THE Fair of the future, now in its third in-person iteration at Chelsea Industrial (May 10-13), was born out of a market desire and need for more support opportunities for young galleries and spaces with less commercial programming . The self-proclaimed “capsule-sized” fair expanded for its biggest outing yet, with 57 galleries taking part.
This year’s Future Fair focuses on painting, as you might expect. New York is “known as the ‘painting city’,” says fair co-founder Rachel Mijares Fick. “The fair is a definitive snapshot of what contemporary painting is like today,” says co-founder Rebeca Laliberte. Among the painters exhibited this year: Kevin Sabo with Kates-Ferri Projects based in New York, Laura Limbourg with the Brussels gallery Ballon Rouge and Seulgi Kim on the Gallery Afternoon stand in Seoul.
Kevin Sabo, She is so lucky2023 Courtesy of the artist and Kates-Ferri
Projects, New York
But beyond showing fresh, on-trend paintings, Mijares Fick and Laliberte want their fair to operate differently from the traditional model, which can be particularly onerous for smaller, younger galleries with very few staff and minimal overhead. . “Our profit-sharing model is something we introduced at the start of this business,” says Laliberte.
The fair’s founding galleries benefited from a profit-sharing agreement, binding for five years, in which 35% of the profits generated by the fair (through ticket sales, sponsorships or additional activations) are shared evenly. A gallery can either withdraw their sum in cash, obtain a credit for next year’s stand, or contribute it to the “Pay it Forward” fund, another of Future Fair’s innovations.
Laura Limburg, Vegas2022. Courtesy of the artist and Ballon Rouge, Brussels, Belgium
For the 2023 edition, the Pay it Forward fund distributed $10,000 in peer support grants to nearly a dozen young and diverse participating spaces, though the fair does not disclose which specific exhibitors are receiving assistance. “We do our best to provide a stipend to as many of those who applied as possible,” says Mijares Fick. Any fair applicant to Future Fair can apply to be a recipient and, conversely, any gallery with surplus income can contribute to the fund (founding member or not).
“We try to get the temperature the galleries need,” explains Mijares Fick. As a result, each gallery “has the opportunity to make an impact and build something new together”. Living room of the future, future-proof.
- Fair of the futureMay 10-13, Chelsea Industrial, New York
