“Are you here for the art show or the fashion show?” an event staffer asked me as I approached the entrance to Lower Manhattan’s Pier 36 for this year’s Art on Paper fair. The question underscored the tumultuous lineup of overlapping arts and culture events that annually descends upon New York City post-Labor Day. The fall equinox might not arrive until September 22, but for New Yorkers, summer is officially over.

Art on Paper, a fair centering on modern and contemporary paper-based artwork, kicked off its 10th iteration yesterday, September 5, beside the East River with a fleet of 100 foreign and domestic medium-sized galleries scattered across a 70,000-square-foot network of booths. There are also several solo presentations on display, including a wall-based abstract installation by Brooklyn artist Elise Ferguson, shown by Kingsland Editions, and two metallic bamboo sculptures by Taiwanese artist Ching Ke Lin of Fremin Gallery.

This was the second year the fair invited Brooklyn printmaking studio Shoestring Press to host live printing workshops, where visitors can attend in-person demonstrations and hands-on quick courses in methods including silkscreen and linocut throughout the show’s run ending this Sunday, September 8. The studio also has a second booth where works by its members are for sale, ranging from $75 to $9,000 — emphasizing the fair’s relative affordability, a draw for regulars who come back each year. 

In the back end of the fair, I found myself nearly colliding with two shiny luxury hatchbacks situated in the middle of the showroom, as part of a sponsorship with Infiniti Motor Company. Were these paper? 

I raised my question to Kelly Freeman, the director of Art on Paper and other fairs including the Seattle Art Fair, the San Francisco Art Fair, and next month’s inaugural Atlanta Art Fair.

“Sometimes it’s really just about a brand wanting to support the art fair,” Freeman said, adding that the sponsorship allowed organizers to open up the space more and bring in more exhibitors, such as the Toronto-based Little Egg Gallery, which shows work by artists under 18 years old. It is currently exhibiting a selection of charcoal drawings and prints by 15-year-old artist Nalin Kamat, who founded the gallery two years ago.

While the cars were certainly the clunkiest objects occupying floorspace, they certainly were not the only spectacles at the event, which also featured a flashy LaCroix selfie booth and performances by flamenco dancers, courtesy Nicolas V. Sanchez Studio. 

In a very different kind of partnership, Art on Paper also hosted the Booksmart Fair event with the Center for Book Arts for the second year in a row. The miniature fair-within-a-fair features a lineup of books by 22 artists who bring a wholesome, refreshing excitement for the medium that at times felt absent elsewhere in the show. 

Bella Tuo, who co-runs the design collective Body&Forma with graphic designers Chen Luo and Chuck Gonzales, told me that she thought the combination of the two fairs was “a good opportunity to engage with different audiences.” Book artist and printmaker Maria Pisano, who runs the New Jersey-based publisher Memory Press, also welcomed the opportunity as a first-time exhibitor at the fair, saying that she was excited by the prospect of introducing visitors to the art of bookmaking — even if they weren’t familiar with the practice. She lamented the closure of New York Central Art Supply Inc., a 111-year-old art supply store in the East Village that permanently shut its doors in late 2016. 

Stacey Lee Webber, co-owner of Philadelphia’s Bertrand Productions, said she likes that the fair is centered around a “niche of artwork.” 

“You have to apply to all the fairs, and Art On Paper has been really supportive ever since we first applied,” Webber said.

For its fifth year at the fair, the gallery displayed a selection of acrylic paintings by artists Morgan Sims, wall-hanging collages by Galen Gibson-Cornell, kaleidoscopic money prints by Marc Wagner, and Webber’s own work — paper bills hand-stitched together and embroidered with drippy visuals of bloody raw meat. It’s part of a project she has been working on for around four years, which involves transforming presidents’ heads into miniature portraits of blue-collar workers. Most recently, she has turned the project’s focus to butchers, which took on another, unintended significance in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s near assassination.

“It wasn’t purposeful, but you know how culture just seeps into your brain,” she said. From the abysses of my mind, a voice faintly echoed: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?