White-walled galleries are on the move this fall, showcasing their artists at art fairs around the globe. The art fair provides an environment where collectors, dealers, curators, and art enthusiasts can conveniently hop from one “booth” to another for maximum arts exposure—there can be more than 200 galleries exhibiting under a single roof. While art fairs happen year-round, the autumn months bring us to such established fetes like Frieze London, FIAC, ARTBO, and Art Basel. In addition to art on view, fairs provide an array of programming, including performances, artist talks, and film screenings. Colombian-born and New York–based artist Carlos Motta, whose photography is pictured here on display at The Armory Show, is among the thousands of artists who will have their work on view this fall. Through a multi-disciplinary lens of video, sculpture, drawing, and web-based projects, Motta addresses colonialism, native histories, sex, and gender. EXPO CHICAGO / September 27–30, 2018 / Chicago, USA | Frieze / October 4–7, 2018 / London, England | FIAC / October 18–21, 2018 / Paris, France | ARTBO / October 25–28, 2018 / Bogotá, Colombia | TEFAF New York / October 27–31, 2018 / New York, USA | Art Basel Miami / December 6–9, 2018 / Miami Beach, USA

Thirty-five years ago in Miami’s Biscayne Bay, eleven uninhabited islands were encircled with pink fabric. This exhibition commemorates the ambitious environmental intervention by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and its lasting impact on Miami as a center for contemporary art. Through drawings, models, photographs, and surviving materials, visitors can explore the brief two-week life span of Surrounded Islands, and the incredible effort by the two artists to leap over government and logistical hurdles to make their vision—and the 6.5 million square feet of floating fabric it required—a reality. pamm.org

Tara Donovan is an alchemist of materials, transforming index cards into towers that loom like otherworldly stalagmites, and plastic cups into sculptural waves of cellular shapes. This major exhibition fills the whole of MCA Denver with both new and old work, ranging from wall-based pieces to freestanding objects. This allows viewers to see how she repeatedly experiments with the same materials, whether drinking straws, Slinkys, or rubber bands, and explores their possibilities in every direction, asking what these humble objects can be when pushed to the limits of their potential. mcadenver.org

New Mexico is in many ways a microcosm of the Americas, with its complications of borders, immigration, and the divisions and displacement that arise when those are restricted. The third iteration of SITE Santa Fe’s biennial examines these issues through the contemporary art of the Western Hemisphere, with twenty-three participants from eight countries. The work includes new commissions, such as Eric-Paul Riege’s re-creation of an ancient Diné dwelling in which the sacred art of weaving was taught, Sable Elyse Smith’s neon text and video pieces on masculinity and violence in relation to incarceration, an outdoor interactive sculpture by Eduardo Navarro, and a large-scale installation right on the façade of SITE Santa Fe by the pseudonymous artist Lutz Bacher. sitesantafe.org

This sprawling, new festival aims to bolster the cultural profile of Kansas City, with a citywide celebration of both visual and performing arts. Local and international visual artists, including Sanford Biggers, Nick Cave, Ebony G. Patterson, Joyce J. Scott, Alexandre Arrechea, and Nari Ward, are contributing installations and experiences that will evolve over the nine weeks of Open Spaces. The festival hub is Swope Park, where pavilions designed by Kansas City architects host dance, music, activities, and the October 12 to 14 weekend event where Janelle Monáe and The Roots are slated to play in an immersive extravaganza. openspaceskc.com

For his book Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1962), Ed Ruscha photographed twenty-six gas stations between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, where he grew up. Its sleek aesthetic and methodical subject matter influenced the popular style of artists’ books, and was the start of his many publications that delve into the visual vernacular of the West, from Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) to Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965). In 2013, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired Ruscha’s archives. Archaeology and Romance is the first exhibition to feature this collection, with more than 150 objects revealing the evolution of his practice.  hrc.utexas.edu