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Bahman Jalali, courtesy Ag Galerie Tehran
When this year’s edition of the Aipad Photography Show opens on Thursday, one of its booths will be empty — a casualty of President Trump’s travel ban.
Ag Galerie, which was to have its debut at Aipad, at Booth 317, is based in Iran, one of the six predominantly Muslim countries whose citizens are barred from entering the United States under the ban.
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Bahman Jalali, courtesy Ag Galerie Tehran
Mr. Trump’s executive order and its more severe predecessor have both been blocked by court orders. Still, the owners of Ag Galerie didn’t want to risk traveling to the United States, or having the gallery’s art held up in customs, Catherine Edelman, Aipad’s president, said.
Ag Galerie would have been the first Iranian exhibitor at the show, which features works from about 115 galleries around the world. In lieu of art, Booth 317 will host a single sheet of paper that explains why the space is empty, said Ms. Edelman, who also owns the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.
The Aipad website similarly includes a note on Ag Galerie’s profile page: “Due to the recent travel ban and the uncertainty of international travel from countries identified in the ban, Ag Galerie, Tehran, is unable to participate in the Photography Show this year.”
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Bahman Jalali, courtesy Ag Galerie Tehran
Ms. Edelman said, “We felt it was really important to acknowledge why they weren’t able to appear at the fair.”
“It’s a quiet way of acknowledging what’s going on,” she added. “It’s important for the art world to acknowledge the immigration ban and the effect it’s having on the arts.”
The Photography Show, which is organized by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, runs Thursday through Sunday at Pier 94 in Manhattan.
