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62 F airs can lift an entire art community, energizing the artists, collectors, curators, and gallerists — as well as the curious, especially those with pockets and interests that align with the critical mass of a fair and its often dazzling private tours, parties galore, and cool educational components. This month, Houston welcomes the seventh edition of Texas Contemporary Art Fair, and hopes run high. Presented by Brooklyn-based Art Market Productions — whose portfolio includes the Seattle Art Fair, backed by Microsoft big daddy Paul G. Allen — expectations abound around what promises to be the most robust (in terms of exhibitor numbers) year of the Texas Contemporary to date. While Hurricane Harvey prevented last year's fair, that cancellation provided an opportunity for a reset. The show is Thursday through Sunday, October 4 through 7, at George R. Brown Convention Center, for the fi rst time ever without a competing fair. The once rival Houston Fine Art Fair is no more — nor thankfully will our museum types and collectors be fractured or forced to dash across town to see and be seen at each opening night. Texas Contemporary director Kelly Freeman says there's been exceptional interest in exhibiting in Houston from galleries across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. At press time, the complete exhibitor list was still in formation, but Freeman says it could go as high as 75 dealers. Attendance is expected to crescendo for Opening Night, with more than a thousand set to attend, while 10,000 are expected to fl ock to George R. Brown for the Fair that weekend. Matt Johns, art-smart event and content producer, returns to orchestrate VIP surprises. Pay close attention to the VIP Lounge, where Johns has tapped BeDesign in collaboration with Contour Interior Design to create a captivating design-plus-art experience. Insider tip: Acquire a Preview Pass and partake in Opening Night on Thursday, October 4, 6 to 10 pm, including a fi rst-look cocktail party. Attendance is de rigueur for serious collectors; the $150 ticket, as always, benefi ts Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas Contemporary's LUCKY SEVEN TEXAS CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR RETURNS. BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON long-term museum partner. NATIONAL NOTABLES Gallerists from around the country are putting chips on the Texas Contemporary. Peruse Miró and Albers lithographs at heritage Manhattan dealer ACA Galleries, as well as paintings by American rocker John Mellencamp. At Claire Oliver Gallery, Gabi Trinkaus' very-now collages probe identity politics — the artist's feminist outcries are formed from cut magazine clippings upon canvas. At Canadian Stella Ripley, the street-art-influenced spray- painted panels by Melisa Taylor Metzger remind us that high and low can happily dialogue. New York- headquartered Uprise Art — known as a disruptor of the traditional art economy for its online platform — exhibits for the fi rst time in Houston. Our pick from Uprise's stable is Ward Roberts' nuanced photography of architecture and place, which pays tribute to abstraction. L.A. darling Chimento Contemporary brings the highly regarded Monique Prieto, a museum-collected West Coast painter who is among the best of her generation for melding biomorphic and color-fi eld abstraction. And from Denver, Robischon arrives, home to sculptor Judy Pfaff and grande dame installationist Ann Hamilton. Power NYC gallerist ZieherSmith is also in the lineup. GLOBAL GALLERIES Internationals worthy of your radar include Galerie Taménaga (Paris, Tokyo, and Osaka); Latin American dealer Galería Moro, whose booth highlights small early geometric jewels by Jesús Rafael Soto; and Japanese Retna's You Stole My Style You F***in Punk, 2016, at Maddox Gallery Chris Roberts-Antieau's White Lights, 2017, at Antieau Gallery IMAGES COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE GALLERIES. (continued on page 101)