Conductor Opens in Brooklyn With Installations, Crowds, and a Biennial-Scale Ambition
Brooklyn’s newest art fair did not ease into view. Conductor opened Wednesday night at Powerhouse Arts with a turnout that felt closer to a biennial preview than a conventional fair launch, drawing more than 800 visitors within hours. Across the building, 28 galleries and 20 special projects created a layout that encouraged drifting, pausing, and looking again.
The fair’s first full edition followed last year’s teaser, but bringing it together was not simple. Fair director Adrianna Farietta said some participating galleries withdrew at the last minute because of the war in Iran, a disruption that shaped the final roster. Even so, the opening suggested a fair with a clear curatorial instinct: less about booth-by-booth efficiency than about encounters that unfold in space.
That approach was most evident in the installations. House of Silence, a tent-like structure by Turkish artist Vuslat and architect Sana Frini, transformed one section of the fair into something close to a refuge. From the outside, it read as a yurt-like form; inside, the sound-absorbing floor and single opening overhead created a dim, meditative chamber. A canvas marked with eyes, a horse’s head, limbs, and a coiled snake gave the work a faintly disquieting charge.
Praise Shadows presented Retorno (2022) by Juan José Barboza-Gubo, a hand-carved boat sourced from the Amazon and reworked with carved acrylic, cement leaves, and wood. Stretching nearly eight feet across the floor, the piece seemed to hover between being overtaken by the jungle and emerging from it. Nearby, the artist showed a geometric work inspired by mosaic tiles recovered from the ashes of a burned-out building in Iquitos, on the edge of the Peruvian rainforest.
At WhereArt.Works, the Riyadh-based space, fabric works made through sun printing and layered photographic processes were priced in a way that suggested market-building rather than market chasing. Justin Gilyani described the model as one grounded in mentorship, salons, and slower growth.
Other presentations sharpened the fair’s range. Beya Gille Gacha’s sculpture, shown with Keijsers Koning, combined glass beads, wax, fiberglass, concrete, and a living sage tree. Khaled Jarrar’s An Orange Tree with Two Scars (2026), a wall-based work made through slip casting and glaze, carried the weight of his experience in the West Bank, Palestine.
Several artists at the fair are also headed to Venice, underscoring how closely Conductor is tied to the current international circuit. The evening ended with a performance by Lido Pimienta, a fitting close to a fair that seemed to value atmosphere as much as sales. In a city crowded with art events, Conductor made a case for slowing down.
