This article has been adapted from Canadian Art’s Art Toronto Edition in the Fall 2016 issue, produced as a part of our media partnership for this year’s edition of the fair.
1. Pack Your Art-Fair Toolkit Carefully
Along with pragmatic items that you can bring from home, such as comfortable walking shoes, a phone charger, a selfie stick, business cards, a notebook, pens and a credit card, pick up an Art Toronto show guide by visiting the box office or information desk as soon as you arrive. The show guide contains a full listing of galleries and projects, along with maps and in-depth information about exhibitors. Make an itinerary to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed, but allow yourself time to wander and get lost. You never know what you might stumble upon.
2. Take in the Local and International Best
On top of Canada’s crème de la crème, discover international art-world trends at out-of-town galleries you otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to visit, all conveniently located in one place during Art Toronto weekend. Check out Galerie Anita Beckers and Galerie Raphael, both from Frankfurt; ltd los angeles and Royale Projects from Los Angeles; and Zemack Contemporary Art from Tel Aviv—among scores of others. Don’t forget about the local: see which artists Canadian mainstay galleries MKG127, Feheley Fine Arts, Olga Korper Gallery, TrépanierBaer Gallery, Parisian Laundry, Equinox Gallery, and many others, consider their most popular by whose work they bring to adorn their booth walls.
3. Eat Art, Think Art, Sleep Art
You don’t have to leave the fair to get a much-needed power nap, courtesy of Focus: Latin America’s curated exhibition. You can recuperate in an art environment in the Buró de Intervenciones Públicas’ hammocks. The Guatemalan artist duo’s ad hoc public furniture will invite you to relax and converse between booth-hopping. Look out for Argentinian artist Luciana Lamothe’s fair-exclusive benches to rest your feet on, and grab a bite to eat at the Parts and Labour pop-up restaurant. Take a break from looking at art with the PLATFORM Speaker Series, Art Toronto’s series of lectures and panel discussions from prominent art-world gurus and Power Talks, a series of lectures organized in partnership with the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Participants range from leading collectors, advisors and dealers to internationally renowned museum directors, curators, critics, scholars and artists. This will be your one-stop shop to plug into hot topics in contemporary art, and to learn from some of Canada’s top collectors about how they got started and what they are buying now. Look no further to make the most informed purchases.
4. Take the Perfect Art Selfie
Be like international Instagram art stars Elena Soboleva of Artsy, Pari Ehsan, JiaJia Fei of New York’s Jewish Museum and Antwaun Sargent, and use contemporary art to increase your social capital. A few tips: avoid over-processed filters, get a little help from editing apps like Snapseed, don’t use a flash (they can damage artworks and be generally disruptive to other visitors), post your photos immediately, remember to geotag and hashtag (#ArtToronto) and, lastly, subvert the sacredness of the selfie by bringing a patient photographer to take photos of you—this will allow you to capture an impressive work’s scale with a head-to-toe shot.
5. Ask the Right Questions and Act Fast
Once you’ve reviewed the offerings on the walls of the booths, ask what’s in the back—many galleries will build miniature storage areas into their booths so that they can re-hang to keep the walls looking fresh. Ask what else is available by artists you are fond of, particularly at booths run by local galleries. They’ll often have catalogues or iPads on hand loaded with information about what else is available off-site. If you love something but it’s out of your price range, ask whether there are drawings or sketches available—they are often more affordable. And if you fall in love with something, don’t wait. Stakes are high at art fairs, and while very generous gallerists are sometimes known to give interested parties an hour to put a hold on an artwork before deciding to move forward with a purchase, they are under no obligation to do so. Act fast before someone else snaps up a coveted artwork.
