{"id":1653338,"date":"2026-06-08T13:28:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T17:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1653338"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:58:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:58:47","slug":"review-elsewhere-new-art-fair-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2026\/06\/review-elsewhere-new-art-fair-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"In Philadelphia, a New Art Fair Removes Scale From the Equation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blah Blah Gallery at Elsewhere 2026. Courtesy the gallery and Elsewhere<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Megan Galardi, director of Blah Blah Gallery and founder of newcomer fair Elsewhere, has now spent three years at the helm of a gallery in Philadelphia, a city that’s often pitted against New York. Reading Josh Kline’s recent buzz-inducing article<\/a> arguing that New York City’s economics essentially function as the art world’s curatorial frame\u2014a piece that, in her view, treats Philly as a neglected step-cousin\u2014led to a turning point in her thinking about the relationship between the two cities. “We can play off our proximity to New York but we are not trying to be New York,” Galardi told Observer. With her urban planning background informing her own relationship to the city, she’s become far more interested in how Philadelphia serves as a crucible for possibility and experimentation.<\/p>\n

And what better way to showcase that than by experimenting herself with new art fair models in the city. To do that, Galardi looked to curator-led fairs like Arrival Art Fair in the Berkshires, led by Yng-Ru Chen; Neighbors in Chicago<\/a>, started by Mirka Serrato and Jonny Tanna; and Friends Fair in Austin, launched by six gallerists and staged at the Loren hotel. After reflecting on these and other small fairs, Galardi deliberately limited the size and scope of Elsewhere, with the most expensive booth fees capped at $2,500 (which includes lodging). Galleries could experiment, the fair would serve as an ideation space and visitors would encounter works that felt accessible.<\/p>\n

Held this year at YOWIE, a boutique hotel on South Street in Philadelphia, Elsewhere hosted 27 exhibitors. Seven from Philadelphia, three international galleries from London and Canada and many more from across the U.S. brought solo booths, two-artist displays and group shows to the space. “My conversations with YOWIE were primarily about how to work within the existing character of the building and adapt it for an art fair,” Galardi said. “I was interested in creating an experience that felt more intimate and contextual, where the architecture and setting could become part of how visitors encounter the work.”<\/p>\n

The first space visitors encountered set the tone for the fair. Blah Blah Gallery and Good Naked Gallery introduced a somewhat Seussical aesthetic, anchored by Libby Rosa’s pin motif, which took over the room. The artist shared that in a white cube setting, she had approached the concept as “pins puncturing the gallery\u2014then I thought, what could I do in a hotel room?” At YOWIE, she extended the original conceit with oversized pins on works hung on the walls paired with a quilted textile work featuring pinned moths covering the bed. While her rainbow color palette has a whimsical feel, the work delivers a pointed critique of the ways both natural and unnatural things are displayed in settings like museums. Hung from the ceiling in the nearby shower was Terribly, thank you<\/i> by M. Fernanda Nu\u00f1ez Alzate, an unstretched canvas with pink paint and outlines of cropped hands and snouts, recalling the illustrative style and palette of the Pink Panther. That allusion\u2014compounded by the work’s placement in the shower\u2014made it genuinely difficult to decide whether it was irreverent or simply refreshing.<\/p>\n

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