Philadelphia's Presence and Quiet Confidence at NADA 2026
Of NADA's roughly 121 exhibitors, at least seven had a meaningful connection to Philadelphia. Perhaps it’s time to trade the underdog stereotype for a more accurate description of the city.
Philadelphia’s population may be significantly smaller than cities like New York or Los Angeles, but smaller doesn’t mean lesser. Of NADA's roughly 121 exhibitors, at least seven had a meaningful connection to Philadelphia. I arrived at the Starrett-Lehigh building thirty minutes early on Wednesday, NADA’s VIP preview day. I waited in line with the other VIPs at La Colombe Coffee—my first encounter with a Philadelphia-grown hallmark at NADA 2026. The cappuccino was a good start to the day.
Right after 10 a.m., I wandered into Big Ramp’s solo presentation of Todd Stong, part of Anthony Elms’ TD Bank Curatorial Spotlight. It’s a corner booth—large—right near the bathrooms and refreshments, an ideal place for attracting visitors. Big Ramp is an artist-run space based in Kensington, Philadelphia. Maria Stracke, one of the Big Ramp gallerists, greeted me wearing a gorgeous blue blouse. She was seated casually at a table in front of the booth, stewarding a relaxed atmosphere. The day was just getting started, and the crowds had yet to emerge. We took a deep breath together. Stracke and Chris Hammes—the other Big Ramp gallerist—shared with me a few days later: “The overall response to Todd’s work has been amazing. We can’t say too much about sales just yet, but it’s going very well, both financially and as a learning experience. It felt like an experiment before we got here, but one that has been worth the effort.”
Todd Stong’s The Johann Joachim Winckelmann Sculpture Park could be seen from far away while seated in the lunch area. However, looking up close, its grandeur was even more apparent. It was one of the largest two-dimensional artworks at NADA this year, spanning two full walls. Hammes sprinkled some kind of special art handler magic and hung the piece on an inside corner. When spread upon a flat wall, the work hangs 21 feet long. “This booth follows a narrative I’ve been developing over the last four years,” Stong said. “The Johann Joachim Winckelmann Sculpture Park [is] dedicated to the eponymous founder of art history who textually sublimated his homosexual desires onto sculptures of Greek young men in a show of unbridled political and cultural (read: sexual) nostalgia. The rest is art history.”
At NADA, Stong’s mural-like sculpture park got a chance to breathe out in the open. Previously, it hung at Peep Projects in 2024, in a hallway-shaped space where one could only stare at it up close. Here, air gently blew through the monotype panels, as if the work were only truly activated through viewership. It’s alive with bodies, dark holes, scaffolding, and many hands. It’s said that many hands make light work. Yet, in Stong’s rendering, many hands seem to be making work that is actively undoing itself as it’s unfolding. The ice monument melts as it’s being constructed. History is told as it’s being erased.
Around the bend was another TD Bank Curatorial Spotlight: 5U Space, a nomadic gallery in Philadelphia, started by Philadelphia native, design-forward Leo Brooks. Brooks was showcasing a delicate, thoughtful presentation by Mika Obayashi, a mix of paper works and sculptures created during her papermaking residency at Dieu Donné. It was a quiet counterpoint to Big Ramp’s bold statement. Brooks shared this about his debut fair experience: “We’ve been thrilled by the enthusiastic reception our booth has received following four opening day sales. Visitors have been taken by the blend of technical skill and visual subtlety present in Mika’s handmade paper works, expressed interest in our nomadic model, and commented that the restraint of our booth provided a moment of calm in the chaos of the fair.”
I could attest to the grounding nature of 5U Space’s booth. The three-legged Ecstatic Matter and four-legged Entropy Management System sculptures in the center are intricately handmade with so many small details. These are not readymades, but highly crafted, one-of-a-kind intimacies. While Dotted Line, the two tiny paper spirals attached to fishing wire, hung in the opposite corners of the gallery, reached skyward beyond the temporary white walls. The sculptures both touch ground and sky, while the eight diagram-like paper drawings create depth, blankness, and spaciousness, like a beautiful meditation. So far, 5U Space has received a spotlight in the New York Times and Whitewall.
Blah Blah Gallery, directed by dealer Megan Galardi, was the third Philadelphia gallery on site this year at NADA. Galardi is a dealer to watch; though Blah Blah has only been around since 2023, Galardi has quickly risen to become a standout commercial gallery in Philadelphia and has participated in art fairs across the country. “I chose to plant Blah Blah in Philadelphia because I saw a way to help fill the gap between artist-run spaces and larger institutions, creating more commercial pathways for artists while still staying connected to the energy and community that makes the city’s art scene so strong,” said Galardi. “I’m interested in building a space that feels deeply rooted in Philly but also connected to broader national and international conversations.”
Galardi has recently been featured in ARTnews and Artnet for launching a boutique hotel-style art fair happening June 4-6 in Philadelphia called Elsewhere Art Fair. For NY Art Week 2026, Blah Blah was showing at NADA and Future Fair and has already received mentions in Artsy and Hyperallergic. At NADA, Galardi presented work by Philadelphia-based artist Julia Policastro and Austin-based artist Sydney Vize.
“I worked at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in high school,” said Policastro, “and was introduced to the Philly art community through that institution. The zeal and support of the community were so inspiring. I wanted to immerse myself as much as possible.” Vize shared about how she connected with Galardi, “I was included in Blah Blah’s juried exhibition, Holding Pattern, earlier this year. It was my first time exhibiting in Philadelphia. I had always admired Blah Blah’s exhibitions and curatorial vision from afar, so I’m very honored to be included.”
Historically, Philadelphia galleries have had a presence at NADA, including showings by Paradigm Gallery and Pentimenti. This year, Pentimenti was invited to showcase work at Independent Art Fair, where the gallery presented a solo debut of work by Dan Gunn. Christine Pfister, Pentimenti’s director, shared that, “visitors were excited to encounter a Philadelphia gallery at the fair, underscoring the significance of regional voices within an increasingly international art landscape. For Pentimenti, the fair offered a significant opportunity to introduce the artists we champion to a broad and discerning audience.”
Beyond the Philadelphia-based galleries, several artists with roots in Philadelphia are present at NADA. Feia, a rising Los Angeles commercial gallery, debuted at NADA this year with an artist who got their start in Philadelphia. Marianna Peragallo received her undergrad from now-shuttered UArts and presented a solo display titled POCKET PARK. Feia sold out Peragallo’s work on day one. Peragallo is a Brazilian-American artist currently based in New York. All the works in the show were made while she was early postpartum with her child and are completely made of ceramics, though some pieces are convincingly metal-looking. She displayed a fountain feature of a biomorphic plastic bag that is leaking into a drainpipe. Feia will present new work from six artists at Elsewhere next month.
When asked about her time in Philadelphia, Peragallo remarked:
“I’m still close with my friends from the sculpture program and keep in touch with a few professors from my time there. My work is completely different from what it was in undergrad, but two of my professors, Jeanne Jaffe and Jonathan Berger, gave me the underrated gift of taking me seriously as a young artist. They opened up my world, and I fully credit them for showing me how to be a working artist…Philly and the people I met there started my life as an artist, and I am endlessly grateful for that.”
Another Los Angeles gallery at NADA, Yiwei Gallery, presented paintings by Philadelphia-based artist Kay Seohyung Lee. In a recent interview with Vibes N Vistas, Lee shared extensively about her experience as an emerging artist in Philadelphia: “There is curiosity and openness towards difficult discussions, which had a huge influence on my practice and how I view the art world.” Yiwei Lu, the gallery owner, originally connected with Lee through a collector in LA who bought her piece from Spring Break NYC. Lee received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and has shown at Paradigm Gallery, Blah Blah, Vox Populi, and Icebox Project Space, among others. When asked about Yiwei’s programming at NADA, Yiwei shared the following:
“The presentation has been very well received this week, and the show has now sold out. We were especially excited to bring this entirely new body of work by Kay Seohyung Lee to NADA, as we’ve worked with Kay for several years and have followed the evolution of her practice closely.
Some audiences may be more familiar with her earlier paintings, which often contained stronger elements of nudity and violence, reflecting themes of desire, absurdity, and chaos. In this newer series, her focus has shifted more toward systems of power, institutional structures, and questions of access. The worlds she paints still carry tension and psychological intensity, but in a different register—and yes, one noticeable difference is that people have clothes on now.
We’re very proud to support this transition in her practice, and it’s been wonderful to see how widely this new body of work has resonated with collectors, curators, and other artists throughout the fair.”
Saskia Fleishman is another Philadelphia artist whose work arrived at NADA via an out-of-state gallery, in her case, Dallas-based Galleri Urbane. Fleishman’s presentation included several wall-mounted sunrise paintings made of acrylic and locally sourced sand on digitally printed chiffon. The chiffon is translucent, allowing for a ghostly peek through the other side. The acrylic on top of the chiffon is applied in thick dashes, like the sky is moving toward the viewer. The ceramic sculptures have a similar sunrise ombre treatment, where the surface was sprayed with an underglaze.
When asked about her practice in Philadelphia, Fleishman said:
“I’ve lived in Philadelphia for the past five years…there is always something happening: readings, openings, pop-ups, screenings, and concerts that bring people together. What makes the Philly art scene so special is how supportive and accessible it feels; if you have an idea or project you want to make happen, there is always someone willing to help, collaborate, or connect you to the right people. During my time here, I’ve had the opportunity to exhibit work at Pentimenti Gallery, the Delaware River Waterfront, and Peep Projects.”
Galardi tipped me off to a handful of other Philly threads across the fairs I hadn't caught. Jen Wink Hays, a Philadelphia-based painter and sculptor, was showing with Sears-Peyton at NADA. TZ Productions had a special project at 1-54 — Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, the founder, is a Penn professor based in the city. Carl Drukow was showing with Good Naked at Future Fair. And DUDD HAUS, a Philadelphia-based design collective, launched DUDD LITE—a collaborative presentation of more than 120 artist-designed nightlights—at the New York design firm The Future Perfect.
Philadelphia’s art scene is special because it’s supportive and relatively accessible. There are likely more artists with Philly roots at NADA I didn't catch, and certainly more throughout the rest of New York. Whether artists and galleries choose to plant their practice in Philly or elsewhere, the city remains a cultural hub for creative talent. Perhaps it’s time to trade the underdog stereotype for a more accurate description—Philadelphia has a quiet confidence. It can be brutally honest, which is more an asset than a flaw. It pushes forward incredible contemporary art talent. It doesn’t need to be New York or Los Angeles. It is distinct in and of itself. I left the Starrett-Lehigh building at the end of the day—15,000 steps later—hopped onto a southbound train at Penn Station, back to the Keystone State.
Emily Logan is a nomadic art writer and publicist. Since 2020, she’s been building Space On Space: a media movement investigating the connections between land, power, and art. Previously, she worked as a publicist at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA. She holds a BFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art and an MS in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship from Fox School of Business, Temple University.
Space On Space is a media movement started in 2020. Originally a cathartic impulse to process the times, SOS has evolved into an investigation into the connections between land, power, and art. The outlet creates content and offers PR services to help artists, designers, and businesses take up more space in the media. At the intersection of art writing and public relations, SOS interrogates the line between mythmaking and the historical archive. The publication has produced three print magazines and a mountain of digital content covering artists from around the world. The magazine hosts parties, art talks, and poetry events. In a media landscape built for speed, SOS slows down—because depth is disruptive, and attention is power.
Loved this piece! This post really stayed with me, also left me desperate to finally make it down to Philly — I’ve been following Blah Blah for years and this made me want to experience the space in person even more.
Adding a new Philly discovery at the bottom, I just learned about: Southside Contemporary (based in Richmond, Virginia) presented work by Huey Gastón Lightbody, a Philadelphia-based artist, at NADA 2026.