Instead of presenting a series of segmented gallery booths, the New York show fosters connections between them.
So much of my experience of visual art is rooted in interpersonal connection. It’s not that an artist needs to be standing directly in front of their work for me to appreciate it, I just always find myself latching onto their presence — whether it’s physical in the gallery or imbued within their creation. Future Fair, held this year at Chelsea Industrial from May 13 through 16, seems to capture this very spirit.
The stereotypical press photograph of a major art fair usually shows an aerial perspective, revealing the cold, industrial bowels formed by gallery booths and their miniature-looking visitors. Unlike this image, which might make one feel like a prey animal observed from above, the six-year-old Future Fair offered a warmer, more interpersonal adventure.
Instead of presenting a series of segmented gallery booths, the Future Fair, dare I say, fostered roots between them. Part of this interconnected environment may stem from the event’s profit-sharing origins dating back to its first edition in 2020, when the fair split a third of its ticket profits between its inaugural exhibitors. Years later, it’s now dedicating a 15% cut of its proceeds, plus other exhibitor donations, to subsidize emerging galleries’ participation.
On Wednesday evening, during the preview, I encountered Nanor Hakimian, who traveled from Montreal to present two high-energy figurative paintings by her brother Garo at a small corner booth.
Mentioning lightheartedly that her brother tears through $100 tubes of oil paint like nothing, Hakimian stood proudly in front of two of Garo’s mixed-media works curated by Maria Yoon. “Since he was a kid, I’ve known he’s an amazing, incredible artist,” Hakimian told Hyperallergic. “I don’t even need to see his art. His character, everything about him, is art.”
At the booth of the Vermont-based Janna’s Gate Gallery, I found Hans Silas Jovine exhibiting oil-on-board paintings by his mother, Olivia Janna Genereaux. Their participation in Future was the New Hampshire mother-and-son team’s second-ever art fair. Genereaux credited her participation and a concurrent solo show at Gallery A.T. 108 to her son’s persistence on her behalf.
“ He’s been incredibly good at following up on leads and seeing opportunity, whereas I’m usually just really excited to get home and go back to my studio,” Genereaux quipped to me while standing in front of her painting “What is that sound?” (2026), a swirly, orange-dominated abstract work. “It’s been really fun to be together. He’s got a nice sense of humor, and we’ve gotten into some scrapes, but it’s all been good.”
At Mexico City-based Pali Galería’s booth, eccentric Brooklyn-based Argentinian artist Cloe Galasso talked to me about starting her painting career in 2020, the same year Future Fair began. She stood in front of her nude headless portrait, “The Purity of Honesty” (2026). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Galasso decided to double down on her long-time dream of being a full-time artist, following her prior pursuits in design and modeling.
Also among the Brooklyn-based artists showing at Future Fair was John Vitale, who works from a studio in Williamsburg. A longtime graphic designer, Vitale began creating his pastel and acrylic works to counter the constraints of his former profession. Showing in the same Toronto-based Abbozzo Gallery booth, Canadian painter Miles Ingrassia stood before his series of tender portraits of pouting young men sharing intimate moments.
In cooler hues, Madalena Negrone’s knot-like, electricity-filled paintings provided a sense of visual relief from the growing fair crowds.
Throughout the night, artists peeked out of their booths to inspect other displays and genuinely lauded their peers’ work. The artists really talked to each other — not just to visitors — emphasizing the collaborative energy of this blossoming fair.
