Last year NADA felt rather haphazard—both because of some lazy conceptual art and the fact that some of the more rigorous works at the show were taken out of context. This year, thanks in large part to the decision by about a dozen galleries to give their booths over to solo presentations, the show as a whole seemed more thoughtful, careful, and memorable.

“With the oversaturation of art fairs, solo shows are a way to give our artists some breathing space,” said Michael Gillespie of New York’s Foxy Production, who filled his booth with oddly cheery (Russia is the new America) prints from Moscow photographer Olga Chernysheva. “NADA is a great space to promote someone new—while the economics of doing that at Art Basel are a bit tricky.”

In other words, while blue-chip galleries hedge their bets with blue-chip portfolios of artists, some newish galleries launching newish artists prefer the go-for-broke, all-or-nothing gambit of solo shows.

For several galleries, this strategy has already paid off. “We’ve sold everything,” says NADA newcomer Leslie Fritz of the Renwick Gallery in New York. She was talking about the Basquiat imitations that L.A. artist Chris Lipomi has made every day for the last few months, painting one a day in “a sort of private performance—Chris’s way of creating a daily practice.” Renwick has sold 70 of these for around $2,000 each and now has a waiting list for the remaining 50 or so that the artist plans to make.

“We’ve had to change our display already,” says another newcomer, gallerist Atsuko Ninagawa of Tokyo’s Take Ninagawa. She has already sold dozens of works by Soju Tao, a Xerox-crazy painter with the street credibility and energy of a Japanese Chris Johanson, at prices from $300 to $7,000. “It’s difficult to see what he does from just a couple of works,” she said. “Everybody who has bought so far has bought more than one.”

Cherry and Martin of Los Angeles, who had great success launching sculptor Nathan Mabry at NADA last year, have given over their entire booth this time around to the strangely crafty Amanda Ross-Ho, down to the snowflakes she carved into the wall. They have sold all but a few works, with prices from $3,000 for a unique photograph to $30,000 for the most powerful wall installation. Dealer Philip Martin calls the solo format “ a way to create a moment of focus within a sea of chaos.”

And, speaking of focus and chaos, the mystical and colorful ink drawings of Iranian-born Kamrooz Aram have been selling well at Oliver Kamm of New York, with about half of the booth selling out opening night at prices of $3,000 to $12,000.

For other galleries, the solo-show gamble has yet to pay off completely, but they are hopeful. Gillespie, who has sold one large photo by Chernysheva and put two others on reserve, with prices up to $9,500, says he’s waiting for the Europeans to arrive.

So is Sylvia Kouvali of Instanbul’s Rodeo gallery, who gave over her entire booth to the dark videos and comic-book visions of Ahmet Ogut. “No matter what happens, I will keep going with solo shows. I think it’s very important as a baby gallery to have a single voice. Most of the galleries at fairs are so busy they look like supermarket shelves.”

Jori Finkel is a contributing editor of Art+Auction.