Brooklyn’s First Print Fair Puts Community Over Commercialism

Between all the stuffiness and pressed blazers of years past, I never believed that an art fair could actually be fun — nay, really fun — until yesterday night, when I checked out the inaugural edition of the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair (BFAPF) in Gowanus. Concurrent with the International Fine Print Dealers Association’s annual fair at the Park Avenue Armory, BFAPF runs March 27 to 30 at Powerhouse Arts, placing emphasis on the close-knit printmaking and publishing community above anything else.

In addition to the genuine relief of being spared an hour-long journey uptown, I confidently can say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout — and not just because BFAPF was only a 15-minute walk from my place. In its first year, the fair felt cozy, with a manageable layout of some 40 domestic and international exhibitors in the Great Hall and over 30 sellers tabling in the Loft, but energetic with its high turnout on opening night.

Best of all, independent printshops, print-oriented galleries, institutional printmaking programs like that of Pratt Institute and Hunter College, and high-profile publishers like Two Palms were all unified in their shared passion not just for the craft, but the connection it elicits through process and appreciation alike.

Luther Davis, director of Powerhouse Arts’s silkscreen printshop, spearheaded the new fair with Ann Shafer and Brian Miller of Fine Arts Baltimore, the chief developers of the city’s own fine art print fair that began in 2022. During my course through the fair, I learned that the trio did the heavy lifting in pulling in exhibitors as well — a majority of participants relayed that they were encouraged to take part by at least one of the three, with some mentioning that Eric Shiner, president of Powerhouse Arts, also extended a few invites.

At the shared booth with Bushwick Print Lab (BPL), Lane Sell, Shoestring Press’s master printer, mentioned that the whole fair felt like “one big reunion.”

Having felt a bit awkward during most other spring season art fairs, I felt welcomed and at ease navigating the exhibitors at Powerhouse Arts. It was as easy to connect with undergraduate students exhibiting through the Parsons School of Design booth as it was to converse with old school publishers, gallerists, and master printers working with the likes of Marilyn Minter, Cecily Brown, and Terry Winters — especially as someone with minimal printmaking knowledge.

Another element that stood out to me was the unabashed messaging conveyed by featured artists, which felt authentic rather than … well, trendy. Many of the booths had full-chested messages outwardly supporting transgender rights and acknowledging the harms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, border patrol, and other threatening forces under Trump’s administration — all of which hat-tipped printmaking’s role in activism and organizing spaces through seriality, creative freedom, and easy dissemination.

Peter Haarz, owner and director of Petrichor Press in Philadelphia, was displaying Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s Hot Boyz (2024), a series of illustrated red and orange lithographs delving into Black and queer sexual pleasure untethered from allusions and modesty. Haarz told me that BFAPF was an opportunity to get Chase’s work in front of new audiences, which was “important now more than ever.”

On a similar note, Frank Rose of Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe, a contemporary print-oriented gallery working primarily with artists in New Mexico and Mexico, highlighted that immigration policy has weighed heavy on its community.

“One of our artists, Juana Estrada Hernández, is a DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) recipient, and that program is under threat,” Rose told me. “She came here at seven and was able to qualify for this program, and she’s living and teaching and making work in the States, but could easily have her status revoked.”

Hernández’s featured work at the Hecho a Mano booth touches on her experience using motifs of barbed wire and a view across the Rio Grande. Other standouts include Edith Chavez’s woodcut corn prints and Rhiannon Sky Tafoya’s screenprinted gradient weavings.

Visitors should definitely make a point not to miss the booths of Overpass Projects booth, Jillian Ross Print’s booth, David Krut Projects, Artists Image Resource, Eminence Grise Editions, the Hunter College MFA program, and Two Palms.

But most importantly, anyone who stops by should not be afraid to ask any questions or simply just chop it up with the exhibitors — I guarantee that you’ll walk away having learned a thing a two, having laughed more than that, and with a new or renewed appreciation for the labor and love that goes into this craft.