Business Finance Media Technology Policy Wealth Insights Interviews

Art Art Fairs Art Market Art Reviews Auctions Galleries Museums Interviews

Lifestyle Nightlife & Dining Style Travel Interviews

Power Lists Nightlife & Dining Art A.I. PR

About About Observer Advertise With Us Reprints

In Philadelphia, a New Art Fair Removes Scale From the Equation

With booth fees capped at $2,500 and works topping out at $25,000, Elsewhere is less concerned with the broader art market than with what happens when galleries are free to take genuine risks.

Megan Galardi, director of Blah Blah Gallery and founder of newcomer fair Elsewhere, has now spent three years at the helm of a gallery in Philadelphia, a city that’s often pitted against New York. Reading Josh Kline’s recent buzz-inducing article arguing that New York City’s economics essentially function as the art world’s curatorial frame—a piece that, in her view, treats Philly as a neglected step-cousin—led to a turning point in her thinking about the relationship between the two cities. “We can play off our proximity to New York but we are not trying to be New York,” Galardi told Observer. With her urban planning background informing her own relationship to the city, she’s become far more interested in how Philadelphia serves as a crucible for possibility and experimentation.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

And what better way to showcase that than by experimenting herself with new art fair models in the city. To do that, Galardi looked to curator-led fairs like Arrival Art Fair in the Berkshires, led by Yng-Ru Chen; Neighbors in Chicago, started by Mirka Serrato and Jonny Tanna; and Friends Fair in Austin, launched by six gallerists and staged at the Loren hotel. After reflecting on these and other small fairs, Galardi deliberately limited the size and scope of Elsewhere, with the most expensive booth fees capped at $2,500 (which includes lodging) and the most expensive artwork capped at $25,000. Galleries could experiment, the fair would serve as an ideation space and visitors would encounter works that felt accessible.

Held this year at YOWIE, a boutique hotel on South Street in Philadelphia, Elsewhere hosted 26 exhibitors. Seven from Philadelphia, three international galleries from London and Canada and many more from across the U.S. brought solo booths, two-artist displays and group shows to the space. “My conversations with YOWIE were primarily about how to work within the existing character of the building and adapt it for an art fair,” Galardi said. “I was interested in creating an experience that felt more intimate and contextual, where the architecture and setting could become part of how visitors encounter the work.”

The first space visitors encountered set the tone for the fair. Blah Blah Gallery and Good Naked Gallery introduced a somewhat Seussical aesthetic, anchored by Libby Rosa’s pin motif, which took over the room. The artist shared that in a white cube setting, she had approached the concept as “pins........

© Observer