Can you believe that headline? Who knew anyone was noticing? This article from the Naples Daily News is not 
about the street art fairs we know, love, hate, aspire to and desire, it is about the biggie International events that feature art dealers and galleries with BIG price tag items, an art show with up to $1 billion in inventory, as will be present at the Naples Art Antique & Jewelry Show. It debuted in Naples last year and this year it has a competitor, the Naples Art, Antique & Jewelry Show.
PHOTO BY LEXEY SWALL at the Naples International Art & Antiques Fair
What are they selling? The show will offer an array of art for visitors to peruse, including Asian and European antiquities, Roman glass, antique Persian rugs, oil and watercolor paintings and English and American silver. There will also be an extensive selection of jewelry from dealers such as London-based Hancocks & Co. and New York-based celebrity favorite Fred Leighton.
So while we focus on the Naples National, Naples Bayfest, Naples Invitational, Bonita January, February, etc., these gallery events bring in high end tents with air conditioning, valet parking, LED lighting, and the sales of "big rocks."
David Lester, owner and organizer of the Naples International Art & Antique Fair "believes Naples' art-collecting community is still developing, and that the spirit of friendly rivalry that often accompanies collecting hasn't taken hold yet. About 95 percent of the visitors who attended last year's fair were simply there to look and to enjoy what Lester called "cultural entertainment. 'In my opinion, people in Naples don't spend carelessly. And they don't tend to be frivolous.'"
Here we go again -- not only a near saturation point of juried art fairs but also two billion dollar exhibitions in the same month. Is the world coming to Naples?
Read the article: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/feb/06/the-art-of-blancing-art-shows-can-naples-support/
Great comments from the locals too!
