showing up here. How many hanging penciled globes do collectors need?

Anyway, galleries that didn’t get into Pulse Miami last year typically exhibited at Aqua.  It was a third rate show.


Scope entrance. Photo AFC

13. Scope, Miami, Florida

Founded in 2002, Alexis Hubshman laid a lot of the early groundwork upon which New York fairs would grow. But they haven’t been able to maintain their edge; The fair forced to exhibit a growing number of sub par galleries over the years.  Scope Miami wasn’t the worst performance I’ve seen by them — their presence at Basel was too poor to even report upon — but they did host the bronze sculpture of a decapitated man eating his own asshole. To date, that is the worst art work I have ever seen.


Art Positions installation view. Photo: AFC

14. Art Positions, Basel, Miami, Florida

As I wrote for artreview, Basel’s Art Positions leave viewers with almost nothing to discuss of consequence. Also, there’s just far too much amorphous plastic architecture in this space. A fair to skip.


Image in the center: Feng Zhengjie, China 2005 – No. 26, silkscreen edition of 200, at Exhibition A. Photo AFC

15. Bridge Art, Miami, Florida

Bridge demonstrates the perils of an uncurated fair by exhibiting some of the worst art I’ve ever seen. I doubt Bridge will return to Miami this December.

*This list does not include specialized fairs such as those focusing exclusively on photo, prints or books.

{ 22 comments }

Barbara Ann Levy October 22, 2009 at 2:53 pm

I would agree with the position of this fair.

Barbara Ann Levy October 22, 2009 at 10:53 am

I would agree with the position of this fair.

Marc October 22, 2009 at 4:20 pm

6 fairs in Miami and 4 in Basel? This can mean only one of two things (a) the art world is even more concentrated and incestuous than I had thought (which is hard to believe) (b) this list is maybe not so definitive. I’m not really in a position to propose my own alternative definitive list, but with the Bridge Art Fair at number 15 being described as “an uncurated fair… exhibiting some of the worst art I’ve ever seen” why didn’t FIAC, Hong Kong International Art Fair, ShContemporary in Shanghai, or Art Dubai make it on the list?

Marc October 22, 2009 at 12:20 pm

6 fairs in Miami and 4 in Basel? This can mean only one of two things (a) the art world is even more concentrated and incestuous than I had thought (which is hard to believe) (b) this list is maybe not so definitive. I’m not really in a position to propose my own alternative definitive list, but with the Bridge Art Fair at number 15 being described as “an uncurated fair… exhibiting some of the worst art I’ve ever seen” why didn’t FIAC, Hong Kong International Art Fair, ShContemporary in Shanghai, or Art Dubai make it on the list?

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 4:29 pm

Sure you have a point — I’ve been to fairs in London, New York, Miami, and Basel — that’s not all of them. I’ve seen roughly 25-30 fairs this year though. While there may be omissions, this isn’t a bad list.

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 12:29 pm

Sure you have a point — I’ve been to fairs in London, New York, Miami, and Basel — that’s not all of them. I’ve seen roughly 25-30 fairs this year though. While there may be omissions, this isn’t a bad list.

ArtBitch October 22, 2009 at 6:42 pm

What really shocks me is that collectors/dealers etc. ask you about this…

ArtBitch October 22, 2009 at 2:42 pm

What really shocks me is that collectors/dealers etc. ask you about this…

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 6:45 pm

I don’t understand what’s so shocking about that.

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 2:45 pm

I don’t understand what’s so shocking about that.

Marc October 22, 2009 at 10:54 pm

So shouldn’t the list start by saying “What are the best contemporary and modern art fairs I have been to so far this year in London, New York, Miami and Basel?” Ok, I guess that’s maybe not such a catchy opener.

Marc October 22, 2009 at 6:54 pm

So shouldn’t the list start by saying “What are the best contemporary and modern art fairs I have been to so far this year in London, New York, Miami and Basel?” Ok, I guess that’s maybe not such a catchy opener.

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 11:12 pm

“Bishin Jumonji has updated his website with work from his series Faces and some of his terrific headless portraits from the early 1970s which featured in MoMA’s seminal New Japanese Photography show.”

So, shouldn’t this lead start like this:

“Bishin Jumonji updated his website with work from his photographic series Faces and some of his terrific headless portraits from the early 1970s. They were featured in MoMA’s seminal New Japanese Photography show”

Your point was already granted. Snidely telling this blog’s author how to write is inappropriate.

Art Fag City October 22, 2009 at 7:12 pm

“Bishin Jumonji has updated his website with work from his series Faces and some of his terrific headless portraits from the early 1970s which featured in MoMA’s seminal New Japanese Photography show.”

So, shouldn’t this lead start like this:

“Bishin Jumonji updated his website with work from his photographic series Faces and some of his terrific headless portraits from the early 1970s. They were featured in MoMA’s seminal New Japanese Photography show”

Your point was already granted. Snidely telling this blog’s author how to write is inappropriate.

Kristian Nammack October 23, 2009 at 3:11 am

What about Berlin, Madrid, Mexico City? Art fairs are fun to discover the artists and dealers in other cities –

Kristian Nammack October 22, 2009 at 11:11 pm

What about Berlin, Madrid, Mexico City? Art fairs are fun to discover the artists and dealers in other cities –

Marc October 23, 2009 at 8:31 am

My intention was not to make snide remarks about how you write, something I think you do quite well. I was trying to make the point that the post seemed to be misleading in suggesting that you were going to provide a definitive world wide list of art fairs and actually, if I have understood correctly, it is a ranking of those art fairs that you have attended this year so far. Apologies if that was overkill. Thank you for correcting my post though!

Marc October 23, 2009 at 4:31 am

My intention was not to make snide remarks about how you write, something I think you do quite well. I was trying to make the point that the post seemed to be misleading in suggesting that you were going to provide a definitive world wide list of art fairs and actually, if I have understood correctly, it is a ranking of those art fairs that you have attended this year so far. Apologies if that was overkill. Thank you for correcting my post though!

Contemporary Furniture October 27, 2010 at 1:21 am

Those are pretty nice place to visit.

remove AntiVira Av February 26, 2011 at 2:13 pm

Hope I have chance to visit those places.

deneyez July 6, 2011 at 2:30 pm

 This list is hilarious, I agree with Marc

Marianero June 11, 2012 at 4:28 am

All the pics are superb.You have done a great job by sharing this post with us.Keep in touch with us in future too.

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