The art fair gets serious

There’s a common view among artists and collectors alike that art fairs are better at highlighting crafts, rather than fine art. And while there promises to be plenty of T-shirts, housewares and jewelry available at Art for the Cash Poor, there are also plenty of local gallery artists who almost never participate in the art fair market.

“My work is abstract. People have to look and think about it,” says Rebecca Jacoby, who will have prints, drawings and paintings at AFCP. “I think these events are hard because people are looking for fun little things, like a cool T-shirt.”

But, like a number of artists, Jacoby was convinced to participate because AFCP is the brainchild of the largest nonprofit artist membership organization in the city, InLiquid. The event offers a rare opportunity to peek into the sketchbooks and B-sides of local artists like Kara Howland, Gary Koenitzer and Zoe Cohen, and all of the work is $199 or less.

For Jacoby’s part, she’s setting aside her abstract oil paintings in favor of her more gestural drawings, and a few studies in symmetry. She’s fascinated by circular forms: “It’s a natural form and gesture — the sun and moon, rocks and stones. If you give a child a paint brush, I think they’re more likely to make a circular gesture. More than anything, they’re just pleasing to make.”