The FOG Design+Art fair in San Francisco is setting the stage for a major expansion, announcing a lineup of 76 exhibitors for its upcoming 2027 edition. Running from January 21 through January 24 at the historic Fort Mason Center for the Arts, the prominent fair is increasing its overall physical footprint by approximately 20 percent compared to the previous year, welcoming 13 more exhibitors and adapting its layout to accommodate mounting demand from both international and domestic galleries.
The upcoming edition will feature a mix of returning heavyweights and galleries coming back from various lengths of hiatus. Returning blue-chip exhibitors include David Zwirner, Lisson Gallery, Marian Goodman Gallery, Mendes Wood DM, and Hauser & Wirth, which remains the sole mega-gallery maintaining a permanent physical location in the San Francisco Bay Area. Meanwhile, galleries returning for 2027 after skipping out on the 2026 edition include Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, Commonwealth and Council, and Chris Sharp Gallery. Several other prominent institutions are making their returns after even longer hiatuses, including White Cube, Sprüth Magers, and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.
According to FOG director Sydney Blumenkranz, the decision to expand the fair was directly inspired by the resounding success of the previous year’s event. Blumenkranz characterized the atmosphere of the past fair as possessing strong attendance levels, a sharp surge in interest from the gallery community, "super-high energy," and robust sales for exhibitors, which included multiple transactions closing in the six-figure range.
"I think the success of the fair last year has a lot to do with the resurgence of interest in San Francisco in general," Blumenkranz said in an interview with ARTnews. "There has definitely been this narrative that San Francisco was a bit down and out in the past few years, but that narrative has really turned around."
This renewed momentum has translated into a remarkable 30 percent increase in exhibitor applications over the 2026 edition, which itself had recorded a 20 percent gain in applications compared to 2025. The 2027 fair will introduce 15 first-time exhibitors, expanding the stylistic and geographic scope of the event with participants such as Thomas Dane Gallery, VeneKlasen, P.P.O.W, Matthew Brown, and Mariposa.
"What we’re seeing in terms of exhibitor interest in FOG is absolutely huge, and it continues to surprise us every year in the best way possible," Blumenkranz said. "We felt like we had a real duty to FOG and to the arts community here to expand the fair, and that’s exactly what we’re doing this year."
To accommodate this growth without sacrificing the intimate and navigable feel of the event, the fair is expanding across both piers utilized at Fort Mason. The Focus pavilion will extend to the second floor for the first time in the fair’s history, while the historic pier will add approximately seven new booths. This spatial reconfiguration is made possible in part by relocating the popular FOG Talks program from the back of the pier into a dedicated, 437-seat venue at the Cowell Theater.
By increasing its floor plan and more than doubling its seating capacity for the talks program, FOG aims to alleviate logistical bottlenecks that have occasionally impacted visitors in past years.
"We’ve had lines out the door. We’ve had to turn people away, and that’s not what we want," Blumenkranz explained. "We want to be as inclusive as possible, and we want to be able to host as many people as possible."
Community engagement and high-profile patronage remain central to the fair’s identity. The traditional preview gala, scheduled for the evening of January 20 as a benefit for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, will feature prominent honorary chairs: Instagram founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn, alongside former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana and his wife Jennifer.
"The art and design community here in the Bay Area really shows up for FOG, and that is amazing," Blumenkranz said. "We’d love to reach beyond that community. We’d love to be as accessible as possible to various audiences, and I hope that our honorary chairs can help instill that ethos."
The growth of FOG arrives at a fascinating inflection point for the broader San Francisco art ecosystem. The region has experienced a complex period of structural transition, marked by the closure of longstanding commercial galleries like Altman Siegel and Rena Bransten by the end of 2025. Furthermore, just ahead of the 2026 edition of FOG, the California College of the Arts announced plans to close its historic campus by 2027 and sell the property to Vanderbilt University, which subsequently announced that the former CCA campus would be named after Silicon Valley billionaire Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang following a transformative $75 million gift.
Navigating these local shifts while maintaining an international outlook remains a core objective for the fair’s leadership.
"What we’re trying to do at FOG is find the balance between supporting the local arts community but also bringing the international arts community to FOG," Blumenkranz said. "I think that’s what makes FOG unique and successful: We try to give a platform to our local galleries on the international stage, but then we also try to give a platform to these international blue-chip galleries to our local audience here in San Francisco."
Historically, art market reporting has frequently questioned whether blue-chip international galleries could successfully convert the Bay Area’s tech-driven wealth into a reliable base of serious collectors. Blumenkranz firmly rejected those persistent narratives, pointing out that the current buyer demographic is a vibrant hybrid of longtime patrons who have supported FOG for years alongside an energetic newer generation of collectors whose wealth stems from the technology sector.
"I think San Francisco might be the only city in the world right now that can offer up an entirely new swath of collectors to these blue-chip galleries. Now, I know that’s a bold statement, but there’s truth to it," she said. "There’s this entirely new group of emerging collectors who are interested in art, want to buy art, and have the capacity to. They are looking for ways to get involved in the art world, and the answer is FOG first and foremost. It’s a gateway to the wider art world for them."
The main FOG Pavilion will feature a robust roster of international and domestic galleries, including AGO Projects (Mexico City), Andrew Kreps Gallery (New York), Anthony Meier (Mill Valley), Berggruen Gallery (San Francisco), Commonwealth and Council / Hoffman Donahue (Los Angeles, New York, and Beverly Hills), Crévecoeur / Galerie 1900-2000 (Paris), David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles, New York), David Zwirner (New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Hong Kong), Fair Warning (New York), Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco), François Ghebaly (Los Angeles, New York), Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris), Galerie Maria Wettergren (Paris), Gallery FUMI (London), Gallery Wendi Norris (San Francisco), Gladstone (New York, Brussels, Seoul), Hauser & Wirth (Palo Alto, Zurich, Basel, St. Moritz, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong, London), Herald St (London, Bologna), Hosfelt Gallery (San Francisco), Hostler Burrows (New York, Los Angeles), Jessica Silverman (San Francisco), Karma (New York, Los Angeles), kurimanzutto (Mexico City, New York), LEBRETON (Monaco), Lehmann Maupin (New York, Seoul, London), Lisson (London, New York, Shanghai, Los Angeles), Luhring Augustine / Thomas Dane Gallery (New York, London), Marc Selwyn Fine Art (Beverly Hills), Marian Goodman Gallery (New York), Mendes Wood DM (New York, São Paulo, Brussels, Paris), Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (New York), Moderne Gallery (Philadelphia), Nonaka Hill (Los Angeles, Kyoto), Norr Cohan (New York), OMR (Mexico City), Ortuzar (New York), Perrotin (Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Dubai), Salon 94 | S94D (New York), Sarah Myerscough Gallery (London), Sprüth Magers (Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, London), Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo, Kyoto, Maebashi), Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York), The Modern Institute (Glasgow), Tina Kim Gallery (New York, Seoul), VeneKlasen (New York, London), White Cube (New York), and Xavier Hufkens (Brussels).
Meanwhile, the FOG Focus section will highlight experimental and contemporary programs from Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles, New York), ATLA (Los Angeles), Casemore Gallery (San Francisco), Catharine Clark Gallery (San Francisco), Charles Moffett (New York), Chris Sharp Gallery (Los Angeles), Crown Point Press (San Francisco), DEN Los Angeles (Los Angeles), Dominique Porter Gallery (Los Angeles), Haines (San Francisco), Johansson Projects (Oakland), LAMB (London), Mariposa (Los Angeles), Marta (Los Angeles), Matthew Brown (Los Angeles, New York), Megan Mulrooney (Los Angeles), Morgann Trumbull Projects (Palo Alto), Municipal Bonds (San Francisco), Night Gallery (Los Angeles), Nino Mier Gallery (New York, Brussels), Parker Gallery (Los Angeles), Patrick Parrish Studio (Brooklyn), P.P.O.W (New York), Rebecca Camacho Presents (San Francisco), and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (Tokyo).
