The flowers are blooming, the pollen count is astronomical, and the temperature is swinging wildly from 45 to 90 degrees. It must be spring in New York City.
Another hallmark of the season is the rash of art fairs that descend on the city like a lovely mist, from TEFAF at the Park Avenue Armory to NADA on the Lower East Side. What’s new is that this year, a consortium of galleries, museums, and auction houses have banded together to present New York Art Week, a dedicated city-wide art extravaganza to highlight what’s on show.
“New York Art Week is an opportunity to amplify the complexity of New York’s many art worlds,” Matthew Higgs, the director of White Columns gallery, said. “From the smallest independent art space to the largest institution, we are all committed to creating a context and developing an audience for artists’ ideas.”
When it comes to fairs, there are four events happening between May 5 and May 10, with over 350 galleries setting up shop from all over the world. Below, we’ve got all the information you need to get ready to go shopping.
Independent Art Fair
May 5–8
Installation view, White Columns at Independent. Photo: Alexa Hoyer, courtesy of Independent.
The beloved Independent Art Fair, now in its 13th edition, is returning to its old Tribeca digs at Spring Studios, where 66 galleries and institutions will present exhibitions. There are 16 newcomers to the roster this year, including Allouche Benias Gallery Gallery from Greece, Bradley Ertaskiran from Canada, and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery from Estonia. A slew of New York galleries, including Kasmin, Deli, and Maxwell Graham/Essex Street, are also partaking this year.
When: Thursday, May 5–Sunday, May 8 (invitation-only VIP preview Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.). Public hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Spring Studios, 50 Varick Street
Tickets: $60
NADA New York
May 5–8
Melissa Joseph’s solo booth at NADA Miami with Regular Normal gallery. Photo courtesy of Regular Normal and the artist.
For its eighth New York edition—and first since 2018—the New Art Dealers Alliance is showing 120 exhibitors from 18 countries including gallerists from Mexico City, Paris, Kyiv, and Buenos Aires. Be sure to check out solo projects by Daniel Arnold at New York’s Larrie, Tessa Lynch at Glasgow-based Patricia Fleming Gallery, and Kolya Zhuk from Warsaw’s High Gallery. Plus, New York’s Children’s Museum of the Arts is selling work by local children in a presentation called “Your First Art Fair,” where kid visitors to the fair can use art supplies on site to add their own pieces to the display. (Anything that isn’t sold will join the museum’s collection.)
When: Thursday, May 5–Sunday, May 8 (invitation-only VIP preview Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). Public hours: Thursday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Pier 36, 299 South Street
Tickets: $55
Future Fair
May 5–7
Derek Weisberg, You Can’t Get Here Fast Enough II (2018–2021) and Empire in Decay II (2021). Left, courtesy the artist Swivel Gallery, and Cary Whittier; right, courtesy Trotter&Sholer.
The newest outfit on the landscape is the appropriately named Future Fair, opening its sophomore in-person edition this spring in a larger space to accommodate 50 exhibitors coming to Chelsea. More than one-quarter of the exhibitors are BIPOC-owned businesses, and more than half are female-owned, making this one of the most diverse fairs around. Newcomers include Savannah’s Laney Contemporary, Bogotá’s SGR Galeria, and Montreal’s Duran and Mashaal.
When: Thursday, May 5–Saturday, May 7 (invitation-only VIP preview Wednesday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.). Public hours: Thursday and Friday, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Chelsea Industrial, 535 West 28th Street
Tickets: $39
TEFAF
May 6–10
The entrance to the Park Avenue Armory, TEFAF Spring 2018. Photo: Kirsten Chilstrom.
The European Fine Art Fair returns to the Park Avenue Armory to welcome its famously well-heeled visitors for the first IRL American edition of the fair since 2019. A total of 91 galleries from around the world will bring a large range of fine artworks, antiquities, jewelry, and design pieces to their booths. There are 13 newcomers this year, including UK-based Sprovieri, Germany-based Neuger Riemschneider, and South Korea’s Gallery Hyundai.
When: Friday May 6–Tuesday, May 10 (invitation-only VIP preview Thursday, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.). Public hours: Friday, Saturday, and Monday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday and Tuesday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue
Tickets: $55