Hampton's Fine Art Fair 2026 - Spotlight Artist

Kim Painter Chesney Selected as a Featured Artist at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair

This summer, Kim Painter Chesney will present new contemporary encaustic works as a Featured Artist at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, taking place July 9–12, 2026, at the Southampton Fairgrounds in New York. Widely recognized as one of the East Coast’s premier contemporary art fairs, the fair brings together leading galleries, collectors, curators, and internationally exhibited artists in a curated, gallery-driven setting.

Now celebrating two decades of art fairs in the Hamptons, HFAF has evolved into a major cultural event featuring over 100 galleries and hundreds of emerging, mid-career, and blue-chip artists from around the world. The fair has been recognized by Forbes as one of the notable art fairs globally worth traveling for, praised for its “relaxed, sophisticated ambience.”

Chesney’s work feels particularly aligned with the spirit of the fair — contemporary yet rooted in material history. Working in encaustic, an ancient process dating back more than 2,000 years, she creates layered surfaces using beeswax, resin, pigment, handmade parchments, and organic materials sourced during travels throughout countries including Thailand, Mexico, Japan, Greece, and Italy. Her works evoke archaeology, memory, preservation, and transformation through richly textured surfaces shaped by heat and time.

For the Hamptons presentation, Chesney will debut works that continue her exploration of natural textures and ancient process through a distinctly contemporary visual language. Her large-scale encaustic paintings blur the line between painting and sculpture, inviting viewers to move closer and discover surfaces fused through repeated layers of wax, fire, and material excavation.

The Hamptons Fine Art Fair has become known for presenting museum-quality installations alongside contemporary voices shaping today’s art landscape. This year’s edition will feature spotlight artists, themed exhibitions, sculpture installations, and international gallery presentations across the fairgrounds in Southampton.

Chesney will be exhibiting through Gallery Anderson Smith as part of the fair’s Featured Artist program. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience works that reflect her ongoing dialogue between ancient material traditions and contemporary abstraction.

For more information about the fair, visit Hamptons Fine Art Fair