$300M in Fine Art on Display — The 2024 Hamptons Fine Art Fair is Bigger and Better Than Ever



Collectors, interior designers, and art lovers converge at the event of the Hamptons season, with a glamorous opening night on July 11 and running through July 14 at the Southampton Fairgrounds. Photo by Adam D. Smith.



By Benjamin Genocchio



“The fourth Hamptons Fine Art Fair is the most cosmopolitan fair ever produced in the Hamptons,” says veteran art fair promoter Rick Friedman. It is also the largest art fair ever staged in this perennial summer playground for the affluent, with 150 exhibitors representing 135 galleries and 15 luxury goods brands promoting their wares.



From Omer Tiroche Gallery: Left: Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign, 1981. Stamped by The Estate of Andy Warhol, New York, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. and numbered 'pa30.088' on the overlap. Synthetic paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. 19 ¾ x 15 ¾ in. Right: Yayoi Kusama, Dress, 1996. Signed, titled and dated on the reverse. Collage, cloth and acrylic on canvas, 8 15/16 x 6 ¼ in. Images courtesy Omer Tiroche Gallery.



This is Friedman’s 18th art fair in the Hamptons. His first art fair, Art Hamptons, was launched in 2007 and later sold off with several other fairs he owned. The Hamptons Fine Art Fair is a far more varied and textured event than his previous endeavors, with exhibitors from over 20 countries bringing artwork by more than an estimated 600 artists. 


Friedman says over $300 million worth of art will be on display in the custom-built tent on Southampton Fairgrounds housing the fair. This is over twice as much as last year's estimate. Why? “There are just more galleries, more artists, and a much wider selection,” Friedman explains. “We are the only international art fair in the Hamptons and so dealers are increasingly bringing their A game.” 



Left:   Alex Katz, Ariel (Diptych), 2021. Ed. /60. Silkscreen on Saunders Waterford HP High White 425 gsm paper, 60 x 37 in. Dane Fine Art, image courtesy Dane Fine Art. Right: Vivian Springford, VSF326. Acrylic on canvas,  88 x 89 in. Gary Snyder Fine Art, image courtesy Gary Snyder Fine Art. 



“Our enduring 18-year success is due to the fact that art patronage is embedded in the DNA of Hamptonites,” Friedman believes strongly. “Our enthusiastic, affluent guests are always receptive to new ideas or rediscoveries, eager to learn and willing to invest, and always on the prowl to discover a rising art star. With around $10 million in art transactions, we are a regional fair that sells like a national fair.”



Ed Ruscha, Drops of Joy, 2014. Acrylic on linen, 15 x 19 in. Casterline/Goodman Gallery, image courtesy Casterline/Goodman Gallery.



Friedman has invested heavily in the 70,000 sq. ft. tent infrastructure for the fourth iteration following a torrential freak rainstorm last year that closed roads, led to dangerous conditions, and cut the show short. This year the fair will be built on an elevated platform, allowing for better drainage in the event of further storms or flooding. 


Friedman is especially proud of the diversity of the fair this year. He points not only to the kaleidoscope of countries from which dealers are coming (including Italy, Germany, England, Sweden, Japan and Argentina) but also the fact that there are many more women artists, as well as artists of color, on view in the booths than ever before.


Diversity and inclusion in the art world are important for Friedman who is also a collector of women artists from the abstract expressionism movement in New York, especially those with connections to the East End of Long Island. He even created an annual Hamptons Artists Hall of Fame award to help revive appreciation for under-the-radar artists. This year’s awardees include the late Herman Cherry, an important abstract painter who had a home in Springs, a community outside East Hampton. Also being honored are the artist couple Connie Fox, a painter, and husband William King, a sculptor, as well as sculptors Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas and William Tarr, all of whom lived and worked in East Hampton during their lifetimes, and multi-disciplinary artist Amy Zerner, who lives with her husband and creative partner Monte Farber in her childhood home in East Hampton. 



A work by Herman Cherry from Projects 28, image courtesy Projects 28.



Around 60% of the galleries are new this year, including Vera, an Austin, Texas gallery owned by the Vera Neumann Artwork TrustVera Neumann was a 1970s artist and designer who shot to fame for her brightly colored, playful scarves, linens and tableware. Among the first women in America to have a business worth over $100 million, he was also a gifted painter and left over 4,000 sketches and paintings of designs, showing here for the first time.


Blue chip galleries exhibiting this year include Casterline/Goodman from Aspen and Omer Tiroche from London. These two galleries are bringing expensive artworks by artists Joan Mitchell, Andy Warhol, Alex Katz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and others. Nicolas Auvray Gallery, Gary Snyder Fine Art and Adamar Fine Arts are also exhibiting.


More than 15,000 visitors annually attend the fair, making this one of the largest and most important cultural events in the Hamptons and the second-largest fair in the New York area after the Armory Show.




Event Information


Location:

Southampton Fairgrounds, 605 County Road 39

(Between Mercedes-Benz of Southampton and Southampton Golf Club)

VIP Opening, Thursday, July 11

Afternoon Session, 2–6pm

Evening Session, 6–9:30pm 

 

FRIDAY DAY PASS, July 12, 11pm–8pm

SATURDAY DAY PASS, July 13, 11pm–8pm

SUNDAY DAY PASS, July 14, 11am–6pm

Hamptons Artists Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Saturday, July 13, 2024, 11:30am in the Collectors Lounge


For tickets please visit: 

https://hamptonsfineartfair.com/