Split Level Fair - DIARY: The beginnings of a new gallery & art fair brought to you by a painter.

By JAQUELINE CEDAR September 30, 2025

JAQUELINE CEDAR here - 39-year old Columbia MFA grad, born in Los Angeles, living in Brooklyn, working all over - but mostly NYC, LA, and Chicago these days.  Six years ago I started a gallery and about six months ago I decided to start an art fair.  

The inaugural SPLIT LEVEL FAIR opens Oct 2 - 4, 2025 at Rimadesio NYC - a design-centered space located at 102 Madison Avenue, New York NY.  SPLIT LEVEL FAIR is set up to create space for intimacy, collaboration, and experimentation.  15 galleries will present small curated experiences featuring 1-3 artists. Actors will perform, video artists will screen new works, and art you want to live with will be available for sale at affordable price points.  RSVP and join us at splitlevelfair.com/rsvp.

It feels fitting that our fair will display artworks in a setting complete with walk-in closets and large comfy chairs, as I started my gallery out of a much more modest 2-bedroom in Brooklyn in October 2019.  Now, a little bit of history - i.e. how my spare bedroom in Brooklyn became the starting point for a gallery, pop-up exhibition series, and finally, a new art fair.  I’m going to start from the beginning-ish and work my way forward.

 Jaqueline Cedar in the studio.
 

SPARE ROOM TO GALLERY

August 2019 - My apartment-mate of a year and change decided to move in with an old friend.  I felt strongly that I had aged out of having roommates and it was time for a shift.  Nothing like a newly open space to bring excitement and dread to the air.  First - real talk - how to make up for the lost money in rent.  Next - a fantasy - an spare clean room for displaying art during studio visits?  I had already been making use of my painting-filled living room as studio space.  Then - a vision - start a gallery.  I had been drafting curatorial proposals for the last few years and this open bedroom presented the space I needed to test these ideas.

Good Naked, 1st Mural Installation by Matt Kleberg and Jenn Brehm, 2019

Late August - I spent a moment over the phone bemoaning this unanticipated new beginning to my playwright friend and he responded with, “well at least you get to walk around naked everywhere.”  Gallery name - check.  GOOD NAKED GALLERY emerged.  I had been re-watching the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a girlfriend who walks around naked and he and George debate which activities yield a status of “good naked” or “bad naked.”  Brushing hair naked - good.  Fixing a bike naked - bad?  I like art with humor and intimacy, vulnerability and awkwardness - this felt like the right fit.  My ever-supportive parents attempt to feign enthusiasm.

Beginning of September 2019 - Write every artist, collector, advisor, and non-profit organizer you know.  Ask to talk.  I had never run a business or worked in a gallery so I had a lot of questions. Also, I was fairly certain I might quickly become obsessed with this curatorial venture and I needed to figure out a monetary means of sustaining it.  Took some influence from other contemporary home-gallery models and started making lists.

Late September - I had about 6 months of exhibition ideas in the works.  The plan was to invite artists to make murals in the hallway and foyer of my apartment and to launch smaller curated exhibits in the newly available 2nd bedroom.

October 2019 - First show launched and my building sign-in list was filled with names of strangers and friends making their way up to my apartment.  Neighbors poked their heads in to see what was going on with confusion and intrigue.  My distant Brooklyn location seemed to encourage interest and visitors stuck around, looking and chatting late into the evening.  My fridge was filled with cheap beer and seltzer.  Each month, for six months, the walls were repainted and everyone joked that the layers of paint would soon cave in on me.  Short week-long turn-overs between exhibits left me tired but still motivated.  The enthusiasm for this experiment was contagious.  I painted my kitchen black and sold t-shirts and zines/artist-made books on metal shelves suspended from the walls.

Good Naked Gallery, Kitchen Installation

January 2020 - We hosted our last big hurrah in my apartment space.  The opening was packed and folks piled into the kitchen to check out the art in the freezer - a living still-life stocked with fish, bread, and fruit by Phoebe Berglund.  We closed that show with a reading of a play by Joshua Young - the exhibit was titled Go For Broke - and that we did.

Good Naked Gallery, Go For Broke, Art by Phoebe Berglund

March 2020 - Well we all know what happened here.  After running around to every art fair that 2nd week of March and anxiously awaiting better news about the world, I cancelled our next opening out of cautiousness.  I soon discovered I would be living with the current mural installation (which included a papier mache horsehead chandelier by Rachel Jackson - you’d have to see it to believe it) for the next 6 months until I finally decided it was time to try something new.

 Good Naked Gallery, Talk Soup Exhibition, March 2020, Art by Rachel Jackson

TAKING TO THE PARK

October 2020  - After 2 virtual exhibitions and a long programming pause, still nervous about having visitors in a contained space during COVID, I took to the park.  I felt certain that everyone still needed in-person experiences with art and each other.  I spent weeks scouting locations in Prospect Park that might yield the right kind of environment for gathering safely and displaying work.  The art was suspended from trees or placed on the ground.  Everyone showed up in masks for a 3-hour outdoor experiment.  We packed up the art and this pop-up model became the mode for the next few months.

Good Naked Gallery, Desperately Seeking Susan Exhibition in Prospect Park, Art by Stipan Tadic
 

February 2021 - We filled a blanketed area of snow in Prospect Park with large-scale sculptures on a sunny and cold winter day - the show was titled Adult Sledding.  Sculptors are can-do people and the artists in this show were beasts about trekking their work into this hidden magical location.  I went home with frozen toes and everyone seemed excited.

2021, Good Naked, Adult Sledding, AntoniaPerez, Tangled
 

CROSS COUNTRY COLLABORATIONS

April 2021 - Vaccinated and ready to travel again I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico to work with artist Jonathan Hartshorn who ran his gallery out of a gazebo in his back yard - aptly titled Calendar Gazebo.  We hung a 4-person show and this was the beginning of a new collaborative model - launching travelling exhibitions in partnership with more permanent venues who shared our interest in emerging art and experimentation in presentation.

April 2025 - I’m going to fast forward a bit now to gain ground on this new art fair.  In the last 4 years my gallery has participated in collaborative exhibitions across the country (Barely Fair - a miniature fair in Chicago, NADA in NYC, and Future Fair’s Villa Tigertail - hosted at a private residence in Los Angeles).  We took part in our first international fair last fall - Minor Attractions at the Mandrake Hotel in London.  My own paintings were represented at NADA NY and Miami, and I’m beginning to understand the business and pleasure of making and selling art.  Felix Fair was a new point of reference for thinking about hosting art in lived-in spaces - poolside lounging was the place for discussion and connection.

 
2023, Good Naked, Barely Fair

NOW: SPLIT LEVEL FAIR  

Late April - I went to an event/talk one evening at Rimadesio NYC - a design space focused on bespoke interiors.  We connected about a potential collaboration and a new art fair was born - because we need more art fairs of course.

Rimadesio’s space is filled with jewel-box-like interiors.  Walk-in closets with sliding doors made of glass and mirror are filled with paper sculptures of play clothing, meant to give the sense of a lived environment.  I wrote to several galleries with the idea of presenting art at this location.  Artworks would either be placed on tables or lean against shelves.  This limitation didn’t seem to create pause.  I described the space to video artist Erin Johnson and we selected a work that would sit well on loop in the sub level of this split-level showroom.  Another business name emerged - SPLIT LEVEL FAIR it would be.

Rimadesio NYC

Erin Johnson, video still

August 2025 - An assembled group of young galleries sets to participate in this experimental project.  The idea is to share audiences in a user-friendly space with a focus on emerging artists and lower price points.  Participation fees are minimal and meant to cover operating costs.  The goal is to create overlaps in audiences and shared experiences.  My apartment gallery used to function like a salon with performances, comedy shows, play readings, and film screenings.  SPLIT LEVEL FAIR will host a performance and video program amongst talks and opportunities to meet with artists and gallerists.  

Being the daughter of an actor - Larry Cedar - I’ve often felt a pull to collaborate with performers - especially in unusual settings.  I was struck by the Richard Maxwell performances that took place adjacent to Christopher Wool’s exhibit last year and I’m always trying to find ways to overlap theater and visual art audiences.

The Burrow, Good Naked, Virtual Exhibition

This summer Kari Adelaide of the Sphinx Northeast introduced me to the work of playwright Matthew Freeman when she curated his writing into our performance schedule at Upstate Art Weekend.  Matthew has since written a short site-specific work titled “HOW TO” for SPLIT LEVEL to be performed by four actors upstairs and downstairs simultaneously within earshot.

October 2, 2025 - Now for the pitch.  Please save the date for our inaugural opening.  Come one, come all!  Lounge around, drink with us, buy art, etc.!  We are here to provide delight and encourage enthusiasm in a market that has been dragging as of late.  Do not despair - those galleries still standing have the hustle and we are thrilled to welcome you into this new venture and exchange of art and ideas.

SPLIT LEVEL FAIR will be open Oct 2 - 4, 2025.

RSVP at www.splitlevelfair.com/rsvp

FAIR HOURS www.splitlevelfair.com/visit

PREVIEW www.splitlevelfair.com/galleries

Info@splitlevelfair.com for all other inquiries.  See you soon!