Artful Affair
Dallas Art Fair attracts everyone who's anyone for fashion-forward preview gala
Few social events draw as important a crowd as the Dallas Art Fair Preview Gala, where enthusiasts, collectors and gallerists — from here and elsewhere — come together to celebrate the opening of the big event, now in its seventh year. It’s also one of the year’s best people-watching opportunities, if only for the fashion.
Attendees, dressed in their most artful cocktail attire, packed into the Fashion Industry Gallery for two distinct purposes: to get a sneak peek at the more than 100 exhibitors and to socialize, naturally. Once air kisses were exchanged and glasses of Ruinart champagne procured, they wandered from booth to booth, making mental notes of the works that could be the next great finds for their collections.
“We need to get that!” said one woman to her male companion while browsing the booth of Beatriz Esguerra Art, from Bogota, Colombia. Specifically she had her eye on Elsa Zambrano’s little boxes, which contain objects that reproduce masterpieces of art history.
Among those spotted in this distinguished crowd: Peter Doroshenko, Jed Norse, Jacqueline and Maxwell L. Anderson, Richard Phillips, Nan Coulter, Erin Cluley, Ken Downing, Sam Saladino, John Reoch, Scott Ginsburg, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, Brian Bolke, Capera Ryan, Megan and Brady Wood, and Kimberly and Justin Whitman.
The Dallas Art Fair runs through Sunday at Fashion Industry Gallery, and there are plenty of offshoot events. Funds raised during the preview gala benefit the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Contemporary.