ATLANTA — Pullman Yards, located about four miles from downtown Atlanta, is a loose assemblage of former industrial buildings, anchored by a massive brick, glass, and steel structure with worn concrete floors where train cars from the railroad company were once repaired. Abandoned for a time, the cavernous site was a favorite location of local graffiti artists. Now redeveloped as an event venue and cultural destination, the building is home to the Atlanta Art Fair, whose diverse range of work on display and welcoming, unpretentious crowd sets it apart from other shows.
Unlike fairs started by dealers, such as Art Basel and the Armory Show, or by artists, such as Spring Break or Clio, the Atlanta Art Fair was launched just last year by Art Market Productions (AMP), an offshoot of the experiential marketing agency a21. (AMP also runs Art on Paper along with the Seattle and San Francisco Art Fairs.) For a company focused on mounting expositions outside typical art markets, in cities with under-appreciated cultural legacies and high concentrations of wealth, Atlanta is not a surprising choice given its density of Fortune 500 companies and expanding tech and healthcare sectors. Yet, the city also has the most pronounced income inequality in the United States, a disparity that falls heavily along racial lines in a metropolitan area that was long home to a Black majority. Atlanta is part of a region that is “sometimes fetishized, always marginal,” said Sarah Higgins, executive and artistic director of the local publication Art Papers, which is winding down operations in 2026, in a talk the same weekend as the fair.
Installation view of works by Kelly Boehmer at Cindy Lisica Gallery’s booth (photo Alexis Clements/Hyperallergic)
These contradictions make it impossible to generalize about the different expectations and realities that fairgoers brought to the event. The work on display was unpredictable, inviting attendees to pay close attention as they moved through the space — from J. Ruel Martin’s wood-turned work, which one might be more used to seeing in a craft-focused setting, to pieces by big names like Keith Haring or Mickalene Thomas, presentations by smaller galleries that don’t typically participate in art fairs, an exhibition by students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (which has an Atlanta campus), and an overall emphasis on regional artists and artists of color.
Notably, many booths listed prices next to works, which is not at all typical for fairs, where gatekeeping can make it difficult for attendees to access that most basic piece of information. (And many of those prices were extremely accessible, in the $100–1,000 range.) Open Editions, a San Francisco-based project that works with artists to create products based on their practice, had a bright corner booth where attendees could walk away with tote bags, cards, and pins for as little as $10 or $20.
Open Editions sold tote bags, pins, and more based on artists’ work. (photo Alexis Clements/Hyperallergic)
Curious about what drew people to the Atlanta Art Fair, I spoke to Jonathan Carver Moore, whose namesake gallery in San Francisco represents BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women artists. “When I go to New York, to Los Angeles, to Miami — these are all cities where we expect to see art fairs,” he said. “But I think there’s an entire audience, a collector base, and a culture we’re sometimes missing.” Like several others, including Rachel Lee, who runs 120 Art Lab in Seoul, Moore did not participate in the fair’s first edition, but he has done other AMP shows in the past.
Among regional gallerists, I heard over and over again that they were looking forward to connecting with others from the Southeast. Hunt Pennington and Joshua Edward Bennett from Nashville’s Tinney Contemporary gallery, which was participating in an art fair for the very first time, said the ability to simply rent a U-Haul and drive the work to Atlanta made a big difference in their choice to attend. Also from Tennessee, Lauren Kennedy of Sheet Cake Gallery, who regularly does fairs including the Armory Show and NADA, talked about feeling more at ease in Atlanta, and more intentional. “Doing this work outside of New York and LA is incredibly important,” she said.
Tinnery Contemporary presented works by Lovie Olivia, including “Recess” (2023), Gypsum plaster, pigment, dye, venetian plaster, latex, acrylic on gypsum board (image courtesy the artist and Tinnery Contemporary)
Icart-Pierre, works from the Boxed In series (2025), acrylic paint on cardboard and Nike/Jordan boxes, at the booth of Atlanta-based Gallery 305 (photo Alexis Clements/Hyperallergic)
For local artists, the show represented something different. Jean Patrick Icart-Pierre, who presented four works from his Boxed In (2025) series in a booth for the nascent Atlanta-based artist-run Gallery 305, lamented the dearth of artist-run or nonprofit spaces in the city. Laila Jhané, who was sharing “City in a Forest” (2025), an installation created with Chanell Angeli and commissioned by the Fulton County Arts & Culture’s Public Art Futures Lab, talked about how excited she was to be showing for the first time alongside internationally known artists. Notably, this year’s fair also saw the launch of the Balentine Prize, which focuses on artists working in Atlanta or the regional South, providing a bit more recognition for participating area artists.
Ultimately, the Atlanta Art Fair offered a refreshingly approachable atmosphere. It does, however, suffer from the perennial issue of most such events: a very high entry price, with day passes costing close to $50 once all taxes and fees are added. It remains to be seen whether its welcoming environment can be maintained into the future — at the end of the day, a fair is a marketplace, and sales are key to its survival.
The fair’s inaugural Balentine Prize focuses on artists working in Atlanta or the regional South. (photo by Atlanta Event Photography, courtesy Balentine)
