A new invite-only online art fair called Intersect 21 is launching via Artsy next month (16 February to 16 March), with 21 galleries from Southern California, the Middle East, and North Africa each presenting 21 works.
It has been created by Intersect Art and Design, which typically organises three live events: Intersect Aspen (formerly Art Aspen), Intersect Chicago (formerly SOFA Chicago) and Intersect Palm Springs (formerly Art Palm Springs).
“This is a project really close to my heart,” Becca Hoffman, the fair’s managing director says. Hoffman previously worked as director of the Outsider Art Fair until joining Intersect Art and Design in April of 2020. Since then she has worked on the company’s other fairs which took place digitally, Intersect Aspen and Intersect Chicago. “[Intersect 21] is meant to also connect to artists in and around Southern California, because once you start looking at some of the work by artists like Lita Albuquerque, who is based in LA, and you look at the work of Muhannad Shono, who is based in Saudi Arabia, there’s interesting similarities that develop.”
Rashid Diab's Distance (2020) shown by Diwaniya Art Gallery Courtesy of the artist and Diwaniya Art Gallery
The participating galleries include Laguna Beach’s Peter Blake Gallery, which will exhibit a solo presentation by Lita Albuquerque; Los Angeles’ Timothy Yarger Fine Art, which is focusing on two light and space artists, Laddie John Dill and Mads Christensen; Galerie Tanit, which has locations in Munich and Beirut, will present a work from Chafa Ghaddar, Rania Matar, and Kevourk Mourad; and Cairo’s TINTERA is set to show work by Sara Sallam, Bernard Guillot, and Paul Geday.
“I’m sure I’m not alone in this, that there’s an enormous virtual fatigue going on,” Hoffman adds. “So this project is meant to be a boutique, invite-only fair with galleries from California, the Middle East and North Africa, meant to break down those cultural boundaries and create cross-cultural relationships.”