Recently, there has been considerable talk about Texas’ dynamism and appeal, as the Southern state has seen extraordinary economic growth, now ranking among the largest economies in the U.S., with a GDP surpassing $2 trillion. This rise has been mirrored by a striking population influx over the past decade—more than 4 million people relocating, largely from California, New York, Illinois and other high-cost areas—making Texas the fastest-growing state. The art market inevitably follows the money, and the state’s art scene has been expanding in tandem with its GDP., most notably with the return of the Austin Art Fair for its second edition from May 15-18, 2025 and the upcoming launch of Untitled Art Fair’s new Houston edition in September. Next year, Salon Art + Design will host its first Dallas fair.
But Texas has had a major fair for years: the Dallas Art Fair, which is now preparing for its seventeenth edition at the Fashion Industry Gallery (f.i.g.) in the Dallas Arts District from April 10-13, 2025. Since its launch in 2009, the fair has grown into both a catalyst and a cornerstone of the region’s thriving arts ecosystem. “The fair started right before the economic crash. This is a key point when you’re learning about the fair and when you’re learning about Dallas because it shows the strength of the market here,” the Dallas Art Fair director Kelly Cornell told Observer. “People still showed up and bought art. They still supported us in a very meaningful way and supported the art world in a meaningful way. And then people came back, and the galleries came back, year after year.”
A rapidly expanding community of local collectors has been the key driver of the fair’s growth. “The fair really started as based on a very local collecting community, and then it expanded into a regional base. We are still very much supported by that collector base. Still, we do have international and coastal visitors coming to the fair as well,” Cornell said. “But the reason that so many galleries are continuing to come and return year after year is that this collector base here is sticky.” Dallas and Texas-based collectors may not be the globetrotting types who hit every stop on the fair circuit, she added, but they invest deeply in April’s event and back the local art community in earnest. “They have the fair’s week marked on their calendar as a key moment for expanding their personal collections.”
The Dallas Art Fair was founded by two art enthusiasts and collectors: John Sughrue, a real estate developer and co-founder of Brook Partners, the firm behind some of Dallas’s most luxurious estate projects, and Chris Byrne, a curator, writer and entrepreneur. For nearly two decades, the fair has played a pivotal role in cultivating and educating a new generation of collectors in the local community.
“We like to say that we have been very successful at educating people and transitioning them from curious about art to collecting art,” Cornell said. “We have been stunned by our own success: people might come to the fair for the first time one year, and at the next one, they buy a work… then they’re collecting year round. That has been huge for us.” For her, directing the fair also means matchmaking. Taking a hands-on approach, she works to understand what collectors are drawn to and then to connect them with the right galleries coming to Dallas, actively facilitating these exchanges. “The first step in my job is to find the galleries I think would be the right fit and invite them to the fair. But from there, it’s about matching them with the right collectors.”
This year, the Dallas Art Fair will present ninety-one total exhibitors, including thirty-one new entries and eighteen international galleries, with more than twenty-one countries represented. Among the newcomers is one of Mexico’s most prominent art galleries, Galeria OMR, joined by notable international participants such as Tezukayama Gallery (Osaka), Duarte Sequeira (Braga, Seoul, London), Galería Ethra (Mexico City), WHATIFTHEWORLD (Cape Town) and the energetic L.A. gallery Make Room—a familiar presence on the global fair circuit that this year will be presenting a Dallas-based artist.
SEE ALSO: A Mickalene Thomas-Designed McLaren Artura GT4 Is Poised to Hit the Track
The fair’s ambition is to bridge local and global perspectives while staying true to its Texan roots and supporting the region’s creative infrastructure. Texan galleries remain a key focus. “It’s important for us to keep a percentage for them here, to give Texas-based gallery a platform,” Cornell emphasized. Having closely observed the evolution of the scene in recent years, she sees how it has gained momentum. “I think the gallery scene is much stronger. I think that’s because you no longer have to be in New York or LA to have a really strong gallery.” Among the Texan-based galleries participating this year are Colector (Dallas, Houston, Monterrey), Conduit Gallery (Dallas), Cris Worley Fine Arts (Dallas), Pencil on Paper Gallery (Dallas), Nature of Things (Dallas), Erin Cluley Gallery (Dallas), Valley House Gallery (Dallas) and Sputnik Modern (Dallas).
The connection with neighboring Mexico is also central to the fair’s identity, with Dallas collectors frequently traveling to Mexico and many Mexicans residing in or maintaining interests in Dallas. A key institution reinforcing this cultural exchange is Dallas Contemporary, which has actively showcased Mexican artists in recent years, including exhibitions by Pia Camil, Eduardo Sarabia and Gabriel Rico, as well as a show celebrating Cerámica Suro—the influential Guadalajara-based ceramics workshop that has become a coveted residency destination for artists around the world. In addition to OMR’s inaugural appearance, two other Mexican galleries, Saeger Galeria and Galería Ethra, will also exhibit for the first time at this year’s edition alongside Colector, which operates a space in Monterrey in addition to its Texas locations.
Cornell is acutely attuned to the role of local artists in cultivating a healthy and sustainably evolving art scene. “We spend a lot of time talking about the ecosystem here and how all of these pieces are very necessary to have a healthy art space here in Dallas and Texas,” she said. “Over the years, we saw a lot of artists find success. Maybe they leave for a while, but often they come back to Dallas.”
As it has grown, the Dallas Art Fair has established strong partnerships with the city’s leading institutions. These relationships have yielded initiatives such as an acquisition fund with the Dallas Museum of Art and ongoing collaborations with the Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Contemporary—even though the latter is a non-collecting institution. “We have incredible relationships with all of the museums here, and that’s been a huge point of strength for us.”
During the week of the fair, local institutions open some of their most anticipated exhibitions of the year. On April 11, Dallas Contemporary will debut “You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry,” an ambitious global survey tracing the evolution and legacy of tapestry practice in the 21st Century, featuring a range of celebrated contemporary artists, including Jorge Méndez Blake, Diedrick Brackens, Melissa Cody, Candice Lin, Goshka Macuga, Kiki Smith and Mika Tajima. Simultaneously, the Nasher Sculpture Center will present a major exhibition by renowned South Korean artist Haegue Yang titled “Lost Lands and Sunken Fields,” which transforms both levels of the museum’s galleries and its garden into a richly layered space exploring Korean ancestral myths and ancient folklore through sculptural creatures that merge past and present, organic and artificial, in hybrid symbolic forms composed of industrial materials, traditional objects and natural elements. Meanwhile, the Dallas Museum of Art is hosting a major retrospective dedicated to the long-overlooked Venezuelan pop artist Marisol.
Fairs often take on different orientations—some focus more heavily on audience-building, others on attracting galleries. Observer asked, in closing, what sits at the center of the Dallas Art Fair’s strategy and vision as it charts its next phase of growth. “I think it’s split between both. Because of the growth of the city and the Metroplex so quickly, our most important goal now is to make sure that there is awareness and education and really continue to educate and grow the audience here,” Cornell said. “Still, the audience continues to evolve because of the city’s growth; this year, we’ve had way more inquiries from international galleries than before. I think that now all eyes are on Dallas and Texas.”
