Linda Yablonksy doesn’t stick with the marquee names and events when she goes to an art fair like FIAC. Even though she started her journey with an obligatory stop at The Modern Project, she quickly drills down deep into the fair to give this report in ArtForum’s Scene & Herd column:

From there, it seemed the fair could only go downhill, but French dealer Almine Rech’s booth was jam-packed—with art by Don Brown, Mark Handforth, Anselm Reyle, and more, as well as plenty of collectors, most of whom appeared to be French. Equally busy was Emmanuel Perrotin, who had commissioned artist Daniel Arsham to design his booth. It suggested an igloo whose doors had been punched out with dynamite, but maybe my impression stemmed from the pronounced chill in the unheated Grand Palais, which may have sent shivers up everyone’s spine but did not slow the shopping.

The artist most prominently featured was George Condo, apparently a heartthrob in Paris. His paintings turned up in three different booths: Sprüth Magers, Simon Lee (showing only Condo works on paper), and Jérôme de Noirmont, Condo’s Paris dealer. “I’m not worried,” de Noirmont said with a shrug. “We’re used to that.” I heard the action was just as swift at the Cour Carrée, the part of the fair reserved for younger galleries at the Louvre, but because a snooty French guard sniffed at my press badge when I arrived for a preview and blocked my way, I couldn’t verify.

French Evolution (Scene & Herd/ArtForum)