ART Santa Fe 2005
Sixth Biennial Art Fair
July 14-17
www.artsantafe.com
The international art fair circuit is the most glamorous part of the art world today – the place where collectors and purveyors of fine contemporary art come from around the world to meet and do business. A rising star in this constellation of sophisticated events is ART Santa Fe, the biennial art fair that will present its sixth edition July 14-17 at Santa Fe’s downtown convention center.
Known as a “boutique” fair, ART Santa Fe is big enough to be interesting, small enough to be intimate and digestible, and offers visitors a highly selective overview of the contemporary art market. Visitors to the 2003 edition of ART Santa Fe found it to be a gem among art fairs.
The 2005 lineup of exhibitors will include several top Asian galleries, a strong contingent of Europeans, an exciting array of work by Latin American artists, and outstanding galleries from New York and elsewhere in the United States. Exhibiting galleries will range from edgy to established. The cutting-edge new media group currents (including Steina, David Stout, Frank Ragano and Mariannah Amster) will return with a fresh matrix of interactive installations and will be joined by two additional collaborators.
ART Santa Fe 2003 inaugurated ART Santa Fe Presents with a lecture by Time Magazine art critic and award-winning historian Robert Hughes. The success of this standing-room-only event inspired its organizers to make ART Santa Fe Presents an annual offering, while the fair itself will remain biennial. This year’s featured speaker is Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for over 25 years. His address on “Museums: Why Should We Care?” will be presented on July 15; tickets are available through the Santa Fe community box office (505.988.1234). A champagne reception, separately ticketed, will follow the lecture.
The events surrounding ART Santa Fe 2005 will also include the fair’s Vernissage, an opening gala benefiting the Santa Fe Jazz and International Music Festival and featuring an elegant champagne buffet. A series of fine art prints will be given away during the opening. The Inn of the Anasazi, the official hotel of ART Santa Fe, will cater the Vernissage.
Museum groups from all over the country will attend the fair, enjoying tours of private collections and artist studios as well as the fair’s exhibitions and special events. The city’s own museums, such as SITE Santa Fe, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, will feature exhibitions; other arts organizations such as the renowned Santa Fe Opera, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Santa Fe Jazz and International Music Festival, also offer programming on this, arguably the most important weekend in the city’s high cultural and social season.
ART Santa Fe 2003 attracted wide attention in the press, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, the major art trade magazines (The Art Newspaper, ARTnews, Art & Auction, and Art & Antiques, among others) and virtual blanket coverage in statewide press. Word of the fair’s success also spread by the international art community grapevine, prompting a flood of applications for ART Santa Fe 2005.
ART Santa Fe’s focus is on presenting a carefully selected collection of contemporary and modern art, from contemporary masters to the cutting edge, for an audience of art professionals, collectors, museum groups and the general public. Visitors to the fair have praised the quality and wide reach of the offerings, presented in an accessible format that allows an intimate, unhurried viewing experience.
Visit the ART Santa Fe website for news about the fair and for travel and tour information: www.artsantafe.com or contact the fair office at 505.988.8883. For tickets and information about the ART Santa Fe Presents evening with Philippe de Montebello, call 505.988.1234.
