Mountain Mayhem: Art Week

Art Week kicked off in Aspen on Monday, July 28, and continued through Sunday, Aug. 3, with art fairs and innovative programming from private collection tours to fine dining to performance art and more. Over the course of the week, cultural partners, media partners, sponsors, galleries, artists, and patrons came together in the name of the arts, exchanging ideas and supporting art.

The Aspen Art Museum introduced AIR, or Art in Relation, a 10-year, $20 million initiative presented with Lugano that began with a closed-door retreat and culminated in a free public festival. Sarah Broughton with Rowland+Broughton Architecture and Interior Design was invited to curate a conceptual design room for the ArtCrush Auction Exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum. Titled “In the Garden,” the Design Room served as an experiential tableau vivant, displaying the items curated for the silent auction. The annual ArtCrush Gala, presented by ZEGNA, featured a “celestial nights” theme and honored artist Glenn Ligon with the 2025 Lewis Family Art Award. The ArtCrush auction and gala is the museum’s largest annual fundraiser and, this year, raised more than $4 million in support of the museum’s groundbreaking exhibitions and dynamic educational programs — all presented free of charge to the public.

Aspen Art Fair, in its second year at Hotel Jerome, was founded by Bob Chase of Aspen’s Hexton Gallery and Becca Hoffman of the global arts business 74th Arts. Its opening day featured a screening of the award-winning short film, “Medusa,” at the Aspen Film Isis Theatre. A panel followed with investor and philanthropist Melony Lewis moderating and filmmaker and artist Sarah Meyohas, founder and CEO of MTArt Agency Marine Tanguy, and Executive and Artistic Director at Aspen Film Susan Wrubel in discussion.

Aspen Art Fair spanned the Jerome’s Ballroom, Antler Bar, and surrounding ground floor guest rooms and was a great success, doubling in size year over year. There were record-breaking sales, including Galerie Maxmilian’s wall of nine David Shrigley prints that were purchased by a single buyer, with a new wall of prints hung in their place. 

Intersect Aspen Art + Design Fair, founded by brothers Tim and Dirk von Gal, celebrated 15 years at the Aspen Ice Garden, transforming the space into an open-air art forum. This year also broke records with the highest attendance to date, strong sales, and vast programming. 212Gallery placed over 45 works by Shepard Fairey from his latest Aspen exhibition, “One Earth,” following the unveiling of his public mural downtown on the curved wall at Local’s Corner. Additionally, photographer Cristina Mittermeier was honored with the Intersect Aspen Art + Design’s Artist Award. Mittermeier (represented by Hilton Contemporary) is trained in both marine science and fine art photography, coined the term “conservation photography,” and has pioneered the use of visual storytelling as a force for ecological and cultural preservation. 

Art Week proved to be an immersive, engaging meeting of the minds and collaboration among brands and can be expected to continue to raise the bar in years to come.