top of page

BARELY FAIR 2025 was the 5th edition of our tiny fair. 30 exhibitors participated in BARELY FAIR's return to our "white cube" origin, taking place inside Julius Caesar's exhibition space. To see documentation of the fair, use the "DOCUMENTATION" button, or see more about the fair's participating artists by visiting the SPOTLIGHT page.

To see past fairs and exhibitors, visit the past section on the menu bar.

exhibitors

062

Chicago

Named after local zip code in Gwangju, South Korea, 062 is a non-profit art gallery in Chicago and is committed to the promotion of global art discourse. 062 is an open platform for international artists and cultural organizations. 062 supports the work of emerging and established artists through the dissemination of ideas, actions and conversations, and experimental exhibition formats.

062

56 Henry

New York City

56 Henry, founded by Eleanor Rines, is a New York-based gallery representing fourteen emerging and mid-career artists. Through its commitment to installational exhibitions, special edition print portfolios, and publications 56 Henry engages with national and international contemporary art historical canon. The gallery has two locations, 56 Henry Street and 105 Henry Street in New York’s Chinatown.

062

Ackerman Clarke

Chicago

Named for and dedicated to two inspiring Grandmothers, Ackerman Clarke is an evolving endeavor committed to the sales, promotion, and further development of select contemporary visual art. Initiated in the Fall of 2019 by John Schmid, the Chicago-based pursuit expands on thirteen years in the field and seeks to hybridize expected and innovative models of presentation and brokerage.

062

april april

Pittsburgh

april april is an art gallery located in the Regent Square neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the borough of Wilkinsburg. The gallery represents and exhibits a comprehensive range of practices with an artist-driven curatorial sensibility. It was founded by Patrick Bova and Lucas Regazzi in 2021. april april is a member of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA).

062

Bill's Auto

Chicago

We began inviting artists in 2018 to create exhibitions in the waiting room of an former auto repair shop.

062

Chicago Art Book Fair

Chicago

The Chicago Art Book Fair is an experimental showcase for emerging directions and diverse legacies in small press arts publishing. The fair features an international group of arts publishers, small presses, book artists, comics artists, zinemakers and printmakers, with satellite programming. After a hiatus, the Chicago Art Book Fair plans to return in 2026.

062

Cleaner Gallery + Projects

Chicago

Cleaner Gallery + Projects is a contemporary art gallery in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. Starting off as artist studios with a window gallery, Cleaner now houses 2 galleries showing contemporary solo and group shows.

062

Comfort Station

Chicago

Comfort Station is an artist-run multidisciplinary project space in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.

062

Corbett vs. Dempsey

Chicago

Founded in 2004 by John Corbett and Jim Dempsey, Corbett vs. Dempsey is an art gallery with an associated record label, book imprint, and historical archive, specializing in contemporary art, art in Chicago, and improvised and experimental music.

062

DK Collection

Chicago

DK Collection, located in Chicago, contains works of artists, performers, and writers from different countries and different backgrounds including Europe—especially Poland—and representing South America, Mexico, Africa, USA, and other international regions. A hallmark of the collection is a focus on language.

062

free range

Chicago

free range was a store-front artist studio and gallery run by Oli Watt in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago from 2013 to 2025. free range provided a gallery and performance space for artists in all stages of their career to experiment with new ideas and expand ways of thinking about presenting their practice.

062

Good Naked Gallery

New York City

Good Naked (New York, NY) is a roving exhibition program curated by Jaqueline Cedar. Titled after a Seinfeld episode, it is with levity and sincerity that Good Naked’s programming hovers around the intimate and awkward. The focus is on work that engages tactility, humor, movement, and play. Good Naked's exhibitions are responsive and generative, prioritizing space for new voices and dialogue amongst contemporary artists.

062

Good Weather

North Little Rock & Chicago

Good Weather is a contemporary art gallery from North Little Rock, Arkansas founded in 2011 in a one-car suburban garage. The gallery formed through a familial approach and from a desire to seed, locate, and bring contemporary art discourse to Arkansas. Since 2016, Good Weather has presented exhibitions and auxiliary programming through a commercial gallery infrastructure with current locations in Chicago, Illinois and Little Rock, Arkansas.

062

hardboiled

Chicago

hardboiled is an artist-run space located 7 inches away from a Wicker Park apartment kitchen in Chicago. The curatorial parameters focus on conceptual and material artistic practices with immediacy. Through monthly, back-to-back two-person exhibitions of early and mid-career artists, hardboiled intends to be a platform for the possibilities of group work. We offer artists, scholars, and writers an option to connect, converse, and collaborate.

062

ILY2

Portland

ILY2 is a contemporary art gallery dedicated to supporting emerging, mid-career, and historically underrepresented voices. With a distinct feminist focus and a community-oriented ethos, the gallery is committed to championing work that is intellectually rigorous, aesthetically compelling, and joyfully experimental.

062

Ivory Gate

Shanghai

Ivory Gate is an artist-run contemporary art gallery. Founded in 2023 in Chicago's Gold Coast, Ivory Gate opened a Shanghai location in 2024.

062

Julius Caesar

Chicago

Julius Caesar (JC) is an independent artist collective founded in Chicago's East Garfield neighborhood. Supporting Chicago’s contemporary art scene outside the commercial gallery ecosystem since 2008, JC began as a Sunday afternoon showcase of SAIC students, graduates and teachers. JC has since evolved in leadership and scope, regularly exhibiting national and international artists, and founding BARELY FAIR in 2019.

062

Kai Matsumiya

New York City

Kai Matsumiya operates with the belief that the contemporary art gallery has not caught up to the realities of art, and how art should thus live and breathe in its own times and terms. Experimentation for its own sake is celebrated for the purpose of encouraging failure; for it is failure which promotes possibilities, opportunities, and a defense of dignity. The gallery asserts the spirit as being vital as the program.

062

LANDLINE

Chicago

LANDLINE is a Chicago-based curatorial project by artist Robert Chase Heishman that presents thought-provoking texts and sound works by contemporary artists, writers, and thinkers. Contributors provide an original piece of writing or text that is displayed on an LED sign in an apartment window, and an audio work that is accessible via +1 866-LND-LINE.

062

Ortega y Gasset Projects

Brooklyn

Ortega y Gasset Projects came together as an artist-run space in Brooklyn, NY in April 2013. OyG is entirely run by working artists, who recognize that exploration is key to artistic vitality. We embrace an exploratory model where artists take the role of curator, critic and promoter. The goal of OyG is to mount exhibitions that support under-represented, and emerging artists, provoke dialogue and bolster the artistic community.

062

OSMOS

New York City & Stamford, NY

OSMOS began in 1997 in Berlin and was re-established in 2012 as platform for curatorial and editorial activities with locations in New York City and the Western Catskills.

OSMOS has developed a particular expertise in handling artists’ estates and reintroducing historic positions, especially constructivist tendencies, photography, and works by women artists. OSMOS also works with younger artists that reinvigorate historic legacies we champion.

062

P.A.D.

New York City

P.A.D. [Project Art Distribution] is an art exhibition space in historic SoHo (South of Houston) Arts District in New York City. It reflects the bustling economy of artists making, selling and promoting their artworks on the street year-round, weather permitting. The aim of the space is to platform small and editioned works by artists that are interested in embracing new contexts for exhibiting.

062

Patel Brown

Toronto & Montréal

Patel Brown, based in Toronto and Montréal, highlights alternative perspectives and encourages experimentation and innovation in both its programming and operations. Identifying gaps in representation and opportunities guided by collaboration and community; the gallery’s program looks to traditions in culture and identity, and how they are increasingly challenged by the globalized world.

062

PATIENT INFO

Chicago

PATIENT INFO is an artist run space based in Chicago. Founded in 2019 and operating in a former dermatology office, the space allows for re-contextualization and risk taking across media. Exhibitions at Patient Info are a collaborative exercise, creating an opportunity for artists to engage in the curatorial process while showcasing their work.

062

Red Arrow

Nashville

Red Arrow was founded in 2006 in Joshua Tree, California, and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2014. Beginning with bold roots in the desert, the gallery has since become a cornerstone of Nashville’s contemporary art scene.

With a program rooted in collaboration, care, and rigor, Red Arrow is committed to building artists' careers, fostering relationships, and putting Nashville and its artists on the international map.

062

ro art services

Chicago

ro art services combines components of an art advisory and artist agency, providing collectors direct access to contemporary art inventory and artists with gallery representation services. Curatorial programming and object-forward presentations include art fair and gallery exhibitions in New York and Chicago. Often partnering with galleries for exhibitions of emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, RAS’s collaborative model is built on a foundation of mutual investment.

062

Soccer Club Club

Chicago

Soccer Club Club is a Fine(-Ass) Art gallery in Chicago.

062

Tala

Chicago

Founded in 2024 by Francine Almeda, Tala (Tagalog for “bright star”) is a contemporary art gallery with a library and atrium gathering space. Its distinctive architectural floor plan proposes an alternative gallery model that supports experimental, subversive, and future-facing art practices.

062

Tusk

Chicago

Tusk is a space in Chicago operating since 2013. Run solely by founder Mary Eleanor Wallace, it fluctuates between retail and exhibition space. Working closely with artists and writers Tusk hosts a variety of experiences.

062

Western Exhibitions

Chicago

Western Exhibitions shows thought-provoking and visually innovative artists who work across most media, with an emphasis on personal narratives and cosmologies; LGBTQ and feminist issues; pattern and surface concerns; works on paper; and artist books. The gallery presents unique artist projects, curated group shows and maintains a specific inventory of artist books and multiples, gathered together as a sister entity and store, WesternXeditions.

062

©2019 by BARELY FAIR. Logo and design concepts by JNL Graphic Design

bottom of page