The first edition of Washington, D.C.'s plucky (e)merge art fair opened with a burst of energy on Thursday night. Each gallery took over one or two rooms in the uber-collector Rubell Family's Capital Skyline Hotel, which made for difficult viewing, but some creative use of space. Below, find ARTINFO's top five favorites from the fair (listed in no particular order):

1. The abundance of performance pieces, including one at D.C.'s Heiner Contemporary in which the artist Avery Lawrence, wearing white shorts and shirt — almost like a tennis outfit — strides up an inclined treadmill with a tree stump strapped to his back. Also, at Baltimore's Jordan Faye, David Page's "Impeedence," a woman strapped into an elaborate full-body straitjacket in a wheelbarrow constructed by the artist.

2. Vane gallery, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, for Michael Mulvihill's extensive display of small graphite drawings, and Flora Whiteley's quietly exciting oil paintings.

3. New York's Josee Bienvenu Gallery for Marti Cormand's extraordinarily convincing trompe l'oeil paintings of cardboard boxes and for Annabel Daou's installation "from where, to where," which combines drawing and technology (sound systems in suitcases) exploring, through a single phrase ("where are you now"), the theme of cultural translation.

4. Galerie Anita Beckers of Frankfurt, for Florian Heinke's acrylics and collages, which put a dark spin on advertising and political posters.

5. Aime Mpana of the Congo and Belgium, whose carved wood portrait paintings, which literally excavate the face, were illuminated by flashlights passed out to viewers as they entered the darkened room of Nomad Gallery.

Click on the slide show at left to see some the top works at Washington, D.C.'s (e)merge art fair.