Three Brooklyn Arts Organizations You Need to Know at The Affordable Art Fair

By Hannah Singleton

Presented by the Affordable Art Fair

Buying art in New York is generally not for the meager-salaried. Thankfully, twice a year, the Affordable Art Fair reemerges to set the market straight and make art, if only for five good days, more interesting and accessible.

From March 18 through 22, the fair returns to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea to fill its century-old walls and floors with works from more than 90 international galleries. Every work is priced between $100 and $12,000, so you may have a shot at finally snagging the missing piece for your living room, or buying the first painting in what you’ll one day call a collection. The fair has a history of partnering with more than a few local galleries, and Kings County will have a strong presence (as it tends to).

Ahead of this year’s Affordable Art Fair, we caught up with the gallerists and founders of three participating organizations. Each is a stellar example of what makes the art scene in Brooklyn—defying the soaring rent prices and increasingly inhospitable conditions of the past two decades by coalescing and sharing resources in warehouse studios, community spaces, and independent galleries—so special right now.

Gail Garcia in one of the studios at the Arts Gowanus President Street headquarters (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Arts Gowanus 

If you’ve walked through Gowanus lately, you’ve probably noticed how quickly things are changing. New luxury apartment buildings have cropped up where industrial lots once stood, and the neighborhood’s gritty, canal character has been smoothed into something a little more “palatable” (and a lot more expensive). 

For many artists who have long worked in the area’s industrial spaces, the transformation raises a familiar question for New Yorkers who’ve lived here for any amount of time: How long before we get priced out, the way artists were in SoHo, Williamsburg, and Bushwick before us?

But Arts Gowanus, a community art organization, is dedicated to keeping the rapidly changing neighborhood creative. What started 30 years ago as a nonprofit running Open Studio Tours has shifted considerably since the major 2021 rezoning and subsequent development. Now, the organization takes on much more of an advocacy role to keep the neighborhood affordable for artists. “We negotiated affordable art studios—30,000 square feet of highly subsidized, lease-stable art studio—in 11 different developments,” says Johnny Thorton, executive director of Arts Gowanus. “So we’re really proud of that. But we’re trying to keep a lot of the neighborhood identity intact as much as we can in the face of great changes.”

At the fair, the organization will present re: place, a photography exhibit documenting the changing neighborhood, curated by Brooklyn-based photographer Miska Draskoczy, who has been photographing Gowanus since 2012.  

Courtesy of Trans Art Fest

Trans Art Fest

Carter Shocket, a Brooklyn-based artist and gallerist, founded Trans Art Fest as a two-month, citywide art festival debuting this year across galleries. Part of the goal is to plug trans artists into the rosters of galleries in New York City, helping create professional connections that can last well beyond a single exhibit. But Shocket also wants to broaden the public’s understanding of what a trans artist is, and the range of work they’re producing. More than 10 galleries are hosting shows from trans artists, but people can also attend workshops (like figure drawing or somatic healing), live demonstrations, and drag shows. The festival kicks off with an opening reception and celebration of METAMORPHIC  at The Haus of Collectives in Inwood on March 31st (Trans Visibility Day), but you can get an early preview at the Affordable Art Fair at what Shocket calls a “pre-festival pop-up”.

“I hope that the fair can be a window into the general public learning, getting connected to, and getting excited about the trans artists in New York City, because a large majority of them are living and working here,” says Shocket. 

The exhibition at the fair will showcase TRANS MUNDI, a multimedia collection by artist Earth Ængel. “The works are eye-catching and big,” says the gallerist. “There’s glass, wax, painting, freestanding sculpture, wall work, things that hang from the wall. So it’s going to be a really dynamic presentation.”

Courtesy of Warnes Contemporary

Warnes Contemporary 

Victoria Fry has been in the New York art world long enough to know it can work against the artists who need it most. She opened Warnes Contemporary in Gowanus in 2023 to show work by emerging, early-career, and underrepresented artists, many of whom have never shown in a gallery before, she says. She also wants it to function as a community space, so artists now drop in for workshops, artists talks, and fundraisers. “We’re still a very small and up-and-coming gallery,” Fry says. 

This spring marks the gallery’s third time exhibiting through the fair’s fellowship program, with a curated collection from six contemporary artists across New York, New Jersey, and Texas. “It’s been instrumental for us in terms of growing our collector base,” Fry says. “We significantly grew our sales and our collectors last year. A lot of the collectors we’ve sold to so far are just starting their art collection. It’s been life-changing for me and for the artists that I work with.”