Bigger and Better Than Ever, Dallas Art Fair Dazzles and Delights
The Global Art World Turns Its Attention to the Big D
BY Melissa Smrekar //
The 18th Dallas Art Fair concluded Sunday after a milestone weekend that yielded impressive attendance and robust sales. (Photo by Chase Hall)
Throughout this past weekend, Instagram and TikTok flooded my feed with Bieberchella content and ‘fit checks, full of barely-there, um, “festival wear.” Leave that to the youth, though. Here in Dallas, our city’s glitterati remained booked and busy with Dallas Art Fair, baby. If you take it off for Coachella, you layer it on for Dallas Art Fair. More is more in the Big D, of course.
Air Kisses & Red Dots
A sartorial highlight of the spring social season, Dallas Art Fair kicks off with a VIP Preview Party on Thursday night that’s always a who’s who of the art scene. Curators, collectors, gallerists, artists, admirers, and aspirationalists flock to Fashion Industry Gallery (a.k.a. FIG) for a night downtown that’s chock full of air kisses and red dots. A night for the Cool Kids, attendees interpret the “artful cocktail” suggested attire with their own artistic license. You can truly get away with anything. It’s a night where individuality shines brightest. In the age of the algorithm, personal style seems elusive if not in danger of extinction. A gathering of arts patrons always reminds me that personal style isn’t dead, after all. Be sure to swipe through the photo gallery, our homage to some of the evening’s best serves, as captured by the charming Chase Hall.
Actively Shaping the Dialogue
The 18th Dallas Art Fair concluded Sunday after a milestone weekend that yielded impressive attendance and robust sales. During the four-day fair, an international roster of galleries from 18 countries headed to Dallas, which reinforces our city’s growing influence on the global contemporary art stage.
Jennifer Carvalho, the director of CARVALHO, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, says, “It was as vibrant an opening day as expected. Rachel Mica Weiss’s hand-carved marble sculpture What Weight to Wield? (2026) sold in the first hours of the VIP Preview, and we saw incredible momentum across her practice. We had early reserves leading up to the fair, yet all sales were confirmed by collectors on the ground, which speaks to the energy from the onset. Showing in Dallas, my hometown, makes it especially meaningful to place these works with Texas collectors.”
By all accounts, this year’s Dallas Art Fair was a smash success for everyone involved… and for Dallas.
“This year’s fair has been especially optimistic for Dallas, our galleries, and our artists,” says Kelly Cornell, director of the Dallas Art Fair. “With increased attendance over previous years, significant sales, six acquisitions by the Dallas Museum of Art, and the debut of the Dallas Art Prize, the momentum has been undeniable. What continues to distinguish Dallas is the decisiveness and depth of its collector base — this is a market where engagement translates into meaningful acquisitions. It speaks to a city that is not only receptive to contemporary art, but actively shaping the dialogue — Dallas continues to assert itself as a dynamic and globally relevant cultural force.”
Spring at Bering's
Dallas Art Prize and Acquisition Fund
For the inaugural Dallas Art Prize, John McAllister received an unrestricted $20,000 prize sponsored by Bank of America. Anne & Steve Stodghill and Sheridan & Bryan Reeder hosted a dinner in McAllister’s honor, leading into the fast and furious weekend.
In addition, the Dallas Art Fair and the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced that the DMA selected six works from the 2026 fair for the museum’s permanent collection. These acquisitions by artists Nicole Eisenman, Gloria Klein, Caroline Monnet, and Raymond Saunders mark a milestone decade of the program, which has brought 78 works of art into the DMA through more than $1 million of Acquisition Fund donations.
“As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the acquisitions fund, we are proud to welcome works by these important artists into the collection,” says Dr. Vivian Li, Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA. “Spanning the mid-1970s to the present, their inventive, layered approaches to textile, painting, relief, drawing, and collage transform deeply personal perspectives into powerfully original work. These acquisitions reflect our ongoing commitment to Indigenous, LGBTQ, women, and African diaspora artists who are forging bold and compelling paths.”
After 18 years, you’re all grown up, Dallas Art Fair. Oh, the places you’ll go!
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