DALLAS, Texas — The tiny greenbug aphids clinging to my outfit matched the logo of the Dallas Art Fair (DAF) — a clean, verdant, lime-green square. The air was thick and warm, but it’s early enough in the season that the croaky birds known as grackles have yet to get loud, giving the bustle around the concrete mid-century Fashion Industry Gallery building an aura of spring awakening, with art as colorful as the outfits filing in and out the swinging glass doors in the city’s downtown.
For eight of its 16 years, the Dallas Art Fair Foundation and Dallas Museum of Art Acquisition Fund has raised significant funding to facilitate acquisitions from the show for the institution’s permanent collection. “Fairs are about that moment in time when everyone can be in the same room,” Kelly Cornell, the fair’s director, told Hyperallergic. But the fair hasn’t been without challenges: In 2020, after the fair was canceled due to pandemic restrictions, 30 gallerists attempted to get their booth payments back and were met with resistance.
