London’s Woolff Gallery stood out for having sold much of its high-end work by Thursday afternoon. Father and son Malcolm and Nick Woolff told me that many of their emerging artists — rather than “submerging artists,” as Malcolm joked — have blown up since last year’s AAF, which was their first. Russell West’s colorful oil-on-wire-and-board pieces, in which large globs of paint seems to be flowing downward and caught mid-drip, are selling in the range of $6,250–8,400, more than double what they went for last year. And Nick told me the story of one gallery artist, Miranda Donovan, whose work wasn’t at the AAFNY this year because it's no longer affordable. “We sold a work of hers at last year’s fair for $7,400, and this year, an equivalent piece sold in London for $80,000 — more than ten times the price,” he said.

Donovan's case caused the gallerists to reflect on their precarious position at the fair. “Do we want to be at the high end of affordable art?” Malcolm mused.