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"DALLAS \u2014&amp;nbsp;How much can a three-day art fair contribute to an art scene that aspires to flourish year-round? It\u2019s a question Dallas is asking itself on opening day of the fifth-annual Dallas Art Fair, which runs April 12-14. The event has grown from a 37-exhibitor, largely local affair to a buzzing hub for 90 international galleries like New York\u2019s Marlborough Gallery and Milan\u2019s Massimo de Carlo, a good half of which are new to the event this year.Dallas, it\u2019s abundantly clear, is a city that wants to be known as an art capital. And maybe \u2014 just maybe \u2014 it\u2019s got a shot at becoming one. Collectors flew in from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit to browse the fair\u2019s VIP preview on April 11. (Of course, it\u2019s no Basel \u2014 many of those visitors already had existing ties to the area through relatives and friends.)The number of local collectors has also grown dramatically since the fair\u2019s inception. \u201CIn the 10 years since I left, it\u2019s totally changed,\u201D said Dallas-born Esther Kim Varet, founder of the Los Angeles gallery Various Small Fires, a first-time exhibitor. \u201CThere were always a couple names of collectors you would see \u2014 now there are so many more. It feels like it\u2019s a part of the culture.\u201D&amp;nbsp;A testament to its growing ambition, this year\u2019s fair even has its own satellite: Caja Dallas, a spinoff of the indie event SEVEN. (Unlike most auxiliary events, however, Caja Dallas was formally invited and co-produced by the fair\u2019s organizers.) It\u2019s one of over a dozen exhibitions, panel discussions, and other art events timed to coincide with the Dallas Art Fair.\u201CI think fairs can become nodes \u2014 magnetic points that things gather around,\u201D Nasher Sculpture Center director Jeremy Strick told ARTINFO as he browsed the aisles, adding that he thought this year\u2019s fair was \u201Csignificantly better\u201D than last year. \u201CFirst, a number of institutions have constructed their exhibition schedules around the fair, and now a number of artists have organized exhibitions and projects.\u201DThere are early signs that this coordination may help promote commerce. Though most marquee, expensive pieces \u2014 like a celestial painting by Roberto Matta from 1972 at the booth of Cernuda Arte priced at $800,000 \u2014 remained available at the end of the preview, work by emerging artists with established exhibition histories in the city sold briskly.Within 30 minutes of the VIP opening, New York\u2019s David Lewis Gallery sold a multipanel painting by Charles Mayton for $12,000 that was recently on view at the Power Station, a kunsthalle founded by local collector Alden Pinnell. Similarly swiftly, Jonathan Viner Gallery of London sold a $30,000 painting adorned with jewel-tone plasticine by Dan Rees, who is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the nearby Goss Michael Foundation.Dealers attribute this \u201Chive mind\u201D buying pattern to the social nature of collecting in Dallas and the small number of key art advisors active in the city. \u201CPeople here know what their friends are buying \u2014 they bring people by to say, \u2018Oh, I have this artist,\u2019\u201D noted the Green Gallery\u2019s Jake Palmert. The Milwaukee gallery sold a bamboo and rope sculpture by Kasper Muller and Tobias Madison, who currently has a water-filled installation on view at the Power Station, for $8,000.The fact that Dallas is located far away from self-serious art hubs like Los Angeles and New York also means that collectors here take more risks, dealers said. \u201CThe collections are personality driven and whimsical, much more so than in New York,\u201D noted CANADA\u2019s Phil Grauer. \u201CThe collectors are all advised, but sometimes they\u2019ll go rogue, maybe to prove to their neighbors that they\u2019re that much more relaxed.\u201DIndeed, some collectors were clearly taking chances. San Francisco\u2019s Jessica Silverman Gallery sold four works by Amikam Toren, an Israeli-born, London-based artist in his 60s who had never before shown in America. His canvases \u2014 made from the pulp of ground-up thrift store paintings \u2014 sold on opening night for $13,000 each.By the end of the weekend, dealers may conclude whether or not the region\u2019s appetite for art is keeping pace with the fair\u2019s ambitious expansion. Most are optimistic. \u201CMore than any small center,\u201D Grauer said, \u201CI can\u2019t think of anywhere else that could pull this off.\u201DTo see images from the Dallas Art Fair 2013, click on the slideshow."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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