Art Market Productions to Launch Atlanta Art Fair

Organisers cited the arrival of Atlanta Art Week and the city's 'extraordinary wealth' as motivations for the new fair.

Art Market Productions (AMP) will launch a new art fair in Atlanta, Georgia next year in collaboration with Intersect Art and Design.

The fair will take place in October 2024, alongside the third edition of Atlanta Art Week. It will be held at Pullman Yards, a cultural centre that's frequently used in movie productions.

AMP hopes to sign up 50 galleries for the inaugural edition.

Kelly Freeman, Director of AMP, will direct the fair. She said she had received 'a strong display of interest' from galleries located in Atlanta, across the American South, and beyond.

'We can confidently anticipate that at least 50% of all participating galleries will have some connection to the city and wider region,' she said.

AMP's existing offerings include the San Francisco Art Market, Seattle Art Fair, and Art on Paper in New York.

Asked why AMP had chosen to expand to Atlanta, Freeman cited 'the city's extraordinary wealth and 'so much happening in Atlanta from a cultural perspective.'

Median household income in Atlanta was U.S. $74,107 in 2021, only slightly above the national average of $70,784, but Georgia has the eighth most billionaires among U.S. states. Of the state's 17 billionaires, 15 live in Atlanta.

Freeman said the inaugural Atlanta Art Week in 2022 had also been an 'important catalyst to bring the community together'.

She noted the opening of UTA Artist Space, young galleries like Wolfgang Gallery, and the expansion of leading photography gallery Jackson Fine Art.

'These new developments all build on a strong foundation of existing museums and institutions in the city, such as the High Museum of Art, Spelman College Museum of Art, and Atlanta Contemporary, with a plethora of compelling private and corporate collections,' she said.

With regards to the kinds of art fairgoers are likely to encounter, Freeman said it was impossible to say.

She noted, however, that the city has a strong history of photography—Elton John keeps much of his vast photography collection at his apartment in Buckwood—as well as outstanding artists across disciplines, from sculpture and installation by Lonnie Holley to paintings by Radcliffe Bailey. —[O]