MIAMI—Art Miami turned 18 this year, and it met the challenge of maturity by moving to a new date and location. The fair used to take place in January in the Miami Beach Convention Center; now it’s in December in the Wynwood Art District. But while Art Miami has refreshed its look and the new timing has made it a Basel “satellite,” it has maintained its identity as a fair dedicated to accessible Modern and contemporary artwork.

Fair director Ilana Vardy said that the move opened doors to new dealers. “We’ve attracted such a high level of galleries that a lot of my prior exhibitors couldn’t make the cut.” The newcomers share the veterans’ emphasis on work done in what Vardy described as a “more conservative, decorative style that has been successful with diverse visitors.” This year, the fair has nearly 100 galleries from 17 countries, including international entrants like Beijing’s Chinablue Gallery and Milan’s Galleria Pack, which was at PhotoMiami last year but wanted to also show painting this time out.

At yesterday’s VIP preview, Chinablue director James Brodie said that he saw a lot of contacts with whom he had corresponded over the Internet, but these were more typically museum curators than collectors. The largest canvas in his booth, Xiong Yu’s icy fantasy Horseman on Stage, had sold for $30,000 to an Indonesian collector while en route to the fair. However, smaller visions of the piece, called Herdsman in the Forest and Roaming Through the Woods, were still available for $12,000 each. Brodie described Xiong as a solitary dreamer, one of the emerging lights of the “Cartoon Generation” born in the ’70s.

New York’s Forum Gallery, a longtime participant in Art Miami that also boarded the SeaFair (renamed ArtMB in Miami) this year, welcomed many South Florida clients, as well as others who flew in from Palm Springs. Among its first sales were Maria Tomasula’s whimsical, Surrealist painting The Music of Chance ($12,000) and Sean Henry’s small figurative sculpture Great Western Man ($35,000).

“The last time I saw the show at the convention center, it did not have this quality of dealers,” said manager Cheryl Fishko.

Returning exhibitor Pan American Art Projects, which last year opened an offshoot of its Dallas gallery down the street from Art Miami’s new location in Wynwood, sold a 2005 unique digital print by Argentine artist Leon Ferrari for $14,000 to a Latin American, Miami-based collector, who had heard about Ferrari’s Golden Lion award from this year’s Venice Biennale. Pan American director Janda Wetherington explained that the image, which depicts a small black bird flying through clouds, was taken by the artist’s granddaughter. “The text is his intervention,” Wetherington said, “so it’s a family affair.”

Art Miami’s new home, a 100,000-square-foot temporary pavilion in the heart of Wynwood, is rougher around the edges than the convention center. The carpeted floor is uneven in places, as is the air conditioning (but the chilly corner booths were a welcome break from Tuesday afternoon's heat).

The walls are also a little patchy, though this may have been more noticeable because the works were spaced for dramatic effect, accentuating the airy atmosphere beneath the high-tented ceilings. With a T-shaped layout, the pavilion has an open feel, and the space is dotted with pleasant lounge areas. Unfortunately, the booths are organized in a disorienting numerical system, which is not as helpful as the lettered aisles at the convention center.

Galeria Pack director Giampaolo Abbondio said the layout of his booth had been changed after he shipped the work selected to suit it. He was optimistic about success at the fair, but also patient: “Except for the blue-chips at Art Basel, people will want to see at least five fairs before betting on an unknown artist.”