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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Bill's Auto
Chicago
We began inviting artists in 2018 to create exhibitions in the waiting room of an former auto repair shop.
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.
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.
Comfort Station
Chicago
Comfort Station is an artist-run multidisciplinary project space in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Good Weather
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.
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.
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.
Ivory Gate
Chicago & Shanghai
Ivory Gate is an artist-run contemporary art gallery. Founded in 2023 with a location in Chicago's Gold Coast, Ivory Gate opened a Shanghai location in 2024.
This year's Barely Fair booth will be guest curated by Michelle Alexander.
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.
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.
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.
OSMOS
New York City
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.
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.
P.A.D.
New York City
P.A.D. 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.
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.
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.
ro art services
Chicago
ro art services combines bespoke components of an art advisory with discrete elements of gallery representation, providing art buyers with direct access to artists and contemporary art, and artists with the infrastructure for sales. The online inventory provides an object-forward presentation, and is augmented with limited exhibition programming through collaborative presentations. RAS provides individually catered services focused on making art buying easy, personal and fulfilling.
Red Arrow
Nashville
Red Arrow is the leading space for contemporary art in the rapidly transforming city of Nashville, TN. Our dynamic program responds to the global art scene, featuring a diverse representation of artists. A significant platform for bold exhibitions locally and at select global fairs, Red Arrow values advocating for artists in the South and beyond.
Soccer Club Club
Chicago
Soccer Club Club is a Fine(-Ass) Art gallery in Chicago.
Tala
Chicago
Founded in 2024, Tala is a contemporary art gallery and center for curatorial practice, research, and gathering. As Chicago’s only commercial gallery with a public library study center and atrium gathering space, Tala’s distinctive architectural floorplan fosters a dynamic, discursive platform that offers an alternative model for experimentation and resilient art practices
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.
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.