In recent years, art fair organizers have turned their attention to Hamptons, and it’s really no surprise. As the New York art world slows down to a sleepy lull, fairs head out to the beach to take advantage of the Hamptons’ status as a weekend getaway for the city’s major players. With three established fairs setting up shop on Long Island’s east end this month — ArtHamptons and Art Market Hamptons from July 10 through 13 and Art Southampton from July 24 through 28 — collectors have the opportunity to snap up works at a wide variety of price points without traveling far from their beach-side vacation homes.
“There are many collectors who don’t make it across to Basel in June,” Art Southampton director Nick Korniloff told ARTINFO. “So it’s a wonderful opportunity for those people to buy work while they’re staying for the summer. The fair is well positioned in that manner.”
The bluest of New York’s blue chip galleries tend not to participate in the Hamptons fairs, but with Zwirner away, smaller galleries get face time with New York’s vacationing heavy hitters and create new collector relationships. And for new galleries, it also doesn’t hurt that the fairs are a short trek from the city.
“Art Market Hamptons is in Bridgehampton. It is a two hour drive from the city,” explained Tali Wertheimer, who opened her gallery Two Rams on the Lower East Side this past March and will show paintings by Ryan Schneider at Art Market Hamptons. “It costs very little to transport a seven-foot painting there. I am currently investigating shipping costs to Paris for a satellite fair during FIAC, and it’s far more complicated. Next week, we just rent a van. It’s really a no-brainer.”
THE HAMPTONS VETERANS
Now in its seventh year, ArtHamptons is the oldest of the current Hamptons fairs and caters to a classic idea of the community. This year’s theme is “escape from the everyday.” “We keep hearing people say they are ‘escaping to the Hamptons’ so we thought maybe they can escape from their world into the world of art,” founder Rick Friedman said. According to Friedman, such an escape is facilitated by the fair’s placement within the 95-acre Sculpture Fields of Nova’s Ark in Bridgehampton and events like ArtPolo (where you can “experience the thrill of social and economic exclusivity,” according to the online description).
The fair has also included some celebrity names in its events lineup. Hamptons local Robert Wilson will be honored with the fair’s 2014 Arts Patron of the Year award. Musician Moby will also be there to give a talk and show his photography. “He’s never really done a show in New York,” Friedman said. “He wanted to do it in the Hamptons because he likes the Hamptons.”
With 87 exhibitors, the fair is the largest of the three. Exhibitors hail from a sampling of cities across the United States and 12 countries. This year, the fair has a special section devoted to contemporary art from Korea with 15 galleries from the region including UM Gallery, Nine Gallery, and Keumsan Gallery, among others.
“The Korean gallery association and the government put together a list of the top galleries that they are financing to come to the Hamptons,” Friedman said. “That’s a big thing. The international flavor is really special. I said, ‘Let’s do it here and bring everybody to the beach and have an international cultural exchange in Bridgehampton.’ It’s a representation of the state of Korean art right now. I think the fairgoers will really enjoy it.”
THEBROOKLYNITES AT THE BEACH
Organized by the Brooklyn-based Art Market Productions team that is also behind fairs in Miami, San Francisco, and Houston, Art Market Hamptons (formerly artMRKT Hamptons) will launch its fourth edition this year. With far fewer galleries (40) and foodie lunch offerings (Roberta’s, Red Hook Lobster Pound, and Van Leeuwen will be there this year), Art Market Hamptons seeks to satisfy vacationers. “What we wanted to do was present something that was manageable in size, that people could come and see the entire show in about an hour,” director Max Fishko said. “They can get something really good to eat, explore programs they might otherwise not know, and be back on the beach by four o’clock. You don’t want to take eight hours of someone’s life when they’re on their vacation.”
Fishko also hopes the culinary offerings might lure a younger crowd out to the beach for the day. “Take the Jitney. You can literally walk into the fair from the Jitney stop in Bridgehampton.”
The fair has a large proportion of New York galleries, including mid-sized space like Freight + Volume, Morgan Lehman, Joshua Liner, and Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. Dealer and curator Catinca Tabacaru, who opened her Broome Street space this past May, will participate in both Art Market Hamptons and Art Southampton. “Max is a person I really like,” she said. “I think he is doing some really smart things.” Tabacaru plans to bring work by Shinji Murakami. “He’s a pop artist. It looks like a simple thing and yet it’s actually very tedious. Everything is done by hand. It’s hearts and puppies and flowers, so very much on the happy side. When you think about the Hamptons, well, people go there to be happy.”
THE FLASHY MIAMI IMPORT
Art Southampton, now three years in, is part of the hydra-like Art Miami conglomerate that manages fairs in Miami, San Francisco, and New York. Scheduled to take place two weeks later than the other two fairs, Art Southampton purposefully overlaps with the Watermill Center’s summer benefit party and the annual Super Saturday fundraising party. “Traditionally that weekend is a very busy weekend.” Korniloff said. “The goal is to be positioned as far west at the mouth of the Hamptons so anybody who’s traveling can come and visit the fair on the way out or on the way back. We stay open on Monday. None of the other fairs do that.”
While Art Market Hamptons might encourage a more laid-back atmosphere, Korniloff emphasized the seriousness of his fair. “The breadth of our audience that’s been attending over the last two years is a very serious audience — some of the top collectors that you’ll see in the Basel fairs, Miami in December, curators, art advisors.”
Korniloff emphasized the international scope of the fair’s 83 participants. “We have a really strong roster of international galleries that we work with throughout the year — galleries from different parts of Germany, the UK, Asia, France, Basel,” Korniloff said. “We’ve also learned quickly that the Hamptons is a very international audience. It’s surprising how many of our galleries that are coming from abroad have clients that come from their home country that are vacationing in the Hamptons for the summer. It’s actually much more international than I ever imagined it to be.”
