What Not To Miss At The San Francisco Art Fair, According To Curator Mara Gladstone

(MENAFN- USA Art News) San Francisco Art Fair 2026 Puts Bay Area History and Venice Ambitions in the Same Frame

At the 2026 San Francisco Art Fair, curator and educator Mara Gladstone found a through line between local gallery programs and one of next year's most closely watched international exhibitions. The fair, which ran through Sunday, April 19, brought together 88 exhibitors and 46 regional cultural partners. Gladstone's own curatorial project,“The Sun Beneath,” offered an early look at the Philippine Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale through paintings by Filipino interdisciplinary artist Jon Cuyson.

That dual perspective shaped the booths she highlighted after the fair opened. At Cult Aimee Friberg, the San Francisco gallery founded in 2013, Gladstone pointed to a booth that moved from large-scale ceramic totems to more intimate neon paintings. She described the presentation as especially clear in its curatorial intent, with a sense of freshness rooted in the East Bay.

Black Art in America, based in Atlanta and founded in 2010, also stood out for its range. Gladstone noted a Kerry James Marshall print that is actually a printer's sample plate, making it unique within the series, as well as a Robert Pruitt duo that allows collectors to acquire both the plate and the finished print. The booth, she said, moved comfortably between blue-chip and emerging work.

Elsewhere, exhibited presented a solo booth by Lomakin titled“Watching Cartoons.” Gladstone said the work initially reads as almost manufactured, but reveals careful handwork on closer inspection. She also praised Gallery Century's booth for its focus on Bay Area figures, including works by Tara Yomoto and George Miyasaki, which she said still feel relevant decades after they were made.

Gladstone said she also acquired a work by Pat Frades at Parallel +. Taken together, her selections suggest a fair that rewarded booths with strong points of view, regional grounding, and a willingness to let material specificity do the talking. In a crowded art-fair landscape, that combination can feel unusually durable.

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