Almost half the galleries at this year's fair are less than five years old, and several were only established this year, according to Director Jérôme Pantalacci.
Exhibition view: Malte Zander, Best Friends, City Galerie, Vienna (6 May–19 June 2022). Courtesy the artist, City Galerie, and Shore Gallery, Vienna.
Art-o-rama returns to la Friche la Belle de Mai, a former tobacco factory turned cultural centre, from 31 August to 3 September.
The largest fair in the South of France, Art-o-rama will feature 60 exhibitors including 41 galleries, 17 edition and design galleries, and two project spaces.
Director Jérôme Pantalacci said the fair 'remains a real launch pad for very young galleries'.
He said almost half of participating galleries were less than five years old, and some of them much less. Three participating galleries from Paris—DS Galerie, Spiaggia Libera, and HATCH—didn't exist before 2022.
Pantalacci also drew attention to Italian galleries Gian Marco Casini and eastcontemporary, and London's Public Gallery, South Parade, and Ginny on Frederick, which opened just last year in a sandwich shop that closed due to the pandemic.
The opportunity to discover new artists and galleries also comes from the participants' geographic spread. Galleries are coming from as far as Tbilisi (Artbeat), Mexico City (Galería Mascota), and Montréal (Parc Offsite).
Art-o-rama's galleries have largely elected to focus on in-depth presentations, with 28 solo and eight duo booths. The full list of exhibitors can be viewed on the Art-o-rama website.
In addition to contemporary art, the fair will again feature contemporary design, a section of Art-o-rama that was introduced in 2022. Highlights include a special presentation by Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, which will feature a dozen of its designers.
The Show-room section will present works by nominees for both the Région Sud Art Prize and the Région Sud Design Prize, which are awarded in celebration of the best emerging artists and designers from the South of France.
The fair also has nine acquisition prizes, which are supported by backers such as Collezione Taurisano (Naples, Italy), and art supplies brand PÉBÉO.
Lending further support to artists, exhibitions programming at la Friche includes a presentation by artists in residence at the Ateliers de la Ville de Marseille, works by graduates of L'École des Beaux-Arts de Marseille, and a solo-show by British artist Zoë Williams presented by FRÆME and curated by Vincent Honoré.
The online section, Immaterial Salon, is mainly dedicated to video and sound-based work. Featured artists include Japanese artist COBRA, 2005 Marcel Duchamp Prize winner Claude Closky, and Elsa Werth, who won the Fondation Pernod Ricard Prize in 2022.
Across the fair's various offerings, Pantalacci said 'collectors and professionals know they will discover new galleries and new artists with real curatorial proposals' at this year's Art-o-rama. —[O]
