10 Tips To Know Before Attending Your First Art Fair

An art fair can be a confusing place, especially if you’ve never been to one before. The many booths, the different sights, the protocol that is unspoken and yet vaguely terrifying—there’s nothing worse than screwing up in a highfalutin social situation, right? Wrong! Art fairs, especially large-scale ones, are places of wonder and fun, where the imagination can run wild, alongside the errant children of prominent curators, artists, gallerists, and collectors. This is where the hoi polloi of the art worlds meets the upper crust, a great leveling of art-world strata that can lead to some of the most engaging, enlightening moments of your art life. But if you don’t know why you’re there or what you’re doing, it can be a Scylla and Charybdis of perceived pretentious foils. Here are 10 Tips To Know Before Attending Your First Art Fair.

You gotta remember—art fairs are generally used as clearinghouses for galleries. Sure, there might be an artist or work there that is of strong market value for whatever reason the forces of art commerce have dubbed her so. But moving art from the gallery wall to the wall of your living room is goal number one for the gallerists involved. With that in mind, there’s nothing stopping you from haggling prices with the dealers. While you should be careful not to press too hard—there’s no reason or obligation for a dealer to sell you a piece—gallerists need to recoup their costs for paying for the space. This can run in the tens of thousands of dollars range; everyone is trying to settle up.

Art fairs are organized around a series of predictable events. Namely, the galleries come in and set up. Then, there’s a VIP period in which curators and high-level collectors get first viewing of the work, getting first go at purchasing whatever works are brought in. This period is called the vernissage, a word from late French that implied the artists would be applying a final layer of veneer to the paintings, as the VIPs viewed them in their semi-finished states. Even though the veneer is largely no longer a part of the process, you’ve still got to be one of the first in line for the public viewing. This is especially true if you’re in the market for a hot deal. You need to be right on time for the first pass available to you, in order to snap up the best available.

There are more signals at an art fair than those of gesture, brushstroke, and post-modern symbol. Walking around the labyrinthine booths, you may notice small red dots placed near certain pieces. These indicate pieces that have either been sold or are on hold for a collector that’s beaten you to the punch. However, if you’re actually there to simply view contemporary art, rather than purchase any, this does not matter whatsoever. Bonus code cracking: dealers almost always reliably wear black.

Sure, the main focus of something like Art Basel Miami is Art Basel Miami itself—with 258 galleries showing at this year’s edition of the fair, there’s more than plenty to take in. But as art fairs have proliferated since the ’90s, when their popularity and merit was first unmasked, a phenomenon called the “satellite fair” began to orbit the major art fairs. These are smaller, generally less-expensive events, that have at times been described as punk. Explore the main event first, but don’t be afraid of leaving the festival grounds to see what else is out in the world—this is all about discovery, after all.

Unlike many museums or galleries, where photography is sometimes frowned upon, it’s nothing but a benefit for you to snap pictures of anything and everything that strikes your fancy at an art fair. The benefits of this include saving a visual of a piece out of your budget, to look for something similar by a smaller-market artist, or to even take inspiration away to aid in the creation of your own masterpiece.

Sure, you may think you’re there simply for the art. But what is any art function without a healthy dose of hobnobbing? As art fairs have grown in popularity, so too have the social arm of these events. This is a fair after all. And while you’re probably not going to find a tilt-a-whirl or cotton candy, that doesn’t mean you won’t be taken for a ride—this is one big party, in a way, and there’s nothing more fun than interacting with the art world’s major players. Still, as nauseous as a spin on a roller coaster might sound, keep watch over your own disposition—there’s often free alcohol at these events. Watch your intake so as not to make poor financial decisions under the influence.

This one’s simple: the gallerists are there for you. It’s up to you to engage, so don’t be intimidated by any perceived haughty demeanor. Ask questions, pry, asks more questions, make a fool of yourself! What’s at stake here? You may as well try and learn as much as possible while you’re at these things, and there’s nothing at stake considering you’ll get lost in a sea of people within in minutes and the gallerist will forget your face. Make a fool of yourself! Ask dumb questions! You could venture as far to utter the sacrilegious, “What does this mean?”

Taking in all the visual art around an art fair is easy, considering how static it is. But art fairs also feature performance art, film, and interactive installations that run on a tight schedule. It’s up to you to figure out when these events are happening and where. Plan your schedule around the art pieces that interest you most—the ones off the wall.

There is much glitz and glamour to what many gallerists will bring to an art fair, in order simply to attract the attention of the viewer. This can include gigantic, terrible sculptures or works tinged with pornography, just to cause a stir. Don’t be fooled by Koons-ian imitations or the spectacle of over-the-top works that would make Richard Serra grip his head in shame. Trust your instinct and don’t get caught up in the shiny stuff.

The truth is, for a higher-end art fair, you’re probably not going to be able to afford much. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get your money’s worth just by being there. After all, this is a kind of holiday for the art world—you may as well treat it as such. And that’s really the best tip we can offer: just have fun.