The Best Booths of New York Art Week 2023

Arun Kakar, Ayanna Dozier and Casey Lesser

May 12, 2023 1:28PM

The first New York art fair week of 2023 is upon us. As various fairs opened their doors this week, our team was on the ground scoping out the highlights—from fresh, emerging discoveries, to hidden 20th-century gems, to prime works from some of the most celebrated artists working today.

Below, we share the standout booths from Future Fair, Independent, and TEFAF New York.

Future Fair

May 10–13, Chelsea Industrial, 535 West 28th Street

On Wednesday at 4 p.m., a growing queue of fairgoers waited along West 28th Street, eager to trade beautiful 70-degree weather for the Chelsea digs of Future Fair. And as the doors opened, the VIP preview erupted into a high-energy, pleasantly crowded affair, with streams of collectors young and old rubbing elbows as they sought out the inevitable artist discoveries that the fair has become known for.

Now in its third physical edition, the young, reputable fair, co-founded by Rachel Mijares Fick and Rebeca Laliberte, is hosting 57 exhibitors—up from 45 last year—from 20 countries, in a larger, 28,000-square-foot floor plan.

“We’re really excited to see a sort of a return to nature, and a lot of painting of domestic spaces,” said Laliberte of the resounding trends seen across the fair. “Perhaps the post-pandemic era has something to do with it, this kind of return to looking inwards and finding a sense of belonging? And the natural landscape is highlighted in a lot of paintings.”

Less than 90 minutes into the preview, she was pleased with the turnout, including familiar faces making the rounds and sales spreading. “I think the intergenerational aspect of the fair is something that is very special,” Laliberte added. “We have dealers that are 25 years old, that just opened their galleries in the past couple of years, and then we have dealers that have been in the game for 20 years.” The fair also boasts some galleries and artists that have never exhibited in New York before.

Below, we share five favorite booths from the 2023 edition of Future Fair.

Superposition and Cierra Britton Gallery

Booth T5

With works by Naïla Opiangah and Amy Amalia

Storm Ascher, founder of Superposition, and Cierra Britton, founder of her eponymous gallery, first met a year ago when both were included in Jasmin Hernandez’s feature for Artsy, “The New Generation of Black Women and Nonbinary Gallerists.” That spring, Britton visited Future Fair for the first time to see Ascher’s booth.

This year, they’ve come full circle as the rising gallerists, who both run dynamic, nomadic programs, mount a joint booth dedicated to two promising young talents: Accra-based Naïla Opiangah, presented by Superposition, and New York–based Amy Amalia, presented by Cierra Britton Gallery. “I’m super excited to collaborate with Cierra Britton and to have this powerhouse of Black women,” Ascher said. “I’m very happy to be showing with Superposition—Storm is one of my best friends,” Britton added.

By chance, both gallerists chose artists who are creating figurative work that incorporates elements of abstraction. The oil paintings by Opiangah, featuring moss-colored, faceless figures emerging from a void, are from the artist’s “Chaos Agent” series. “She has been thinking about how you’re in a portal, and how you can go from calm to chaos so quickly,” Ascher explained. “She’s working with the body and its curves, and she’s moving further and further away from figuration into abstraction.” The large works are priced at $8,500 each, while smaller pieces range from $1,500–$3,000.

The other half of the booth is filled with Amalia’s latest body of work, titled “The Boundless,” in which women’s faces are painted within entrancing black-and-white spirals. “The series is all about exploring spirituality, healing, meditating, and going inward and reflecting,” Britton explained. “The spirals you see are intentional for the viewer to think about what it would look like to go inward, but they also hypnotize the viewer into a meditative state.” One has to get up close to the painting to see the figures, which serve as spiritual guides, creating the hypnotic effect that the artist creates. Amalia’s works, oil paintings on cradled wood panels, are priced at $4,500–$5,000 per piece.