Independent looks good. Good galleries, good art throughout, stuff that looks good on first glance, stuff that gets better when you dig in. The curated approach pays off—compared to many other fairs, the visual impact is like a photo where you have hit the “magic wand” button.
It’s probably not a surprise that the neo-bucolic continues to reign. There are lots of landscapes and animals, painted with various kinds of virtuosic informality, in the small-to-medium range (Sameen Agha, Tim Braden, Lewis Brander, Lisa Sanditz, Eva Struble). The whole vibe here is to do just enough of a spin on this familiar subject matter to animate it, but not so much that you exit the easeful headspace it is meant to put you in.
