82Mercer
82 Mercer St. between Spring & Broome Sts.
Saturday, August 4, and Sunday, August 5, free with suggested donation, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
www.parallaxaf.com
www.82mercer.com
Beginning in London and proceeding to Miami, the Parallax Art Fair, familiarly known as P(AF), is coming to New York this weekend, moving into 82Mercer on Saturday and Sunday. Adventurous art lovers can enter for free to peruse items for sale in a way that fair curator and conceiver Dr. Chris Barlow promises will provide “an intellectual framework that encourages risk to buy what you actually like for a change—there is nothing worse than making a purchase you like and some ‘specialist’ sneering down their nose at you.” Dr. Barlow is looking to lever the playing field with P(AF); as he writes on the fair’s website, “Consensus is not objective. It is temporary, arbitrary, and artificially reinforced by Art History. It is one thing for a major collector like Charles Saatchi to identify surface problems in the industry, as he has done recently, but we must probe much deeper and tackle the core problems if we are to transform the industry, and its pedagogical wings, from the inside out. This is perhaps one method for generating a more democratic and diverse cultural sector.” Exhibitors from more than two dozen countries will be on hand, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, and Turkey, with an online catalog that can help you narrow down which specific art you might be most interested in.