In My View – What Is an Art Fair?
A fleeting collision of commerce and culture-where art steps into the light, and a city learns, briefly, to see itself differently.
An art fair, if one is to be honest about it, is not entirely about art.
It is about proximity-to money, to taste, to influence. It is about the moment when art, that most elusive and private act, steps forward into the bright, transactional light and learns, however briefly, to behave like a commodity.
“There is something faintly indecent about it. And yet-utterly irresistible.”
Each year, as the Aotearoa Art Fair gathers itself along the Auckland waterfront, it brings with it a certain contradiction. Critics and artists alike regard it with a sideways glance…
And still, they come. Because what emerges inside that temporary architecture is something else entirely-a concentration. A compression of the art world into a single, navigable moment.
“A compression of the art world into a single, navigable moment.”
The Fair
To walk through an art fair is to move through a series of propositions.
Some are bold. Some are quiet. Some feel urgent, others decorative. Together they form a kind of collective temperature reading-a sense of where culture is sitting, right now.
And yet, the experience itself is rarely romantic.
It is crowded. The lighting unforgiving. The setting-temporary, functional-closer to an expo than a gallery.
“Art must compete-for attention, for time, for the flicker of recognition.”
The City Beyond
But beyond the fair, something more interesting begins to happen.
The city loosens. It opens. It participates.
In Britomart, the fair spills outward-into storefronts, into unexpected spaces. Inside Karen Walker, a pop-up exhibition unfolds: four artists, four distinct sensibilities, held lightly within a space designed never to remain fixed.
“If the fair is concentration, the city becomes its echo.”
Artists
Julia Holderness builds her worlds slowly-paint, textile, ceramic-works that feel accumulated rather than composed.
Josephine Cachemaille introduces play: terracotta limbs reaching, touching, unsettling the boundary between object and body.
Monica Rani Rudhar transforms intimacy into declaration-heirlooms scaled into presence.
Jess Swney offers something quieter, but no less radical: surfaces that insist on touch in a space governed by looking.
“Work that insists on touch, in a space governed entirely by looking.”
So what is an art fair?
It is not simply a place to buy art.
It is a place to understand it-how it circulates, how it survives in the presence of commerce, how it finds its audience.
But more than that, it is a moment when a city allows itself to be altered.
“Art leaves the wall. And enters the air.”
Briefly. Imperfectly. But unmistakably.
And in that moment-between spectacle and sincerity-something rare occurs.
At Britomart During Aotearoa Art Fair
Featuring works by:
- Julia Holderness
- Josephine Cachemaille
- Monica Rani Rudhar
- Jess Swney
Pop-up at Karen Walker, until Monday 4 May
Works available via Sanderson & Föenander Galleries
WIN tickets to the Aotearoa Art Fair 2026!
For a few days, the city belongs to art.
To celebrate the Aotearoa Art Fair, Rialto Arts is giving away 2 x tickets to one of our subscribers.
Because art isn’t something you scroll past.
It’s something you step into.
To enter:
– Follow @RialtoFilm @RialtoArts
– Be a subscriber (or start your 7-day free trial) Here
Winner announced: April 30, 2026.
Art leaves the wall-and enters the air.