One stop art shop

What with Folk Fest last month and Artexpo Atlanta on the horizon, Atlanta is becoming a veritable art fair hub.

Art fairs — from Art Basel in Miami, the Armory Show in New York and the Frieze Art Fair in London — have become some of the most prestigious cultural events on the arts radar. They’re much like any trade show, only instead of, say, medical supplies, the articles being bought and sold are paintings and sculptures.

Produced by the International Art and Framing Group, which created Artexpo New York and Art Miami, Artexpo Atlanta is the art fair’s inaugural road test here. Whether the concept can withstand the local demand for decorative work and the less rarefied air space of the Georgia World Congress Center remains to be seen. At the very least it demonstrates promising signs of growth in Atlanta’s status as an art market.

Though Artexpo won’t pull in the kind of internationally known galleries as the top-tier art fairs, producers hope to entice almost 20,000 visitors across its threshold. National galleries will be featured, as well as eight Atlanta galleries, including Galerie Timothy Tew, Trinity Gallery, Skot Foreman Gallery and Aliya Gallery.

While the art merchants hock their wares, various ancillary programs will add a touch of legitimacy to the event, like a promising breakfast lecture Sat., Sept. 11, at 8:30 a.m. by Philip Brookman, curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. Brookman is perhaps best known as the curator of the 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe photography show, which was canceled by political art foes.Artexpo Atlanta will be held Sept. 10-12, at the Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. A preview party will be held Thurs., Sept. 9, from 6-9 p.m. for $25. Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $10. 888-608-5300. www.internationalartandframing.com.