The Dallas Art Fair, one of the largest and most established commercial fairs in the US between the East and West coasts, will hold its 17th edition this week (10-13 April). The fair will welcome 91 galleries from 53 cities and 21 countries—more than usual—with 30% being first-time exhibitors at the fair. Newcomers include Galería OMR, a heavyweight of the Mexico City art scene, Make Room from Los Angeles and Carvalho Park from New York.
Dealers are eager to get a foothold in the Texas art market, as the state’s population and wealth grows. Texas is one of the fastest-growing states in the country, and last year the population surpassed 30 million, according to estimates from the US Census Bureau. Much of that growth is centred on Dallas, long considered the city with the strongest art market.
“There’s so much energy focused on Dallas,” says fair director Kelly Cornell, who was born and raised in the city. “With the economy here, Dallas is kind of this new front. Texas is a new point of conversation. With this awareness, I think we have the opportunity to really benefit.”
Texas historically has had one of the strongest economies among US states, with a 2023 gross state product of nearly $2.7 trillion (more than the GDP of most countries, including Canada, Italy and Brazil). The state benefits from a diverse economy, led by oil and gas, along with strong manufacturing, agriculture, technology and healthcare industries.
However, the state’s typically resilient economy has been affected by the ongoing volatility on Wall Street caused by US President Donald Trump’s wave of tariffs imposed on many of the US’s closest trading partners. Oil and gas has been hit especially hard by tariffs: oil prices were trading at four-year lows on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
A fair launched amid headwinds
In a mid-March interview, well before the new tariffs were announced, Cornell told The Art Newspaper the Dallas Art Fair tends to do well despite outside economic and political factors—the first edition launched in 2009, in the throes of The Great Recession.
“Dallas, historically, has been pretty insulated from that,” Cornell said. “We’ve seen that at the fair too. The market hasn’t affected the fair as much as we thought [it would] some years. People still come in ready to buy, to learn and to engage with galleries.” She credits the city’s strong community of collectors, who turn out each year in the name of “civic-mindedness”.
The fair will also welcome back galleries that have not exhibited at the fair since before the Covid-19 pandemic, in a move to reconnect with the region’s collectors. “People are seeing the value in the relationships here,” Cornell says. “There is a level of maintenance that needs to be done to keep those relationships viable.”
Another sign of Dallas’s growth is the third edition of the satellite art fair the Dallas Invitational, scheduled for the same week as the Dallas Art Fair. Founded by Dallas dealer James Cope, the invitation-only fair is hosting 17 galleries at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel, including several that previously exhibited in the bigger, more established fair: local mainstay Gallery 12.26, and Night Gallery from Los Angeles.
The Dallas Art Fair is also highlighting the number of young Millennial and Gen Z artists whose work will be showcased on stands this year—by the fair’s count, nearly 40 of the artists featured were born in the 1990s or early 2000s. It is a fresh, fitting figure for the way the Dallas art scene sees itself and its future.
“Dallas is a very young city, and has the advantage to still really be building itself,” Cornell says. “We really need to be pioneering—you can’t be lackadaisical about a fair. You have to be pushing forward and continue to engage.”
- Dallas Art Fair, Fashion Industry Gallery, Dallas, 10-13 April
