Beyond the parties and cocktails, art fairs present a ripe opportunity to take the market’s temperature. For the next few days, the art world’s attention turns to the Bay Area, with San Francisco’s annual FOG Design+Art Fair taking place through Jan. 21 at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture.
The Bay Area, with its deep ranks of tech giants and start-ups as well as major art institutions, has become a microcosm of the relationship between tech and culture—and the friction that arises from their union. So what do FOG exhibitors make of the city’s much-discussed tech squeeze, and how has it impacted their fair philosophy?
2024 marks several milestones for FOG, which celebrates its 10th anniversary and the launch of FOG FOCUS, a new platform for young galleries and underrepresented artists. For many, the event is also an opportunity to buoy local talent.
“Bay Area artists have had a huge impact nationally and internationally, and there’s certainly been more attention on it lately, but a lot of it is surprising to people,” says George Adams, a first-time FOG exhibitor but a longtime champion of the Bay’s art scene. “The art world looks for the undervalued and underappreciated, so it’s a great time for Bay Area artists, and we’re benefitting from the freshness and excitement around it.”
For Adams and other dealers, this surge in interest has not been dampened by the recent tech squeeze. “I always try to show my best local artists [at FOG] because I want to give them a platform to be seen by the larger art world,” says Claudia Altman-Siegel, whose gallery located in the city’s Dogpatch neighborhood has exhibited at FOG since its inception.
While the dealer has noticed a dip in her sales over the last year, she doesn’t directly attribute it to tech—or even to location. “I wouldn’t say it’s Bay Area-specific. The art world is less frothy right now, and I think in this quieter economy, where nobody is IPOing, everyone is holding on to their cash.”
Even when they directly interface with tech clients, exhibiting gallerists aren’t changing their tactics much this year. “What I always bring to FOG are my most beautiful and unusual pieces,” says New York-based Hostler Burrows’s Kim Hostler, who has shown at the fair for the last decade.
“We usually work with younger tech clients when they start to have families and want to buy art to live with because they’re spending more time at home. Our intention of showing things that are handmade and make you feel good when you come home—that carries through no matter what industry you’re in.”
Another FOG veteran, San Francisco-based Jessica Silverman, also thinks of her tech clients holistically. “The tech industry here is everywhere—it’s tentacled through the community in so many ways, so I don’t really think about what I show in relation to tech because I don’t think people collect through that lens.”
Even so, Silverman has found success in alternative exhibition models which allow her to reach new buyers in more direct ways. “We did a pop-up show for our 15th anniversary, which is still up, and it allows me to show people 15-20 artists as opposed to a solo show. We can then gauge what clients are most drawn to and help guide them as new things come into our inventory.”
For newcomers like Jonathan Carver Moore, who launched his gallery last year on San Francisco’s Market Street in the world’s first legally recognized transgender district, the fair’s emphasis on underrepresented artists signals larger efforts in the art world to break down barriers of access, both financially and content-wise.
“FOG FOCUS is a great entry point for people who maybe aren’t ready to collect pieces at a certain price point. This can be their entry,” says Carver Moore. “At the same time, it’s also an opportunity for people to recognize new talent and voices. It’s important for people to see themselves in the work on display, which is why we need to make space for new perspectives and experiences.”
