Post-Fair, a new satellite fair in downtown Santa Monica, “is all about economy”, says the founder and Los Angeles-based dealer Chris Sharp: “Economy of presentation, financial economy and economy of production.” Conceived as a low-cost alternative to the increasingly expensive standard fair model, Post-Fair opened on Thursday with 26 galleries exhibiting single-artist presentations for the flat fee of $6,000. The largely open-plan format of the venue, an Art Deco former post office built in 1938, helped keep expenses low, with portable lighting and the build-out of just a few walls between the load-bearing columns.
By keeping prices low, Sharp says, he sought “to create a context that is both collegial and encourages risk-taking and experimentation”—elements, he says, that are “missing from the entire art-fair calendar”. His namesake gallery is showing the work of the late German sculptor Lin May Saeed, who is “very well-known in Europe but still pretty unknown here. If we don’t sell anything, it’s not the end of the world.”
Sales were slow on the first day, yet exhibitors were enthusiastic about the fair. Chris Scott and Cody Fitzsimmons, the founders of Tureen—a newer gallery based in Dallas that brought small-scale paintings by the young painter Lula Broglio, priced at $2,500 each—reported no sales in the first days. But they were pleased with the quality of the audience, which has included curators from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as the actor James Franco, who was seen perusing Theta’s selection of Hollywood-themed paintings by Nancy Dwyer. Scott and Fitzsimmons add that they were excited to show at the elegant former post office alongside galleries like PPOW and Sprüth Magers. “We knew it was going to be top-tier aesthetically,” Scott says.
Cooper Cole has brought Sara Cwynar’s Peony (Magenta/Red) (2024) to Sharp’s Post-Fair
Courtesy Cooper Cole
Philomene Magers of Sprüth Magers, which typically shows at Frieze Los Angeles but opted to focus its efforts on Post-Fair this year, says the new fair’s “architectural setting inspires inventiveness and fluidity”. The gallery is showing Cuppies, a series of small-scale ceramics by the late Los Angeles-based artist Kaari Upson. Magers adds that “Post-Fair’s more intimate scale provides the perfect setting for this specific body of work by Upson. That said, we fully plan to join Frieze LA again.”
Sharp selected exhibitors “based on quality”, he says, inviting galleries he had existing relationships with, like PPOW and the Toronto-based Cooper Cole, both of which co-represent artists on his roster. “The vibe has been excellent,” says Cooper Cole founder Simon Cole, who brought five works priced between $12,000 and $16,000 by the conceptual film-maker and photographer Sara Cwynar. “We’re very big on collaboration and community,” Cole says. “His vision for what an art fair is is really in line with ours. I’m very familiar with his programme and his eye towards exhibition design and curation, so I knew whatever we were diving into would be done elegantly.”
The New York-based dealer Laurel Gitlen, who is showing paintings by You-Ni Chae priced between $4,000 and $14,000, says “we have made sales”, but adds that the fair “was better for everything else. Chris did an amazing job hand-selecting great galleries and making the space beautiful, and his team has been fantastic. It’s a human pace and scale, and that works great for me and my programme.” She adds: “I have seen great clients, curators, writers, artists, and there’s time and space to connect with everyone.”
As a surprise add-on, the itinerant New York space Uhaul Gallery, which exhibits in a rented moving van, parked outside the post office and felt immediately welcomed by Post-Fair (in contrast to the larger fairs in town). “They understood our vision,” gallery co-founders Jack Chase and James Sundquist say. After receiving two parking citations, they framed and successfully sold both tickets.