It costs gallery owner Ingrid Mueller many thousands of dollars to attend the Toronto International Art Fair but she says it's worth it to expose New Brunswick artists to 18,000 dealers and collectors from around the world. Story by Kate Wallace

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Story by Kate Wallace

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It costs as much as a small house for Ingrid Mueller to exhibit at the Toronto International Art Fair, a behemoth show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, but the owner of Ingrid Mueller Art Concepts gallery in Fredericton says it is worth it.

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‘Whale of a Time’ by Wayne Boucher. Mueller writes: “This painting shows the work of a senior artist who is able to play with colour and divide the surface into different areas without causing confusion. Instead he creates a depth and sense of falling into the painting.”

‘August Sale’ by Glenn Priestley. Mueller writes: “Glenn Priestley’s paintings show aspects of the world around us – the social environment that we take for granted.”

The return is not just financial, she said recently. On Monday, Mueller and her husband, Peter, headed to Toronto to brace for the more than 18,000 visitors who began descending Thursday night on the annual fair, now in its ninth year, which continues until Monday.

The fair "opens up the world" to the artists she represents, Mueller said. Over four days, hordes of dealers and collectors check out work from more than 100 galleries from 14 countries, including Japan, France, Germany, Colombia and Argentina.

"It's more art than you can see anywhere else," Mueller said. "You have people flying in from all over the States and Canada. It's a cultural mass that is there. It's very vibrant."

At the 2007 fair, $15 million in sales took place.

Mueller's is the only New Brunswick gallery at the fair; just two other Atlantic Canadian outfits - Gallery Page And Strange in Halifax and Christina Parker Gallery in St. John's - are there, too.

It is the second year the Fredericton gallery has taken part. Against expectations, Mueller broke even last year, rare for a first-time exhibitor.

Last year her booth was just half-built when an art dealer from London, England, came by to inquire about one of her gallery artists.

His reaction, like many of the other people who visited, was really positive, Mueller said.

"They were really surprised to see a gallery there from New Brunswick with a relatively large booth," she said. Many were shocked to learn "that we could exist in New Brunswick."

Mueller is hoping some admirers from '07 will return this year. The time, energy and money that go into preparing for the fair are an investment, she said.

"You can only go to an art fair if you go every year."

And each year the logistics should get a little easier.

Mueller said she learned a couple of lessons from last year, including sending the art ahead. Last year, she and her husband rented a cube van and drove all of the works themselves. After an exhausting drive, they endured six hours of chaos trying to unload their art at the marshalling yard.

This year, they crated and shipped the 40 or so works they'll be exhibiting and hired an art services company to bring it to the convention centre.

Just because the gallery was accepted last year did not guarantee an invitation to return in 2008. Each gallery had to send an extensive application package that is curated by 12 gallery owners and curators.

Of the dozen or so artists whose work Mueller will exhibit this year, "each of them are very original in what they do."

While Glenn Priestley's high realism uses groups of people as narrators in a way Mueller said few artists can, abstract paintings by Roméo Savoie, an architect by trade, boast flawless composition. Mueller said she would also be bringing a few pieces by emerging artists such as Deanna Musgrave and Adam MacDonald "to see what the reaction will be."

Although her gallery is located in downtown Fredericton, on York Street, her market extends well beyond New Brunswick.

It needs to, as the province has a limited contemporary art market, Mueller said. "It's sure good to have an audience elsewhere."

Interest from buyers who had attended last year's fair continued all year long, she said. "We had clients from Spain and all sorts of places."

The fair isn't just about showing - it is also about seeing, giving Mueller a chance to survey who and what is new on the modern art scene.

"There's a lot of really edgy work there."

Last year she was struck by an installation by a Toronto artist that she said was "ambiguous" for its seeming environmental message even as it consumed massive amounts of energy; by European work that she said many people in this province would find shocking for its sexually explicit content; by massive prints of Edward Burtynsky's photographs that depict how industry transforms nature.

Kate Wallace covers the arts for the Telegraph-Journal and is a frequent contributor to Salon.