New York Magazine’s Senior Art Critic was asked whether it is worth going to an art fair. To his own surprise, he finds himself saying that it is:

People always ask, “What did you see?” and I answer, “I have no idea.” I don’t go to fairs to look at art, because you can’t spend more than ten seconds with any one piece. I go to gauge group temperatures, glean what’s going on in other scenes, get an overview of stylistic tendencies, eat free food, and get out of my office and my own head. […] A working rule at art fairs (and almost everywhere else) is that 80 percent of what’s on view isn’t interesting. The catch is that the stuff you find uninteresting is usually totally different from the stuff I do. That means there’s always more going on than meets the eye (if your eye can overcome the insanity).

Ask an Art Critic (New York)