Zero Art Fair

Public Exhibition: July 8-10, 11 AM-5 PM
Zero Art Fair: July 11-12, 11 AM-5 PM

Zero Art Fair is excited to announce its second edition, in partnership with The FLAG Art Foundation. Building on the success of the inaugural edition in Elizaville, NY, in 2024, this year’s fair will continue to promote an alternative to the contemporary art market and an egalitarian model of art collecting.

Interested collectors can register for tickets here.

Developed by artists Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, Zero Art Fair challenges the pretense of scarcity that underpins the notion of ‘art-as-commodity,’ which structures the contemporary art market. This practice of manufactured scarcity is at odds with the vast inventory of unsold work sitting in studios and storage units across the world, a dynamic that creates a financial burden for artists and deprives worthy art of being seen and appreciated.

In opposition to this model, Zero Art Fair aims to match stored artworks with people who want to live with art but who are typically restricted from accessing it. With their model, people can take possession of art without buying it through a contractual arrangement that includes a five year vesting period before ownership is automatically transferred to the new owner. During that time, the artist retains the right to sell the work or borrow it for exhibition. After ownership is transferred, the contract grants the artist 50% of the sale price if the work is later sold and a 10% royalty in perpetuity on subsequent resales. Provenance will be posted online.

Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida stated, “This year’s edition of Zero Art Fair will address questions of equity by prioritizing access to those who need help to live with art, aiming to enlarge the community of people who can experience art in this way. It’s one thing to visit a gallery to look at artwork—it’s another thing entirely to live with it in your home.”

The fair will open to the public July 8-10; from July 11-12 visitors will need to register to receive a free timed ticket to enter the fair. Zero Art Fair will ask potential collectors to self-identify economically, with priority access given to those who usually cannot afford to purchase art. There will be a limit of one artwork per household.

Exhibiting artists include Natale Adgnot, Griffin Allman, Adina Andrus, Michele Araujo, Bo Bartlett, Taylor Bielecki, James Bills, Sari Carel, Dana Carlson, Janice Caswell, Henry Hung Chang, Amy Cheng, Mike Childs, Matthew Conradt, Julia Cullen, Jennifer Dalton, Tielin Ding, Ryan Erickson, Madge Evers, Annie Ewaskio, Priscilla Fusco, Benjamin Gibson, Allison Gildersleeve, Anne Gilman, Glenn Goldberg, Luke Gray, Jessica Hargreaves, Roberto Jackson Harrington, Amy Hill, Ryan Van Der Hout, David Howe, James Huang, Elsie Kagan, Jeana Eve Klein, KK Kozik, David Kramer, Rebecca Leveille-Guay, Jess Levey, Lisa Levy,  Tara Lewis, Fanyu Lin, Gina Magid, Michael Mandiberg, Bridget May, Tracy Miller, Amy Morel, Chris Moss, Linda Nagaoka, Mary Negro, Perri Neri, Luke O'Halloran, Debra Pearlman, Linda Pellagrini, William Powhida, Mary Raap, Ria Rajan, Donna Ruff, Kate Rusek, Patricia Satterlee, Dick Schlefer, Michael Scott, Lauren Seiden, Jordan Seiler, Michael Shaw, David Shepard, Kayo Shido, Diana Shpungin, Adam Simon, Thomas Spoerndle, Alfred Steiner, Suzanne Kathaleen Stroebe, Lynn Sullivan, Bob Szantyr, Julian Valgora, Jason Varone, Chris Verene, Lexa Walsh, Michael Waugh, Emily Weiskopf, Barbara Westermann and Ripley Whiteside.

Zero Art Fair is guided by an advisory committee consisting of Franklin Boyd (attorney); Ani Cordero (digital strategy); Kianga Ellis (Kianga Ellis Projects); Jessica Hargreaves (Co-Founder/Director of Mother-in-Law’s); Micaela Martegani (Executive Director and Chief Curator, More Art); Janet Phelps (independent curator, advisor and collector); Felix Salmon (journalist, podcaster and author); Magda Sawon (Founder/Director, Postmasters Gallery, New York); Adam Simon (artist and Founder, Fine Art Adoption Network); Manon Slome (Co-Founder, No Longer Empty); Alfred Steiner (attorney and artist); Mark Tribe (artist); Amy Whitaker (Professor, New York University); Edward Winkleman (author and private dealer) and Lauren Wittels (Partner, Luhring Augustine Gallery). Artworks shown in the fair have been chosen by a curatorial committee of artists and arts professionals including Folasade Ologundudu (curator); Sara Reisman (curator, educator, and writer); Jonathan Rider (Director, The FLAG Art Foundation); Seph Rodney, Ph.D (curator and writer); and the artist-co-founders of Zero Art Fair, Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida.

About Zero Art Fair
Zero Art Fair is an experimental way to match artworks currently being stored with people who want to live with art but can’t necessarily afford it. Developed by artists Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, the fair uses a ‘store-to-own’ contract to offer artworks free of charge, but with strings attached. Originally developed for Powhida by NYU Professor Amy Whitaker and artist and attorney Alfred Steiner, the contract includes a 5-year vesting period before ownership is automatically transferred to the new owner. During that time, the contract grants the artist the right to sell the work, or borrow the work for exhibition. After ownership is transferred, the contract grants the artist 50% of the sale price if the work is later sold and a 10% royalty in perpetuity on subsequent resales. Provenance will be posted online.

This year’s fair is co-sponsored by its host The FLAG Art Foundation, and Gagosian.

Additional support is generously provided by the Arts Union, B. Avery Syrig Fine Art Services, and Supreme Digital.

Press:

“[...] Recent efforts have surfaced to leverage the excess supply of contemporary art toward more democratic models of collecting. For example, in 2024 the artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton launched the Zero Art Fair, which uses an unorthodox “store-to-own” contract to offer the public a cost-free avenue to acquire works that would otherwise remain siloed in storage. [...] This year’s edition of the fair (8-12 July) will be hosted and sponsored by The FLAG Art Foundation in Manhattan. Describing the project by email as “more of a not-for-profit conceptual intervention” than a typical trade fair, Powhida and Dalton also call Zero “a living, functioning response to some of the issues of artificial scarcity, exclusivity and access built into the contemporary art market.”

- J. Cabelle Ahn, The Art Newspaper