NEW YORK— Just a couple of blocks away from the lauded Pulse, the brand-new Red Dot fair is a hodgepodge of artworks snaking across the hallways and filling every room on the first three floors of the Park South Hotel.

As with any art fair set in a hotel, the handful of dealers and collectors were dealing with the challenges that come with navigating cramped spaces, maximizing display surfaces and being banned from using nails. Add to its logistical struggles, the fact that it is a new fair competing with more established events, and the startup had its work cut out for it during Armory week.

Still, despite those obstacles, the galleries offered a solid selection of work and Red Dot provided a welcome respite from more crowded fairs at its Friday opening.

Fresh Finds

The new fair bills itself as a “return to the roots of most U.S. art fairs; to a time when young, forward-looking galleries had to rely on innovation, surprise and whimsy to show and sell exciting non-market-tested works,” and it did seem successful in that endeavor, to the delight of a small-but-intent group of collectors hunting for deals and off-the-beaten-path artworks.

This reporter admired Alex Queral’s sculptural heads carved from phonebooks at Philadelphia’s Projects Gallery. Grappling with celebrity, anonymity and community, they were listed at $750 each. A few of Caleb Weintraub’s shimmering and well-executed mixed media on panel paintings were also available at the booth—two of the smaller works could be had for around $650.

Meanwhile, a group of collectors had gathered to ask questions about Brian Burkhardt’s mixed-media piece US D.O.T. Butterflies, which was still available for $8,500 at the Boston-based Judi Rotenberg Gallery.

Brazilian artist Deborah Wasserman’s (Un) Still Life, a series of 2.5-inch oil on wood panels and video ($450 for seven panels and a DVD)—based on the Frida Kahlo painting Viva La Vida—at the New York-based Paradigm Art, also seemed a smart buy.

And at the booth of Calgary, Canada-based Newzones, gallerist Janet Naclia insisted that we touch Colleen Philippi’s mixed-media assemblages on wood. We particularly liked exploring the “rooms” of Apartment 53 (available for $3,500)—eight doors revealing a set of tiny surprises, from a goopy paintbrush to miniscule furniture. “It’s all about creating your own narrative,” Naclia said.

Creative Displays

The rooms at the Park South Hotel are small—even one of the biggest, gallerist Denise Bibro’s “suite,” was short on space—so dealers had to make do with creative use of the room they did have.

The smell of bubble bath wafted from the Santa Monica-based Patricia Faure Gallery, where Mattia Biagi’s tar-covered rubber duckies bobbed in the tub ($250 for a set of five). By the sink sat his tar and plush Sitting Bear, listed at $1,600.

A tangle of what looked like writhing snakes—an unsettling Laura Evans installation—overflowed from the bathtub at New York’s Brenda Taylor Gallery. The cheery, bright yellow color increased the sense of unease the work created. The rest of the room was more comfortable, with the right amount of work mounted on the walls, including still-available pieces by Heather Wilcoxon and James Croak, ranging in price from $100 to $10,000 and up.

At Dillon Gallery’s booth, artist Alexander Kaletski had chosen circumvent the hotel architecture and construct a shack from found cardboard to house his oil portraits of urban dwellers. “It’s a spontaneous process, and you can see that quality in the work,” said the New York-based gallery’s Sarah Ruddell, adding that Kaletski’s pieces sell for about $8,000 to $12,000.

Denver-based Rule Gallery went for an “if you can beat them join them” strategy, embracing the hotel setting and giving the room a lived-in look. Each of the dresser drawers contained a single, bright-colored sock and a wool tie hung on the bathroom door.

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