In the News

With work from around the world—and strengthened ties to the local creative community—the annual event drew big crowds on night one

This buzzing hive of artistic activity fills the huge arena floor with creative displays by 90-some galleries, local, national and international. And outside the official grounds, a host of satellite events spins in the fair’s mighty orbit.

Packed full of programming, from the second-year New Artists / New Collectors section to the usual grid of booths, the fair offers opportunities for everyone from first-time browsers to seasoned collectors.

Returning to Lumen Field for the eighth year, the Seattle Art Fair will continue to offer Seattleites the opportunity to see cool, cutting-edge contemporary artwork from all over the world without leaving town.

Returning to Lumen Field for the eighth year, the Seattle Art Fair will continue to offer Seattleites the opportunity to see cool, cutting-edge contemporary artwork from all over the world without leaving town. Plenty of local institutions and artists get involved as well, making for a jam-packed weekend of incredible art-viewing opportunities.

A large-scale installation by Jeffrey Gibson, just announced as the U.S. representative for the 2024 Venice Biennale, is a highlight.

The Thursday evening opening night drew roughly 5,000 people, an SAF representative said, with 20,000 to 25,000 people expected over the entire weekend. The fair seems to have started with a bang, with various dealers reporting solid sales and throngs of art enthusiasts crowding the booths.

In a building that used to be a grocery store in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood this week, the future of art and technology converged in a display and discussion around how artificial intelligence is impacting creativity. The event at The Grocery Studios, organized as part of this week’s Seattle Art Fair, featured a poet and a painter in the home studio of two artists/tech workers whose own career and personal pursuits illustrate how the intersection between art and tech can blend and blur.

Admire Tariqa Waters’s large-scale paper sculpture or Catalina Ouyang’s installation featuring a horse tibia while connecting with art lovers and gallerists alike.

At this year’s Seattle Art Fair (July 27-30 at Lumen Field Event Center), you could tell someone to “get a surprise tattoo” or “touch grass,” and you’d actually be making sense.

Galleries will arrive from all over the world, including Italy, Japan, Argentina and South Korea, but there will be a bountiful mix of local offerings, too. Where else could you let your fingers run through a faux-grass field made of steel wires, pondering the meaning of the phrase “touch grass,” or reflect on wordsmithing and tech innovation through an AI-powered poetry mixed-media installation?

If the fair is anything like last year's, it'll be a hectic weekend of avant-garde, artsy goodness that rivals its pre-pandemic days.

As the Seattle Art Fair opens its doors, it invites visitors to embark on a journey of artistic discovery, pushing the boundaries of creativity and embracing the diversity of perspectives. With its stellar lineup of public projects and interactive installations, this year’s fair promises to be an unforgettable experience for all who attend.

A man leans in close and asks, Why do you exist? The bulbous vessel, with three faces protruding from its golden surface, replies: I am about broad engagement and attracting people to a space who may not be there otherwise.

The Frye Art Museum acquired four new works for its collection from the Seattle Art Fair, using $50,000 set aside for this purpose as part of a two-year partnership with the fair.

The Seattle Art Fair announced the Frye Art Museum has selected four artworks from the fifth edition of the fair, expanding the museum’s permanent collection with a total of six artworks over the course of the two-year partnership between the art fair and Seattle institution. 

In Seattle’s art world and beyond, the subject of whether or not the Seattle Art Fair could withstand losing its founder, the billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen, has been the subject of a great deal of public chatter.

Using $25,000 in funds given to the institution by the Seattle Art Fair, the Frye Art Museum has acquired four works.

It might seem tiresome to note that commercial art fairs exist to make money first and foremost, but there are at least a few people still unclear on the subject.

Last weekend, the Seattle Art Fair opened its doors for the fifth time, welcoming Seattleites to discover nearly 100 galleries, special performances, and interactive installations. The fair hosted galleries from all over the world, presenting an eclectic look at fine art through a variety of mediums.

Over the weekend flocks of art collectors and enthusiast converged at the Seattle Art Fair for the 5th edition at the CenturyLink Field Event Center.

The Seattle Art Fair happened. I was there.

What makes a booth at Seattle Art Fair the best? One hears all the time that art is subjective—and it is—especially in this case, one’s favorite isn’t always “the best.”

At Seattle Art Fair, a glistening, golden object propped upon a wooden platform blabbers on as visitors circumambulate the display.

Seattle Art Fair, featuring works from more than 100 galleries from around the world, continues through Sunday at CenturyLink Field Event Center.

It’s opening night at Seattle Art Fair and there’s something for everyone — whether you enjoy browsing art (museum-style) or buying art (collector-style) or pressing your face into bread products (social-media style).

The primary function of an art fair is a marketplace: a venue for dealers to sell as much work as possible to real, interested collectors.

The Blue Angels roared into Seattle this week, ushering in the 70th annual Seafair weekend. But for the past four years Seafair has shared the civic celebration spotlight with the shiny new kid on the block: the Seattle Art Fair, the brainchild of the late philanthropist, Paul Allen.

Art and carb lovers take note. This weekend, the social media star Bread Face — who has accumulated nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram for videos of her smashing her face into bread — will be running an interactive installation called Self Facing at Seattle Art Fair this weekend.

It’s time to get artsy. This iconic Pacific Northwest fair is showcasing artwork from local, national and international galleries, giving viewers a chance to compare collector pieces from Washington state and beyond.

It’s that time of year again — when the blocks surrounding the SoDo sports venues are suddenly filled with fans of a different stripe: arts aficionados.

With another summer weekend comes another torrent of festivals for all your sunny vacation longings.

Foul weather, a group leader's illness, insufficient sign-ups - many situations can cancel or cause schedule changes for events and outings. To be certain of your plans, always check before you go. 

With 108 exhibitors participating at the fifth annual fair, there is a lot to take in. We've selected a few highlights to seek out.

In an effort to expand cultural engagement within the Seattle community, the Seattle Art Fair and the Frye Art Museum have extended their partnership into 2019.

This weekend—or rather, Thursday through Sunday—is one of the biggest and busiest periods for the Seattle art scene, thanks to the excitement of the massive fifth annual Seattle Art Fair at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. 

This week, the Seattle Art Fair, presented by A.I.G., returns to the Emerald City to host nearly 100 galleries alongside daily events, talks and special installations for its fifth edition taking place August 1st through August 4th, 2019.

With the proliferation of art fairs—and both the pressure it exerts and possibilities it presents for galleries—the question of what long-term effect this rapid expansion will have has inevitably arisen.

This year's event is bringing fair goers AI art, earthquakes, and a member of Pearl Jam. (It is Seattle, after all.)

The four-day event returns for its fifth year, this time with nods to artificial intelligence, earthquake simulations, and new programming that sparks curiosity.

Our handpicked list of the best bets for entertainment this month.

For the fifth year in a row, artists from the Pacific Northwest will showcase their work at The Seattle Art Fair beginning on Aug. 1 at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. 

The internet is a weird place, no one can argue that. Small moments of happiness and connection to humankind are swiftly tempered by the strange, uncomfortable and usually negative aspects of the web.

Infinite Color and Sound, the multimedia project led by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and visual artist Kate Neckel, will embark on a tour this summer beginning with an appearance at the Seattle Art Fair. Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer will join them for a performance there on August 2nd at 5 p.m.

“I’m really enamored with how wild this one is,” Nato Thompson says about Seattle Art Fair, which returns to CenturyLink Field Event Center next week for its fifth year. 

The Seattle Art Fair, which runs August 1–4, has renewed its partnership with the Frye Art Museum, which is working to expand its contemporary art holdings and build ties with Seattle’s younger art collectors.

Seattle Art Fair turns 5 this year. Since its 2015 founding by Paul Allen, the fair has been a huge party. Tens of thousands of people — some flying in from around the world — congregate over four days at the CenturyLink Field Event Center to check out modern and contemporary art from a hundred or so commercial galleries from cities including New York, Berlin, Tokyo and, yes, Seattle.

The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, is pleased to announce the renewal of its partnership with the Frye Art Museum, fulfilling a two-year commitment to expand the museum’s permanent collection and further increasing engagement with Seattle’s cultural community year-round.

Last year’s Seattle Art Fair saw huge robots battling, a scale model of the solar system that spanned downtown, and 14-foot-tall puppets. 

The dog days of summer may be upon us, but soon enough the art fair season will kick into full swing. So why not start marking your calendar now with the more than 100 fairs around the globe in the second half of 2019? 

For the second year in a row, the Seattle Art Fair will offer the city’s Frye Art Museum a $25,000 budget for purchasing works on view in the show.

This year's Seattle Art Fair, curated by Nato Thompson, explores the post-human and redefines contemporary art. The star of the fair is Instagram ASMR phenom @breadfaceblog. 

The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, is proud to announce the exhibitor list and on-site programming for its fifth edition. From August 1-4, 2019, the Seattle Art Fair will host daily talks, special projects, and performances, in addition to nearly 100 galleries from around the world.

If you haven’t taken a trip by the time August rolls around, it’s your last chance to savor the dog days of summer before things get busy again. The Seattle Art Fair will pop up at the beginning of the month, giving this Pacific Northwest city a jolt of energy. 

Have you ever been to Seattle in the Summer? If you haven't, and Seattle is on your bucket list, then might we suggest going the first week of August. Why? Well the Seattle Fair is back for its fifth edition and they just announced their exhibitor list and it's GOOD. 

The fifth edition of the Seattle Art Fair, slated for August 1-4 at the city's CenturyLink Field Event Center, will bring together close to 100 international galleries and include special programming focused on what a release describes as "curiosity and wonder." 

The Seattle Art Fair (SAF), now in its fifth year, just announced its 2019 exhibitor list and on-site programming. Taking place from August 1-4 and organized around the theme of "curiosity and wonder," the fair will host daily talks, special projects, performances, and nearly 100 exhibitors from around the globe. 

The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, announced the exhibitor list and on-site programing for its fifth edition. 

Female-themed art at the Seattle Art Fair included 30 hanging facial sculptures from DNA obtained from Chelsea Manning, the transgender woman and former military analyst, by Heather Dewey-Hagborg.Credit

Max Fishko, who is a part of the Seattle Art Fair Leadership Team, told BLOUIN ARTINFO that in addition to the art fair, the city has great stuff going on year-round, from the Olympic Sculpture Park to the Frye Art Museum that visitors can enjoy.

The 2018 Seattle Art Fair, which opened Thursday and runs through Sunday at CenturyLink Field Event Center, tucks all kinds of technological and science-fictional nods into the artworks from more than 100 galleries in ten countries.

Seattle Art Fair 2018 is coming to a close, and we are feeling wiped…but we’re still going back for one more day. With so much art to see, and so much subjectivity in how one views art, one can’t really declare “top honors.” However, we’d still like to point out some exceptional displays. The galleries really brought it this year.

As the big event comes to a close, we’re taking some time to review some of the great Instagrams coming out of Seattle Art Fair 2018. Just walking through the fair, one can see which pieces are consistently catching eyes and becoming the background for profile pics. Here are some choice ones.

The fair's artistic director Nato Thompson explains what sets this "underdog" event apart from the usual art fair frenzy

High-tech art took the spotlight at the latest edition of the Seattle Art Fair—but there were plenty of traditional works on hand, too.

Gagosian even goes so far as to acknowledge Seattle as a city of tomorrow

The fourth annual Seattle Art Fair continues through Sunday, Aug. 5, at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. This year, exhibitors from 10 countries have spaces on the center floor.

The party has officially started. The fourth annual Seattle Art Fair kicked off last night, and it meets one’s expectations. There are over one hundred galleries participating, including some of the biggest names in the biz. The special programming isn’t quite as eye-catching overall, but some of it is especially timely and brilliant. And of course, there is a lot of superb art.

Seattle art gallery owner Greg Kucera was in a decidedly good mood Thursday afternoon. The Seattle Art Fair had just gotten underway but he had already sold almost all of Anthony White's exquisitely textured and vibrant paintings.

Wayne White counts collector Beth Rudin DeWoody among his fans

While you're enjoying some West Coast relaxation, make sure you check out these top-notch booths at the fair.

Philly native Nato Thompson says this year’s fourth annual expo will explore changing forces within Seattle’s art scene

Take in the main event if you can afford it—the $35 and up art extravaganza taking place this weekend at Century Link Event Center—or check out these equally exciting (and free!) satellite happenings

The city’s biggest visual art event runs through the weekend and includes a scaled replica of the solar system, some robots, giant puppets, and an art satellite.

The Seattle Art Fair stands out from its peers, but it’s still finding its footing in our tech-driven city.

The Seattle Art Fair announced an additional installation by legendary conceptual artist Chris Burden has been added to this year’s on-site programming. 

The Seattle Art Fair returns for a fourth time with eye-catching contemporary art and revolutionary programming.

More than 100 galleries from 34 cities in ten countries will take part in the Fair this year; Thompson’s job is to create atmosphere. His varied menu of panel discussions, video installations and artistic flights of fancy should lend a note of carnival festivity to the four-day event that begins Aug. 2.

Seattle Art Fair, back for its fourth year, has become a major event, attracting tens of thousands of people from around the world and setting the Seattle arts scene ablaze with gossip, speculation and satellite events. 

When artist Wayne White comes here to participate in the Seattle Art Fair next month, he will unveil two, 14-foot-tall puppets created to honor Louisa and Mary Ann Boren. The piece, called “Here Come the Boren Sisters,” is not just a nod to the sisters, but also to “Here Come the Brides,” a love-and-lumberjacks show that ran from 1968-70.

After a decade at Creative Time and a current role as Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary, curator Nato Thompson’s next endeavor is the fourth edition of the Seattle Art Fair, which opens August 2. As the fair’s Artistic Director, Thompson will oversee the curation of site-specific installations. We caught up with the curator to talk about the vision he is bringing to Seattle.

The Seattle Art Fair has announced that it is entering into a new partnership with the city’s Frye Art Museum. The upcoming edition of the fair will give the institution $25,000 to acquire works from its more than one hundred exhibitors.

The Seattle Art Fair has established an acquisition fund with the Frye Art Museum to add works from the fair to the institution’s collection.

The programs and special exhibitions planned for Seattle Art Fair not only look backward and forward, but inward to the self and outward to the stars. Artistic director Nato Thompson (formerly of New York's Creative Time and now at Philadelphia Contemporary) has curated additional talks and projects that explore the themes of technology, history, and identity.

Seattle Art Fair, coming up August 2–5, is well worth the admission fee, says Seattle Art Museum CEO Kimerly Rorschach, because it’s “a great resource” and way cheaper than a plane ticket to Basel or Miami or New York.

August is prime time for summer travel, and if you haven’t planned a trip yet, now is the time to do so...On the west coast, the Emerald City entices with its Pacific Coast charm, perfect weather (for this time of year, anyway), and an art fair that’s becoming a major attraction. 

The Seattle Art Fair, presented by AIG, is proud to announce this year's on-site programming, curated by the fair's Artistic Director, Nato Thompson. From August 2-5, the Seattle Art Fair will host daily talks, special projects, and performances, in addition to the over 100 participating galleries from around the world.

It’s the inaugural year for Seattle Art Fair’s new artistic director, Nato Thompson, and today the fair detailed the programming that the curator and writer has in store, which has a futuristic and political bent.

Hit a museum or gallery this summer, and you'll be rewarded with everything from dreamy installations to work by one of the most important figurative artists of the 20th century to Pearl Jam memorabilia. And that's not to mention the art event of the season, the Seattle Art Fair, where you can see all types of art in one place. 

The 2018 Seattle Art Fair will boast a diverse roster of local, national, and international galleries representing 34 cities from 10 countries, including 23 international galleries.

The Seattle Art Fair has announced the exhibitor list for its fourth edition, which will run from August 2 through August 5 at the Washington city’s CenturyLink Field Event Center.

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know this Friday, February 16—Seattle Art Fair Names Nato Thompson Artistic Director

Nato Thompson was appointed artistic director of the Seattle Art Fair’s fourth edition.

The Philadelphia-based curator sees opportunity to create dialogue between public artworks and the market

The Art Fair’s attendance and its roster of participating galleries have grown steadily since its inception, and now Thompson’s presence will give it greater critical and scholarly credibility. Although he hasn’t revealed any specific plans, he says he wants to do something “big” and “different.” Connecting politically engaged, activist artwork to a wide audience would be exactly that.

The Seattle Art Fair announced that Nato Thompson will serve as the artistic director for its fourth edition, taking place this summer from August 2 to August 5.

Nato Thompson, the director of Philadelphia Contemporary, the multidisciplinary roving art institution in the city of brotherly love, has been tapped to be artistic director of the Seattle Art Fair, which runs from August 2 through 5 at the CenturyLink Field Event Center.

Mark your calendars, it's going to be a busy year.

But for one weekend, a center built by a tech fortune drew in the Seattle community—from long-time collectors to the young, tattooed masses. The fair was a welcome and unpretentious respite from its counterparts in New York, boding well for future connection between the city’s contrasting factions.

It wasn’t just out-of-town dealers that were basking in a sales-induced bliss. “This year was beyond my expectations,” said Linda Hodges, whose booth emphasized young artists working with narrative storytelling themes.

This year, the  art fair’s layout feels much more fluid and porous. It’s much easier to rove in and out, as one sees at other fairs, such as the Armory Show. You sometimes can’t tell where one booth ends and another begins without looking at the signage overhead. That’s great news for visitors, who want to be at ease as they look at the art. And hopefully it will be great news for the gallerists, too. When people can more easily fall in love with a work, they are more likely to take it home, after all.

Among the A-list players, replacing the legion of boom until Sunday, are Gagosian, selling sculptures by the alchemical Italian Arte Povera sculptor Giuseppe Penone, and Zwirner, with drawings by the legendary cartoonist R. Crumb.

Event adds blue-chip galleries and international flavour to attract national as well as regional collectors

In the fair’s third year, established and younger galleries alike are clearly trying to strike a balance between appealing to Seattle’s roster of old-guard collectors while also actively courting a younger generation of wealthy tech industrialists and international buyers. It makes for a varied, eclectic selection of art on offer.

Here, Max Fishko of Art Market Production speaks to Artspace about the challenges and rewards of directing the fair, and about what he's particularly looking forward to when the fair opens this Thursday evening.

Seattle Art Fair offers a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with some left coast galleries, big and small. It will help you get inspired to see some new art the next time you visit their part of the country.

While there’s no right way to do the Seattle Art Fair, we’ve rounded up some of the regional galleries and artists we’re most excited to check out.

Now in its third edition, the fair includes 100 exhibitors from 10 countries. Over half the galleries are from the Pacific Rim, joining blue chip participants like Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Pace. Whitewall spoke with Laura Fried, the artistic director of the fair, about what to expect this year.

Only in its third year, Seattle’s contemporary art fair has big ambitions, this year manifested in a dedication to large-scale installations and immersive experiences scattered throughout the city.

The Seattle Art Fair returns to the Emerald City August 3–6, drawing culture vultures to this Pacific Northwest enclave. Blue-chip galleries including Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Pace will exhibit work as well as local institutions like James Harris and Greg Kucera. 

The visual arts division of the United Talent Agency unearthed the artwork, which had remained in storage since Cobain's April 1994 death, and will debut the two never-before-shown works along with a selection of Cobain-owned notebooks.

Now, taking another step in that direction, United Talent Agency is participating in its first art fair — with a booth showcasing two never-before-exhibited paintings by Kurt Cobain at the Seattle Art Fair.

Highlights include a showing of works from Jenny Holzer’s “The Survival Series,” from the early ’80s, in the neighborhood of Pioneer Square, an installation by Los Angeles–based artists Dylan Mira and Erika Vogt that will treat Union Station to airs of inspiration from Korean spas, and a textiles/fashion presentation by the artist Ellen Lesperance devoted to W.I.T.C.H. (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). 

It’s hard to believe that Seattle Art Fair 2017 is a little over three months away, August 4-6. The names of 80 galleries exhibiting have already been released, and the roster is the most international yet.

The heavy hitters are all back for another round, including David Zwirner, Gagosian Gallery, and Pace Gallery. And newcomers include Galerie Perrotin, Night Gallery, and UTA Artist Space, the downtown Los Angeles gallery offshoot of the talent agency’s arts division.

These join other blue-chip art spaces sponsored by the city’s tech billionaires, like the Olympic Sculpture Park, a nine-acre outdoor museum with works by Calder, Mark di Suvero, Richard Serra, and Louise Bourgeois on a former industrial site down the hill from the Space Needle. It opened in 2007 with support from Jon Shirley, the former president of Microsoft and a prominent art collector who is now a chair of the Host Committee for the three-year-old Seattle Art Fair, which Vulcan co-produces. The event brings out-of-town galleries, including global heavyweights like David Zwirner, to complement the work of ambitious local galleries like James Harris and Mariane Ibrahim.

Local gallerists on the 2017 dealer committee are James Harris and Greg Kucera; others are William Hathaway of L.A.’s Night Gallery and New Yorkers Lidia Andich of Gagosian Gallery, Robert Goff of David Zwirner  and from Pace Gallery, Elizabeth Sullivan. Laura Fried will also return as artistic director leading “development of the fair’s curatorial vision and innovative programming, including on-site and off-site installations, talks, performances, and presentations at the fair,” according to SAF. Max Fishko continues as director.

Sounds like Seattle is the place to be this August.

By Sunday evening, red dots lined the walls, and more than a few big names had already vowed to return in 2016.

Founded by American entrepreneur Paul Allen, the inaugural Seattle Art Fair arrived with a bang last year, and the latest edition is expected to make an even bigger impact.

David Zwirner and Pace will be back. The LA heavy hitter Roberts & Tilton (representing Kehinde Wiley, among others) has joined the lineup, and so has New York stalwart Marlborough.

The Seattle Art Fair has announced that the newly created role of artistic director will be filled by Laura Fried, an LA-based curator who formerly worked at the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis. 

“Visitors to the Seattle Art Fair will have the unique opportunity to interact with these top galleries—a representation of the world’s finest exhibitors of modern and contemporary art—in an extremely intimate setting fit for great conversation and important acquisition.”

"This year's lineup boasts an impressive batch of exhibitors, counting David Zwirner and Pace as returning participants."

"Jeffrey Deitch, the former director of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles told Times writer Tricia Romano at the time that Seattle was “a natural place for an art fair,” because of its plentiful public art, big-name private collectors such as Paul Allen and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and small but well-curated museums."

"The art world will descend on the Emerald City on July 30 for Seattle’s first large-scale art fair in years."

The fair will bring together 62 galleries from around the world to the lively art scene of the Pacific Northwest, attracting some of the biggest galleries in the art world—including Gagosian, Pace, and David Zwirner. 

"Seattle becomes the latest city to jockey for the “emerging art scene” label with its first-ever art fair, spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Expect a strong showing from heavy hitters such as the David Zwirner and the Gagosian Gallery, as well as local, burgeoning Pacific Northwest artists."

"All art world eyes will be on Seattle this week, where the inaugural Seattle Art Fair opens on Thursday July 30."

"I think it really speaks volumes of their commitment to this area," Artist Trust director Shannon Roach-Halberstadt told me yesterday. "It's so fantastic. The money will godirectly to individual artists in all disciplines across the state."

"There’s already an impressive buzz about it for an inaugural event." 

"Paul Allen's new art center may be another sign that the tech magnate wants to build Seattle into a new contemporary art hub."

“So far, there have been good art fairs and some great art fairs on the West Coast, but there hasn’t been a real international magnet on the West Coast of the United States, from a fair perspective. And I think we have an opportunity to do that here.”

"The Seattle Art Fair, whose inaugural edition will run from July 30th through August 2nd, is being co-produced by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. and bringing top-tier galleries like Pace, Gagosian, and David Zwirner to the region for the first time (a very rare feat for a fledgling event). But it appears that the fair will not be just another attempt to match blue-chip artwork with tech money. A full 13 of the 62 exhibitors are from Seattle, with four more from Portland and two from Vancouver, BC. "

"The fair promises to be one of the biggest in the country with Gagosian, Pace and David Zwirner Galleries already joining the list of exhibitors."

"And then Stranger art critic Jen Graves drops by to tell us about the upcoming Seattle Art Fair, which was born out of a Paul Allen 'fever dream.' "

"With a rustic pavilion and lounge called Basecamp, designed by Seattle-based architecture firm Olson Kundig, and a smattering of installations and programming overtaking the city, Seattle joins an increasingly populous map of Stateside collector destinations."

"As a foretaste of the upcoming Seattle Art Fair, Seattle Art Museum is currently hosting a series of talks by contemporary artists about their practice."

"The inaugural Seattle Art Fair is set for July 30-August 2, and is shaping up to be a great reason to visit Seattle."

"If you think the drive across the border is beautiful to begin with (and we certainly do), just wait to see what Seattle Art Fair has in store on the other side."

The Seattle Art Fair will feature 50 leading local, regional, and international art galleries presenting top-tier modern and contemporary art.

"The list of exhibitors include names such as PACE, Paul Kasmin Gallery, James Cohan Gallery, Nancy Hoffman Gallery (all New York), G. Gibson Gallery, Greg Kucera Gallery, James Harris Gallery (all Seattle), Winston Wachter Fine Art (New York/ Seattle), Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (New Orleans), Gallery Jones, Monte Clark Gallery (Vancouver), Elizabeth Leach Gallery, PDX Contemporary, Platform Gallery (Portland), Kaikai Kiki (Tokyo) and Gana Art (Seoul) among many other prominent names from around the world."

"It’s an impressive first effort; the co-production team of Art Market Productions and Vulcan Inc. have put together a sterling roster of exhibitors, spanning national and international galleries including the Gagosian, David Zwirner and Pace."

“Seattle is an incredible city, very 21st-century, very prosperous and future-oriented, and with great art patronage," said Robert Goff, a director at David Zwirner Gallery.

"The organizers give special attention to the side program of symposia, site-specific installations and the so called happenings across the city."

"For the most prestigious events, a huge amount is done to ensure quality. They want to attract the best dealers, create a respected brand, and so impact on the long-term bottom line."

“For a first-time fair, it’s an incredibly interesting show,” said Max Fishko, director of Art Market Productions, which is organizing it with Mr. Allen’s company Vulcan. “You have got some of the biggest names in the art world, period, plus some excellent regional and local dealers.”

"The Seattle Art Fair, the city’s first major event of its kind, announced a roster of 50 participants, which features a diverse, international lineup: James Cohan, Pace, and Paul Kasmin will participate when the fair opens on July 30, as will Seoul’s Gana Art and local dealer James Harris."

"James Cohan, Pace, and Paul Kasmin are a few of the major international galleries that will be represented."

"When news broke in November that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was teaming with Art Market Productions to bring an art fair to Seattle, all ears in the art world perked up."

"There's a lot of interest in Seattle right now from around the world, there's attention from the cultural centers. There's a reputation that this region has a lot to say."

"An avid art collector, Allen is also behind the Seattle Art Fair."

"Through cultural partnerships, the fair aims to be a destination for both local and international collectors whether new or established."

"Director promises massive event will be of and for Seattle."

"We want to draw people's interest beyond just another fair," Fishko says. The idea for a hybrid event came in part from looking not only at the grande dame of Venice, where exhibitions happen in every nook and cranny of the walking city, but also at smaller-scale, more imitable events like Prospect New Orleans and the Berlin Biennale.

"Its aim is to make Seattle an art destination by using the city as a backdrop for art, much the way New Orleans does when it hosts Prospect 3, a contemporary-art biennial."