The Dallas Art Fair (DAF), founded in 2009 by developer John T. Sughrue and curator Chris Byrne, concluded its eighteenth edition this past weekend. Director Kelly Cornell, who started as an intern and became director in 2016, has strengthened partnerships with the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Dallas Contemporary, while securing sponsors like Bank of America. The fair has grown from 35 to over 90 galleries, though it still lacks mega-galleries like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, and Pace. International participation this year included about 20 galleries, with notable names such as Perrotin, Anat Egbi, and Hesse Flatow, while galleries from Germany and China were absent.
This matters because the DAF represents a rare, independently run regional art fair trying to establish Dallas as a global art hub amid rapid population growth in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The fair's distinct identity—avoiding controversial or overly political art—sets it apart from mega-fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach or Frieze. Its success could signal whether mid-sized cities can sustain significant art events without relying on the largest international galleries, especially as geopolitical tensions and economic shifts reshape the art world.