Tell someone who you are traveling to Ibiza for art, and they may not believe you. Against this skepticism is Contemporary Art Now, or CAN, a small boutique art fair that invites art lovers to dive into the pristine waters of Talamanca’s beach clubs, perhaps lunch in the quiet northern port of Portinatx, and then pull on a soprano suit over a bikini before shopping. The selection of the fair is colorful, positive and attractive without being kitsch. Participating galleries aim to attract the attention of the Ibizan public, who, of course, want to decorate their beach houses without sacrificing attention to industry trends or art that engages meaningfully with the issues of the day.
“When you’re outside the fair, you’re in such a vacation mode, everything is beautiful, you’re so relaxed,” the fair curator Sasha Bogojev said the Observer. “Then you go inside, and I like to think that these works are a kind of mental exercise, because a lot of these works talk about certain subjects, some of them maybe not so pleasant. I like to create this kind of contrast with the environment outside.”
It’s not just CAN. In a world where art fairs are proliferating by the day and getting involved in the industry, whether one is selling or buying, is starting to feel like a combat sport, some fair organizers are experimenting with a different model: one that fits the lifestyles of the most coveted collectors, rather than asking them to try to keep up with a sometimes frantic art fair calendar. Or to put it another way, if the collector won’t go to the art fair, the art fair will go to the collector.
The growing list of destination art fairs extends from St. Moritz to Gstaad, from Capri to the Berkshires, from Punta del Este to Joshua Tree. This growth can be linked to the post-pandemic development of the so-called “experience economy” – how and where you collect art is, for some, as important as the purchase itself. This coincides with a boom in luxury travel, a market now valued at $1.59 trillion and projected to double to $3 trillion by 2033. Notably, the art fair circuit is also expanding beyond established resort destinations, from NOMAD and traveling fairs of the Arts 74, for VIMAwhich started two years ago in Limassol, Cyprus and is contributing to the cultural visibility of the tourist island.
Nazy Nazhanda collector who attended this year CAN Art Fairis a regular in Ibiza: “I’ve been coming here for years,” she told the Observer. “It’s always attracted people who think differently: artists, musicians, architects, designers, collectors… I’ve never been particularly interested in what the art world considers the ‘right’ place to be. Once we start measuring cultural value by prestige or social currency, we’ve already lost sight of what makes art compelling.”
This is exactly the thought with which Becca Hoffman– former director of Foreign Art Fair in New York and Paris and Andrew Edlin Gallery—builds pop-up art fairs in places as diverse as Aspen, Marseille and Singapore through 74th Arts. “I’m drawn to places where there’s already a je ne sais quoi — a certain energy — outside of the main art world circuit, but with engagement, interest and connection,” she said. “The question I always ask is if the event could exist anywhere. If the answer is yes, then it’s not our type of event – each of our events is uniquely tailored to the region.”
When asked if she encounters the same collectors around the world, from Aspen to Marseille to Singapore, Hoffman said it’s mixed, with a core group of collectors and others at her one-day events. “But in every country, there’s a deliberate effort to bring in people who don’t necessarily go to the major art fairs because they’re looking for something different.” She added that she is looking for the gap between what a place is and what it can hold, and her approach is always relational before logistical. “I start by thinking about who the connective tissue is in a particular place. From there, the flow, scale, scope and event follow.”
In terms of size, most destination art fairs are housed on the same roof. CAN Ibiza has 30 galleries, by design. “A small-format fair allows us to focus on something,” explained Bogojev.
Hoffman discussed the same content, but in economic terms: “At the boutique level, I think about the terms of participation differently. The fee is lower, but the bar for what’s invited is higher, and that selectivity is part of the value proposition for everyone involved.”
Bogojev offers a caveat worth considering: CAN Ibiza was launched in 2022 “at the kind of peak of art market activity”, a moment that has since cooled considerably. “We were lucky to start small, so we can stay small at this time when the market is tougher globally.”
In Ibiza, gallerists registered a high level of satisfaction and reported engaging with collectors who happened to be visiting the island and took a piece almost as a souvenir before flying home, along with Spanish collectors – regulars at Arco Madrid – who came specifically to do business. CAN also has a VIP program that flies in approximately 50 collectors a year, with studio visits and gallery tours built into the days of the fair. “If we opened the door to local residents, it wouldn’t work,” Bogojev admitted.
The numbers at VIMA, the contemporary art fair in Limassol, Cyprus, suggest that this kind of attraction can be built from scratch. In its second edition, visitor figures reached over 5,000 – more than 1,000 more than the year before – sales increased by 1.8 times and the highest price paid for a single work reached €90,000. “What has shifted most clearly is trust,” he says Lara Kotrelevaone of the three founders of VIMA. “In the beginning, we were presenting not only a new fair, but also the idea that Cyprus can become a meaningful place for the exchange of contemporary art. Now the conversation is more concrete.”
Bogoev’s own language leans more towards discovery than acquisition. “The collectors who are most enthusiastic about this format are not necessarily the youngest,” he said, “but they are the ones who have already done Basel a dozen times and are looking for something that doesn’t look like a trade show. They want to be touched, not just informed.” He also noted a second group, “younger, late thirties, early forties, often with non-inherited wealth, who are drawn to intimacy and curation precisely because they find the mega-fair overwhelming.”
The question of whether any of the buzz around destination art fairs contributes to the development of local art scenes is answered differently by each of these events. A general practice involves holding an “off” program with on-site galleries. CAN Ibiza has a public sculpture program that aims to leave something behind after the cabs come down; this year, it was a permanent piece by the internationally renowned Stefan Brüggemann, who also had a show at the local museum.
But the founders of VIMA Cyprus are quick to resist the destination fair label. “I would hesitate to use the term,” Edgar Gadzhievanother VIMA co-founder told the Observer. “Our mission is more structural: to help build a market, an ecosystem and a reason for galleries, collectors, institutions and cultural actors to meet in Limassol.”
Kotreleva added that the lack of heavy branding of luxury tourism on the island gives them more space to define the cultural narrative. “There is less noise, less coded glamor and less fixed expectations of what an art event in Cyprus should be.” But the same blank canvas requires more work. “We can’t rely on an existing luxury mythology to bring people in. We have to build trust.”
Regarding whether VIMA is competing with the big fairs or bypassing the comparison altogether, the co-founder Nadezhda Zinovskaya said they are not trying to be a smaller version of a bigger fair: “We are trying to be accurate about what Cyprus can offer: a regional bridge, a concentrated meeting point and a platform where galleries can access collectors and communities not always reached through the traditional Western European fair calendar”.
Meanwhile, Bogojev is cautious in his answer when asked whether destination art fairs can significantly influence the larger art system. “I don’t think the traditional fair model or art system is going to be challenged any time soon,” he said. “But I think these types of fairs have the potential to be considered a viable option.”
But collector Nazy Nazhand sees destination art fairs not just as a smaller alternative, but as something better. “I’m much more interested in looking ahead than following the circuits created for contemporary art,” she concluded, headed for a sea-view dinner, followed, perhaps, by a late-night party. “I think the future of the art world lies less in hierarchy and more in curiosity, connection and a willingness to challenge convention.”
More at art fairs, biennials and triennials
