all photos: Dakota Fine

With an opening party last night, the 2nd annual (e)merge art fair is now officially open for business (and pleasure) at the Capitol Skyline hotel and will remain so till this Sunday, October 7th. And after our interviews with the founders, ART GUIDE inclusions, Best Weekend Bets and more, consider this the final piece of our “go visit” puzzle. For one, this is the first thing you’ll see as you walk in:

The fair sprawls on 3 levels plus a pool deck of the hotel and offers very distinct experiences on each:

• the second floor sees each individual hotel room is taken over by independent galleries from DC and around the world, with strong showings from local favorites like Flashpoint, Contemporary Wing and Transformer (whose “flat file” room is a must for any budding collector-with prints ranging from as little as $25)

• the ground floor is obviously the epi-center of both socializing, meeting with the partners of the fair and a location of some of the more high profile instalations and the panels which will be happening throughout the weekend

• the pooldeck is the site for several performance art pieces (including the truly heartbreaking VOCES by Mandy Cano Villalobos, performative installation commemorating the femicide victims of Juarez, Mexico

• and Katie Kehoe’s Mary Ellen Likes Free Magazines which is both a cultural commentary on our sedentary, celebrity obsessed culture and a cautionary tale for this writer, known for hoarding magazines everywhere she goes)

• things, of course, take a turn for the decidedly more weird once you get into the basement, with installations by MICA and CORCORAN students, the DECOY team and the DCCAH, most of which are interactive enough that we, if nothing else, predict a 1000 instagrams from them.

Throughout the weekend, some of BYT’s favorite performance artists like Andrew Wodzianski, Chajana denHarder, Holly Bass, JJ McCracken and Sheldon Scott will be doing pop-up performances involving inspirations and motivations as diverse as Melville’s Moby Dick (in Wodzianski’s 36 hour long “Self-Portrait as Ishmael”) to hair washing (in Bass’ “COME CLEAN”) and are bound to be one of the most talked about moments of the fair.

To keep yourself in the loop with the programming, visit http://www.emergeartfair.com/programs/, + follow the fair on social media:  facebook/twitter/instagram (@emergeartfair)