An acquaintance of mine once said to me, “artists have about as much fun in art fairs as cattle do in a slaughterhouse.” That does seems a little overstated, but I took the point. Like most everyone else involved, I put up with the format for a chance to see people — and occasionally artworks — that I admire. When I first met Abby Bangser, then, it seemed to me she was describing what we’ve all been waiting for: an art fair with people and artworks and nothing else, except perhaps a sense of style, courtesy of Rafael de Cárdenas (whom she engaged as artistic director and to design the temporary space). No booths. No evident hierarchy. Even better, from my point of view, no boundaries observed between art, craft, and design. Called Object & Thing, this truly cross-disciplinary, new-model event is upon us (it opens this Friday), with about 200 objects, none easily categorized, all of them interesting.
