SeaFair: A Bermuda Triangle for Sales?

NEW YORK—It’s an art fair on a boat! Yes, it’s been done before (remember Bridge’s ArtBoat back in 2003 and 2004?) but never on this grand a scale. SeaFair, the brainchild of David Lester, who also founded the Palm Beach International Art and Antiques Fair, docked at New York’s Chelsea Piers from October 9 to 14, the third stop on its inaugural voyage after Greenwich and Port Washington. (It stops in Norwalk/Westport next; see the SeaFair Web site for a complete schedule). The Grand Luxe, a multi-million dollar yacht boasting 28 dealers from the Untied States and Europe offering everything from Jackson Pollocks to ancient textiles, is wonderfully palatial—and swanky for sure—with an exquisite, immaculately clean interior, two fine restaurants, and a champagne and caviar bar.

As a lover of all things off-the-beaten-path, I adored this over-the-top fair for its novelty, and so did the dealers I chatted up when I climbed aboard on the chilly, rainy afternoon of October 11. “The concept is terrific, the boat is beautiful, and the idea is a brave one,” Michael Goedhuis (of Goedhuis Contemporary, which has galleries in New York, London, and Beijing) proclaimed between jokes he was firing at neighboring dealer Jerald Melberg of Charlotte, N.C., whom Goedhuis has affectionately nicknamed “Snooty.” “Here is a new adventure, a new way to show art,” he added.

But despite their swashbuckling spirits, the gallerists I spoke with also seemed a bit disheartened. One quietly referred to signing on for a month at SeaFair as a “mistake,” adding that turnout had been disappointing not only on Thursday (which could have been blamed on the dismal weather), but for the past two days as well, and also at the previous stops in Greenwich and Port Washington.

“It has not met expectations,” said Goedhuis, who was showing an array of Asian artworks.

Still, he and Melberg were eager to put a positive spin on things.

“For all of his understandably human foibles, David Lester is a man of gigantic vision and balls,” Goedhuis offered. “Oh. You can say testicles if you don’t want to write balls. Or guts—he does have guts.”

Melberg was quick to agree. “No one can fault David on his vision—or his sincerity of effort,” he said.

Goedhuis added, “Art fairs are declining in general in the world, with the exception of a few.”

That's one way to look at it, but the art world was abuzz about another well-attended fair the same week: the Frieze Art Fair and its satellites in London, which drew a good chunk of the world’s major collectors. Still, Goedhuis and Melberg both alluded to making at least a few sales aboard the yacht—a feat considering the timing and the fact that SeaFair was also competing with the New York galleries. 

And one visitor blamed the sparse turnout on the Chelsea Piers location, leaning in to tell Goedhuis in a low voice: “It’s not quite like parking the boat on Madison Avenue, is it?”