Ji Zhou @ Klein Sun Gallery/ Seattle Art Fair

For the past few years, The Seattle Art Fair and Out Of Si ght have been bringing a mix of blue-chip art and challenging creative brilliance to a town too commonly associated with fog and technology.

The Seattle Art Fair, founded by Paul Allen in 2015, is a usual hit-or-miss collection of international modern and contemporary art galleries, not unlike Pulse, or Art Basel. More radical in its approach, Out Of Sight, feels less like an art fair (while work is for sale), and more like a Northwest on-ramp to the Whitney Biennial, with a rotating roster of curators, this year including S. Surface, Greg Lundgren, Justen Waterhouse and Benedict Heywood, as well as exhibition caretaker Scott Lawrimore.

We waded through it all and have gathered some of our favorite photography-based highlights. The Seattle Art Fair will be on view through Sunday, August 6th, and Out Of Sight will be on view through August 27th.

© Akihiho Miyoshi at Out of Site — © Akihiho Miyoshi at Out of Site

Seattle isn't commonly perceived as the epicenter for cutting edge or blue chip art. Its more frequent associations (re: clichés) hang in generalizations about foggy weather (btw, it's beautiful and sunny AF right now, thanks), the growing tech boom and overzealous Seahawks fans. So last year when the Seattle Art Fair, and Out Of Sight came on the scene, not many knew what to expect -- it had been long since anyone could remember the presence of art fairs on the level of the New York City and Miami "elite." Eagerly embracing their return this weekend, we spent some time at both fairs, grabbing highlights (and bios) of our favorite photography-based work from each. Out Of Site will be up through the end of the month, and The Seattle Art Fair will be on view through Sunday, August 7th -- if you're in town, find a way to get a VIP pass and check them out.

Photography Highlights From Seattle's Two Legit-Most Art Fairs

Out of Sight: Photography Highlights from Seattle's Only Legit Art Fairs