NEW YORK— Three satellite fairs are making their New York debuts during the Armory Show this week, while another — which would have celebrated its third installment this time around — is shunning the entire affair.

Fountain Takes a Time Out
David Kesting, one of the founders of the small, guerrilla-style Fountain fair that featured young Brooklyn galleries and thumbed its nose at the traditional art-fair setup by offering scrappy salon-style installations, said Fountain won’t be returning to New York for 2008, mainly because its organizers are disappointed with the current state of the art fair scene and the “commercialization of contemporary art.”

“When we found out the Merchandise Mart had purchased the Armory [in 2007], that was the determining factor,” said Kesting, who runs Capla Kesting Fine Art in Williamsburg and the recently opened Leo Kesting Gallery in the Meatpacking District with business partner John Leo. “It’s tough to see the marketplace change to the point where it really is a mall setting.”

However, Kesting emphasized that he is well aware of the importance of fairs — “financial support for galleries and artists is part of why we do the Fountain project” — and he denied that tough economic times or lack of participatory interest were factors in the decision to cancel this year’s fair. “It’s quite the opposite, actually,” he said. “Basically we had more galleries this year who were paying more money to be part of the exhibit, and that’s what was so scary. Fountain was designed to offer independent galleries the chance to participate in these mega-fairs without being subjected to the jury panels and rental roles, and this year we saw ourselves becoming like a larger fair. Fifteen galleries were slated for the exhibition when we canceled—we actually had to refund a number of deposits taken on the show.”

Kesting said Fountain organizers will take several months to strengthen the fair’s mission to bring exposure to independent galleries and up-and-coming artists, and then re-emerge during Art Basel Miami Beach in December. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done with Fountain,” Kesting said. “This is not what I wanted to happen, but taking a minute to go back to our roots will really benefit us. I think we can still produce a quality exhibit for independent galleries in Miami.”

Bridge Finds New Focus
Kesting added that some of the galleries that participated in Fountain last year have found homes at other Armory satellites for the time being, including Bridge, a fair that started in Miami in 2005 but is making its first appearance in New York this year (Bridge made its London debut [with Kesting participating] during the Frieze Art Fair in 2007, and it will also expand to Berlin in October).

The New York edition of Bridge runs March 27 to 30 at the Waterfront — the former home of the famous Tunnel nightclub — on 12th Avenue. Bridge founder Michael Workman said he brought the fair, which will showcase 57 galleries, to New York because Armory founder Paul Morris encouraged him to do so. “[Morris] provided a lot of assistance in us getting set up here and reaching VIPs,” Workman said.

He added that Bridge is using the New York edition to introduce its brand-new “Focus” series. From now on, each edition of Bridge will highlight a different culture. Bridge New York will concentrate on Asia, with 15 of the participating galleries hailing from Taipei, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, and elsewhere across the Pacific Rim. The timing was right, Workman said, with interest in Asian art soaring, the success of the first ShContemporary fair in Shanghai in September 2007, and New York recently wrapping up its Asia week auctions, exhibitions, and fairs. “We’re trying to spread culture across geographic and artistic boundaries,” Workman said.

The art will be affordable, too, he added, which he felt was important given the current economic climate. “You won’t have to break the bank to purchase artworks.”

Art Now Touts Diversity
Another new-to-New York fair focused on affordability and accessibility is Art Now, slated for Mach 27 to 30 at Hotel 30/30 on East 30th Street.

The free-admission fair, which debuted alongside Art Basel Miami Beach in 2007, is a companion to the sophomore fair Red Dot, which takes place just around the corner at the Park South Hotel on East 28th Street.

Organizer Nicole Hudson said that in addition to accessibility, Art Now emphasizes diversity. “We have 30 galleries representing eight different countries from the United States to Latvia to Germany, so it’s really exciting,” she said.

In comparison to Art Now’s first run in Miami, where it competed with an unprecedented number of other satellites, visitors can expect a more relaxed experience, given that there are only nine other fairs, Hudson added.

“It’s much more manageable,” she said. “People will feel like it’s a little more intimate, as opposed to Miami, which was a bit overwhelming.”

Volta Goes Solo
A third fair making its inaugural appearance in New York is Volta, which is owned by Armory Show parent Merchandise Mart and runs March 27 to 30 across from the Empire State Building at 7 West 34th Street.

Volta premiered at Art Basel in 2005, but the New York edition, VoltaNY, will have a new focus: solo projects. The invitational fair, themed “The Eye of the Beholder,” is curated and directed by art critics Amanda Coulson and Christian Viveros-Faune, and limits each booth to a single artist — 53 in all.

“The Eye of the Beholder” theme addresses little-talked-about issues surrounding beauty and art in a subtle way, Coulson said, asking whether art can be beautiful and good at the same time. 

Organizers opted for the solo platform to promote deeper exploration of both that issue and the participating artists’ work and to differentiate Volta from the other, more traditional New York fairs. Coulson said she also hopes the format generates a “young dynamic and more energy.”

“We approached it as inviting artists rather than inviting galleries,” she added. “It’s not another venue with endless corridors of different works by different artists on the walls.”