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Why the Destination Art Fair Is Here to Stay

From St. Moritz to Gstaad, from Capri to the Berkshires, from Punta del Este to Joshua Tree, smaller, boutique fairs are setting up shop where collectors already are.

Tell someone you are traveling to Ibiza for the art, and they might not believe you. Pushing against that skepticism is Contemporary Art Now, or CAN, a small boutique art fair that invites art lovers to dip a toe in the pristine waters of the beach clubs of Talamanca, perhaps grab lunch in the quiet northern harbor of Portinatx, then pull a sopracostume over one’s bikini before buying some art. The fair’s selection is colorful, positive and catchy without being kitsch. Participating galleries aim to catch the eye of the Ibiza public, which, of course, wants to decorate their beach homes, without sacrificing attention to industry trends or art that’s meaningfully engaging with the issues of the day.

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“When you’re outside the fair, you’re in such a holiday mode, everything is beautiful, you’re so relaxed,” fair curator Saša Bogojev told Observer. “Then you come inside, and I like to think of these works being some sort of a mental workout, because a lot of these works are speaking of certain subjects, some of them are not maybe that pleasant. I like to create this kind of contrast with the environment outside.”

It’s not just CAN. In a world where art fairs are multiplying by the day and being involved in the industry, whether one is selling or buying, has come to feel like a combat sport, some fair organizers are experimenting with a different model: one that adapts to the lifestyle of the most coveted collectors, rather than asking them to scramble to keep up with a sometimes frantic art fair calendar. Or to put it another way, if the collector won’t go to the art fair, the art fair will go to the collector.

The growing roster of destination art fairs extends from St. Moritz to Gstaad, from Capri to the Berkshires, from Punta del Este to Joshua Tree. That growth can be linked to the post-pandemic development of the so-called “experience economy”—how and where you collect art is, for some, as important as the purchase itself. That aligns with a boom in luxury travel, a market now valued at $1.59 trillion and........

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