An interesting aspect of the recent, and perhaps ongoing, art market correction is that it has been reasonably democratic. Galleries that sell paintings well into the six-figure range have been tightening their belts, just like galleries hawking works below $5,000, though the latter have certainly been far more likely to go under. For over 20 years, the New Art Dealers Association (NADA) has supported dealers in that hardscrabble category, and if the opening of its 2024 edition today is any indication of the market’s health, the diagnosis is a bit mixed.

“It’s certainly not a wave,” said Anton Svyatsky, the owner of New York’s Management Gallery, of collector attendance. Svyatsky had sold two paintings by Amorelle Jacox for $11,000 each and a few scattered items from her on-site storage in the first few hours of the fair. Last year, his booth sold out within the first hour of the VIP opening, he said. “But people are coming, and they’re ready to buy stuff.” Another dealer compared the feeling to the beginning of a bat mitzvah, before people felt comfortable enough to start trickling onto the dance floor. 

The crowd was leaner than in previous years at Ice Palace Studios in Miami. I didn’t clock any celebrities, and a can of Michelob Ultra sold for a grim $9. But otherwise, the trappings were all the same. Collectors lounged in hammocks in the yard outside the venue as chickens roamed about.

NADA is usually a place to spot new trends, like goopy ceramics, AI interventions, and textile wall-works (to name a few recent ones), but this time, there was no overarching tendency. “People don’t have a North Star,” said sculptor Pat “Pigeon Pat” McCarthy, who was showing work at Manhattan’s Entrance gallery. “It’s nice to come to a fair and see such an eclectic mix. People are throwing things up in the air and seeing what sticks.”

Erika Verzutti, Sunny Night, 2024. Courtesy of Misako & Rosen.

For Jeffrey Rosen, co-owner of Tokyo-based Misako and Rosen, that approach worked well. He brought over two photographs by Takashi Yamasua and sold one very quickly for $8,500. Rosen was sharing a booth with Milwaukee’s Green Gallery, a popular practice during the market slump. They had agreed to an interesting twist, however. All sales will be split 50/50 between the gallerists, regardless of who actually brought the piece. “If you’re working together with a gallery and sharing a space, it seems like you should take on jointly the rewards and the risks, rather than competing with each other,” Rosen said. By the early afternoon, those rewards included Yamasua’s photograph, a bronze by Erika Verzutti for $45,000, and two paintings by Fergus Feehily for $10,000 each. 

Nearby, Jack Hanley had also sold a photograph, altered to depict a cow visited by a UFO by Ed Loftis, for $4,500. Hanley is a NADA veteran, having shown at every edition of the Miami fair since 2003, and said that this year’s turnout was “better than the last several years.” He had just sold a psychedelic painting by Karen Barbour for $15,500.

Install image of Sea View’s booth at NADA Miami 2024. Photo courtesy of Sea View.

Two notable new Los Angeles galleries, Emma Fernberger and Sea View, both reported strong sales by midday. “I’m feeling very positive this year,” said Fernberger, who showed in NADA’s Projects section last year, before opening her brick-and-mortar a few weeks later in L.A.’s Melrose Hill gallery cluster. This year, she sold out her booth of paintings by Anne Wehrley Björk, Kiki Xuebing Wang, and Vicky Colombet in a range of $20,000 to $30,000.

Around the corner, Sea View’s owner, Sara Hantman, was close to selling out, having found buyers for three paintings by Bruce Richards between $3,500 to $20,000, a Jay Payton painting for $12,000 two William Wright paintings in the range of $5,000 to $10,000, and two paintings by Jane Corrigan in the same range. Hantman, who worked for years as a director at other people’s galleries, said proudly, “I’m going to the beach this year, because I’m the boss!”