The inaugural edition of the contemporary art and design fair, which ran from March 20–23 at Scottsdale’s Westworld, featured more than 100 international and regional galleries, including the Hong Kong-based de Sarthe gallery, Phoenix’s Lisa Sette gallery, and the New York design and decorative arts dealer Lillian Nassau.

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Michael Plummer, the development director, said the fair hoped to create a sense of momentum that “enhances and energizes” the Southwest arts sector.

The region has long been a destination and inspiration for artists, from 20th-century greats like Georgia O’Keeffe, who immortalized the desert landscape of neighboring New Mexico in her paintings, to contemporary icons like James Turrell, whose ambitious Roden Crater land-art project, located just north of Flagstaff, Ariz., is anticipated to open this year after delays. Scottsdale in particular has become one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. in recent years thanks to its landscape, luxury lifestyle offerings, and low taxes.

Previously a senior executive at Christie’s and the founder of TEFAF New York and the advisory firm Artvest, Plummer worked with founders Trey Brennen and Jason Rose to envision a fair that would “follow most of the rules of the art world,” he said, but that would mix in more community-minded elements in order to attract new regional collectors, especially those based in the city, where there is a rapidly-growing demographic of nearly 14,000 millionaires.

“It’s my feeling that the more established fairs are not doing enough in terms of finding and developing new collectors. That’s a real problem in the art fair industry,” Plummer said, adding that since the pandemic, collector bases have become less reliable, making it a “riskier endeavor for dealers to do art fairs.” Expenses—like the costs of travel, shipping and entertaining—have also risen considerably for art dealers, making it generally “less conducive” to travel for fairs.

“I have a theory that dealers and art fairs need to start going where there are new potential collectors,” he said. “This was a good opportunity to test out that theory.”

Several galleries reported a boom in new buyers at the fair, including the Hong Kong-based de Sarthe gallery, which established an outpost in Scottsdale in 2022, helmed by Vincent de Sarthe, son of the gallery’s founder Pascal de Sarthe , and Gabby Usinger. The younger de Sarthe, who was raised in Scottsdale, said the fair seems to mark the beginning of a proper art scene in the city, where there is “not a massive market but many wonderful collectors and many new people coming in.”

Scottsdale Ferarri Art Week. Photo: Jeff Otto.

De Sarthe showed a mix of works by Asian artists and some artists from the Southwest. The gallery sold several works by the Chinese artists Zhong Wei and Ma Sibo that ranged from between $20,000 to $30,000. “We had a 50-50 mix of our collectors and new collectors, and even met some from out of state that had traveled for the fair,” de Sarthe said. “We’ve been here for three years and feel like we’ve gotten to know the people here but this expanded our horizons.”

He added that Scottsdale needs “not just an art market but an art scene, and that’s what this week felt like.” At a gallery afterparty for the fair, where the gallery was showing works by Lov-Lov, an A.I.-like figure created by the artist Lin Jingjing, de Sarthe said that “it just feels like we have something here now and it’s all about building and growing and an art fair is key to that.”

The four-day event aimed to feel more like a regional “festival” than a traditional art fair, according to Plummer. To that end, the fair had a strong focus on Indigenous artists, reflecting both Arizona’s status as home to the third-largest Native American population in the U.S. and the growing visibility of Indigenous voices in contemporary art. The fair was billed as the first American art fair to have “an emphasis of Indigenous expression,” also reflecting the uptick in market demand for Indigenous artists.

The Phoenix-based dealer Lisa Sette presented a group show featuring seven works (priced around $36,000) by Benjamin Timpson (Puebloan) that addressed the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis. The artworks feature women’s portraits partially rendered in butterfly wings. They also served as a backdrop for an Indigenous fashion show held during the fair’s vernissage.

Sette said there is “definitely a new interest in Indigenous art.” Her gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, but “most of the people who purchased from us—around 75 percent—were new clients,” she said.

Other presentations showcased works by Native American artists alongside other artists with ties to the Southwest, like the special exhibition “ Desert Modernism,” curated by the artist Tony Abeyta (Diné), which brought together works dating from 1930 to 1980 by artists and architects like Fritz Scholder (Luiseno), Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Sequevya Loloma (Hopi), and Paolo Soleri.

Public programming ranged from events on how to collect art, sports memorabilia, and photography to a talk on the legacy of the late collector and dealer Elaine Horowitch, who was one of the first gallerists in the region. The bulk of the public programs also foregrounded Indigenous artists, including a conversation with Abeyta, the artist Melissa Cody (Diné), and the Phoenix-based muralist Thomas “Breeze” Marcus (O’odham, Ponca) that looked at the growing interest in contemporary Indigenous art. In addition, on the opening day, the fashion and design scholar and curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe led a talk exploring the impact of the MMIW crisis on contemporary Native American art. Other programming explored other prescient regional topics on the regional arts sector, like the influence of the Latinx and Caribbean communities, which make up more than 30 percent of the population in Arizona.

“We wanted to create an event that brings a new community into the arts,” Plummer said. “Unlike traditional fairs like Art Basel or Frieze, we’ve broadened the definition of ‘arts’ to be more inclusive and accessible, aiming to engage as many people as possible.”