Every May, Chelsea shifts into high gear for New York’s independent art fair season. Future Fair — the exhibition for a forward-thinking art market — returns May 13–16 for its sixth edition at Chelsea Industrial, 535 West 28th Street, bringing together 68 galleries from 9 countries across 4 continents. The VIP preview is Wednesday May 13. Doors open to the public Thursday through Saturday, May 14–16.
What makes Future Fair distinct is its deliberate rejection of the blue-chip model. Emerging galleries, artist-run initiatives, and collaborative platforms share the floor on equal footing, with 15% of the fair’s annual profits reinvested as grants for participating galleries. For Latin American galleries trying to break into the New York market, this structure matters. Future value often comes from where you least expect it.
Latin America at the Fair
The single most significant Latin presence is Policroma Gallery from Medellín, Colombia — the only Latin American gallery with a physical presence at the fair. Policroma, which opened in 2018, has become one of Colombia’s most active contemporary art platforms, connecting Colombian artists to international audiences at fairs from ARTBO (Bogotá’s international art fair) to New York.
Policroma is bringing Colombian painter Laura Noguera — whose work Future Fair chose as the lead image for its entire 2026 announcement. That’s not a minor detail. Of 68 exhibitors, Noguera’s painting Ofrenda mínima (2025) is the face of the fair. See the image at futurefairs.com
In Ofrenda mínima, Noguera takes volcanoes as her point of departure — monumental, explosive bodies that serve as figurations of both the origin of life and the irrepressible force of nature — rendering them in their most minimal expression. A hand with polished nails holds the origin of the world.
LOL: The image reminded me of my 8-year Colombian ex-girlfriend who was always going off for God knows what. She claimed to be a “real” Latina, but most Latinas are not like that. Dancing on a volcano may be fun at first, but can be dangerous. Yet there is something to the relationship between destruction and creation. Getting away from that girlfriend launched me into a wonderful, entirely new stage of life. I guess I couldn’t have gotten here, without having gone there. At another level, the image is Eve offering the apple. In Medellín, you do not want to breathe that mist.
Noguera is a Colombian visual artist born in Santa Marta whose practice centers on oil painting as a way of exploring inner landscapes and subtle states of perception. Santa Marta is along Colombia’s Caribbean coast, opposite Barranquilla. Many unique creatives come from there. She completed her MFA at the New York Academy of Art in 2017 and lives and works between Bogotá and New York.
Colombian contemporary art is having a global moment — from the Bogotá art scene to Cali’s Caliwood film tradition to the Caribbean coast culture that shaped Laura Noguera’s visual imagination. Policroma at Future Fair is part of that story landing in New York.
Other Latin Connections
Three Mexican galleries are participating — Encarte, Pali Galería, and Alday Hunken Gallery (operating across Atlanta and Mexico City) — alongside Artbug, based in both Los Angeles and Mexico City. Miami-based Dimensions Variable represents several Latin American and Caribbean artists including Cuban-American Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova and Venezuelan artist Alfredo Travieso. The Contemporary Art Modern Project from North Miami and Opa Projects from Miami round out the Florida contingent with strong Latin American program histories.
Get Tickets
6th Future Fair 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇲🇽 🇻🇪
Emerging galleries and artists contemporary art fair
Colombian, Mexican, and Miami galleries
Cuban and Venezuelan artists
Chelsea Industrial, Chelsea
VIP Preview: Wed, May 13
Public: Thu-Sat, May 14-16
$36+