Outsider Art Fair Moves to New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion

Hôtel du Duc. Photo: Lux Productions.

Changes are afoot for the Outsider Art Fair (see Outsider Art Fair Offers Fresh Home for Art World Misfits), which today announced not just one, but two new venues, in both New York and Paris.

In Manhattan, the fair will move to the Metropolitan Pavilion, on West 18th Street, which is also home to the PULSE art fair (see Instagram-Ready PULSE Looks To Surprise You). The Paris edition, entering its third year, will move to Hôtel du Duc, hosting 36 exhibitors in a 1,000-square-meter space (approximately 3,280 feet).

The fair’s Gotham edition found itself homeless after the former Dia Art Foundation building, where it ran for several years, was purchased by a new landlord, who terminated the leases of the events venue as well as Zach Feuer gallery (see Owner of Former Dia Building Ousts Independent Fair and Zach Feuer).

“We love that space,” Andrew Edlin, who purchased the fair in 2013, told artnet News. “It’s so terrific to show art there, but you, know, real estate marches on.” He called the Metropolitan Pavilion an “obvious” choice, and hopes its more central location—between 6th and 7th Avenues—will draw more visitors.

At least two other New York art fairs will also find themselves in need of new homes with the shuttering of the old Dia building: the Independent, which now hosts two events in the space annually, and SELECT, part of the upcoming Frieze Week (see See What Top Dealers Are Bringing to Frieze New York).

The Outsider Art Fair’s Paris event was previously hosted at Hotel Le A, with 25 dealers showing work in individual rooms. “Paris was a brand new venture. To get a foothold, it made a lot of sense to do a hotel fair,” explained Edlin.

Now, the fair is growing up, graduating to a grand, salon-like space, with plenty of French classical architectural details, that once belonged to the Duke de Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III.

“We think it’s going to be an amazing venue,” Edlin said.

The Outsider Art Fair will take place in Paris at the Hôtel du Duc, 22 rue de la Michodière, from October 22–25, 2015, and in New York at the Metropolitan Pavilion, at 125 West 18th Street, from January 21–24, 2016.


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