At this year’s Hamptons Fine Art Fair, booths transformed into a compelling exploration of street art’s enduring influence. Presenting a curated exhibition led by internationally acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey alongside New York legends Al Diaz and Chuck Connelly, personal values, economic trends, and artistic styles fractally coalesce.
The Tribeca gallery One Art Space emerged as one of the standout exhibitors during the four-day fair, reporting the sale of nearly every work displayed, including a complete sellout of Shepard Fairey’s pieces. The strong sales underscored the growing demand for artists whose work bridges cultural commentary with fine art collecting.
Curated by MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, co-owner of One Art Space, the exhibition examined the evolution of artistic rebellion across generations. Rather than presenting three artists independently, the installation positioned Fairey, Diaz, and Connelly in conversation, tracing how visual protest has evolved from graffiti-covered city walls to museum-quality canvases, while maintaining its ability to challenge convention.
Fairey, whose unmistakable graphic style has shaped contemporary visual culture through his iconic OBEY campaign and Barack Obama Hope poster, anchored the presentation with works that continue his exploration of politics, power, and public messaging. His recent TIME magazine cover further highlights his continued relevance as one of today’s most recognizable contemporary artists.
“I aim to draw people in with the beauty of an image and leave them with a deeper message,” Fairey said during the exhibition. “All of the works presented are a great example of that philosophy.”
The exhibition also celebrated the legacy of Al Diaz, whose role as co-creator of the influential SAMO© project alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat helped define New York’s downtown street art movement. Diaz’s current work continues to transform everyday urban objects, including the city’s familiar “Wet Paint” signs, into thought-provoking text-based installations examining society, language, and consumer culture.
Completing the presentation was acclaimed Neo-Expressionist Chuck Connelly, whose emotionally charged paintings provided a painterly counterbalance to the graphic precision of Fairey and the conceptual language of Diaz. His expressive canvases demonstrated how rebellion can exist as powerfully within gesture and paint as it does on city walls.
“For Hamptons Fine Art Fair, we wanted to bring together three artists who each changed the conversation in a different way. Shepard Fairey brings a global visual language. Al Diaz brings the living DNA of New York street culture. Chuck Connelly brings the raw power of painting as resistance.” – MaryAnn Giella McCulloh
The exhibition reflected a broader shift in the contemporary art market, where artists once viewed primarily through the lens of street culture have become central figures in museum collections and major private holdings. At One Art Space’s booth, collectors responded enthusiastically to works that connected decades of artistic innovation while highlighting the continued cultural relevance of socially engaged art.
Opening night attracted an array of notable figures from New York’s art and philanthropic communities, including Carmen D’Alessio, Jean Shafiroff, Rebecca Seawright, Ashley Medici, Rick Friedman, Cindy Lou Wakefield, and Donna Rubin.
Founded in Tribeca in 2011 by women gallerists MaryAnn Giella McCulloh and Mei Fung, One Art Space has built a reputation for presenting both internationally recognized artists and emerging talent while maintaining a strong commitment to supporting women artists and fostering dialogue within New York’s cultural landscape. Located on Warren Street, the gallery has hosted exhibitions featuring artists ranging from Shepard Fairey and Al Diaz to Andrew Salgado and Purvis Young, attracting collectors and prominent figures from across the worlds of art, fashion, and entertainment.
This year’s Hamptons Fine Art Fair once again reaffirmed its position as one of the East Coast’s premier summer art destinations. Held within a 70,000-square-foot pavilion at the Southampton Fairgrounds, the event brings together leading galleries, artists, collectors, and cultural tastemakers for one of the season’s most anticipated celebrations of contemporary art.
For One Art Space, the success of this year’s presentation demonstrated that art rooted in activism, urban culture, and uncompromising creative vision continues to resonate powerfully with today’s collectors, proving that the language of the street remains as influential as ever within the contemporary art world.
Photos by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan/PMC
