Following a well-attended VIP preview at this year’s Art Stage Singapore, dealers are saying that the Asian art fair is off to a strong start.  The growing wealth of Southeast Asia is reflected in the high number of Asian galleries at the fair, but Western artists have also fared well, with a number of Antony Gormley works already sold, and major interest in the butterfly works of Damien Hirst.  “With the Dow at a four-year high, a lot of people have loosened their purse strings,” said Jasdeep Sandhu, of Singapore-based Gajah Gallery. (more…)

The New Art Dealers Alliance will return to New York City this year for its second art fair in the city, and will look to the Basketball City sports complex in the Lower East Side to accommodate its stable of artists and exhibitors.  The event will showcase new and emerging contemporary artists and galleries, complementing the concurrent events of Frieze New York on Randall’s Island that weekend. (more…)

The exhibitor list for the 47th edition of ART COLOGNE has been finalized, with a roster over 200 galleries from 25 countries. Running from April 19th to April 22nd, the fair will again see a top-flight group of attendees, and a special section by the New Art Dealers Alliance, following its successful debut last year.  Says ART COLOGNE Director Daniel Hug: “We’re very happy we can again present a fantastic selection of major art-market players. The high-calibre exhibitor list strongly underlines ART COLOGNE’s position as one of the world’s most important contemporary art fairs. Integration of NADA into the Fair means we can offer an alternative view on up-to-the-minute, cutting-edge art.”

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The international art fair calendar will see a new addition to the lineup of Art Basel events this year, with the announcement today of Art Basel Hong Kong, running from May 23th-26th.  The festival mirrors the expanding prominence of the Asian art market, and will include a variety of exhibitions, public works, panel discussions and large-scale installations.  “There’s no question today’s serious international collector is looking at Asia,” Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler says. “The notion of collecting by continent is outmoded, and Asian collectors are looking beyond borders, too.” (more…)

The second annual ArtRio fair closes in Brazil today, with blue-chip exhibitors seeing strong sales of work by international and Brazilian artists. Gagosian and White Cube reported millions of dollars in total sales. 120 galleries participated, around half of them international.

Go to ArtRio’s site

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Gavin Brown Enterprise. All photos on site for Art Observed by Aubrey Roemer.

March 8–11 marked the third edition of INDEPENDENT, the alternative exhibition forum held in the former DIA Center for the Arts on West 22^nd Street in Chelsea. Founded by gallerists Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook in conjunction with White Columns’ Matthew Higgs, Independent has established itself as a thoughtful and ambitious counterpoint to the annual Armory Art Show. This year marked the fair’s largest audience with attendance figures surpassing fifteen thousand. The forty-three participating organizations range from established blue chip galleries to emerging galleries as well as respected non-profits.

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Aerial short of Randall’s Island, via The Art Newspaper

Frieze, the hallmark London contemporary art fair which has steadily built itself up since 2003, today announced its expansion to New York where it will host a fair in Randall’s Island Park.  Frieze Art Fair will open on May 2nd for VIPs, with the public gaining access between May 3rd and 6th.

The fair will coincide with the city’s 2012 contemporary art auctions and will be around the same size as its London counterpart, with roughly170 galleries from 33 countries participating.  Notably, the fair fall outside of the traditional art fair week in March, anchored by the Armory Show.  This may prompt some galleries to re-evaluate which fairs they will participate in. Similarly, the timing of Frieze’s New York fair may affect galleries who may have opted for Art Basel in June.

more story after the jump…

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