Split Level art fair, which entered New York's art calendar as an innovative alternative, meets art lovers again with its second edition at the design showroom of the Italian furniture brand Rimadesio on Madison Avenue. The event, held between 1-3 October, breaks the traditional "white cube" gallery standards and offers the opportunity to display works of art among luxury furniture, cabinets and home-concept spaces.
This initiative, born from the "Good Naked" gallery project that the founder of the fair, Jaqueline Cedar, started in her apartment in Brooklyn in 2019, has evolved from open-air exhibitions during the pandemic period to a boutique fair concept today. Galleries are places where drilling holes in the walls is prohibited; By arranging the works on shelves, leaning them on the seats or hanging them from the ceiling, it provides visitors with an integrated art experience that is much more intimate and gives a feeling of lived-in experience.
Young Galleries and Accessible Art in Focus
Increasing the number of participants from 15 last year to 17 this year, Split Level especially welcomes young galleries that produce experimental works and act independently. At the fair, which includes extraordinary initiatives such as 95 Gallon, The Sphinx, Blah Blah Gallery and Artist Estate Studio, which are managed from a mobile trash can, the concept of accessible art is actively supported by keeping the price tags of the exhibited works generally below $ 10,000.
The economic model of the fair is designed to ensure the survival of young galleries. Although Cedar declines to give exact figures, he notes that attendance fees are three to five times cheaper than even the lowest-priced options of standard satellite fairs. This budget-friendly approach creates a great attraction for flexible and dynamic galleries seeking sustainability in the art world.
"Slow Down" Break in the Art Calendar
Unlike most major art fairs, Split Level follows a deliberate strategy of being held just before or after busy event weeks like New York's Armory Week. Drawing attention to the calendar saturation of the art world, Cedar states that they aim for this fair to be a quiet "break" that offers art lovers the opportunity to examine slower, in-depth and establish a real dialogue with the works.
After this sincere and successful second edition on Madison Avenue, eyes are already turning to the future steps of the project. It was announced that the fair management started working to organize a similar edition at Rimadesio's showroom in Los Angeles in late January 2027, just before Frieze Los Angeles.