Art New York cancelled

I'm not sure if I had even heard of this. The Crain's story has a rather interesting headline:

Cancelled art fair a sign of saturated market
by Miriam Kreinin Souccar

Organizers have pulled the plug on a new art fair that was scheduled for Manhattan later this month, a sign that the market may be saturated.
Art New York at Pier 94 was supposed to bring together around 150 contemporary art galleries from around the world to the space at 12th Avenue and 54th Street. Created by Thomas Blackman Associates, producer of major art fairs including Art Chicago, the fair was to run Feb. 24-27. It was timed to coincide with the long-running prestigious show of the Art Dealers Association of America, which opens Feb. 23.

I love this part too. Does anyone else know a huge number of un-represented artists?

Art dealers say they dont have enough good work to bring to all of the fairs and that artists simply cant create on such a fast timetable.

Updated

Check out Sean Bonner's thoughts on the subject of art fair dysfunction.

Comments

Daniel Cooney

February 8, 2006 9:56 AM

I suspect the reason no one wanted to do the fair was the outragously priced booths. I can't remember what they were (because my packege of info went directly into the garbage after seeing the rates) but I believe they were much higher than any other fair.

Daniel Cooney

February 8, 2006 10:03 AM

Found it. A small booth was 14K.

Barry

February 8, 2006 1:45 PM

Thanks, Dan. I don't have any idea what the fairs charge for booths these days, so I don't know where that stands in relation to other, better-known, fairs.

Fabio Rojas

February 12, 2006 2:19 PM

FYI, Thomas Blackman associates (TBA) ran Art Chicago, which has quickly moved from being one of the leading commerical art shows in the world to a barely functioning thing. Perhaps the closing is a signal of the satrurated market, but it might also signal TBA's general inability to sustain its previous suceess.