Art fair fatigue can start to set in just before May, which is ironic given that May is one of the busiest months in the spring art calendar. Or maybe they’re all busy now. There were loads of April art fairs; even February’s art fair calendar was packed. Like it or not, art is a global affair, and dealers in sometimes underrepresented parts of the world are catching up, making it increasingly a year-round occupation. What sets May apart, however, isn’t that there are so many art fairs—when are there not, at this point—but that so many are right here in New York, a quick subway ride from Observer headquarters.
They call it Frieze Week, but maybe that should be Frieze month, given that the Blue Chip art fair attracts a global audience of art lovers to NYC who then stick around for the many, many art happenings still running—fairs and otherwise—long after that fair closes its doors. Here’s what you need to know to plan your month.
Our May 2025 Art Fair Guide
Aotearoa Art Fair 2025
May 1-4
Aotearoa Art Fair may have dropped the Auckland Art Fair name in 2021, but it has lost none of its ambition to serve as New Zealand’s main stage for contemporary art. Returning this year to the Viaduct Events Centre, you can expect the fair to draw more than 10,000 collectors, curators and art lovers who are willing to travel for a deeper look at the artistic traditions and contemporary voices shaping Aotearoa and its neighbors. Rather than play copycat to larger fairs, Aotearoa Art Fair leans into the region’s distinct cultural terrain, offering a lively program under the banner of “Let’s Talk Art” that blends performances, sculptures, workshops and talks. This year’s lineup includes artist Nicholas Blowers, who will dissect his intricate approach to landscape painting, and Kalisolaite ‘Uhila, who will stage a day-long performance piece surrounded by his charged canvases at Britomart.
Clio Art Fair 2025
May 1-4
Observer once suggested that visitors to Clio Art Fair could “expect more outsider work, maybe less expensive pieces, and artists who are actually down to talk to their audiences.” True or not, Clio does tend to live up to its reputation as the “anti-fair”—in a good way. The work on view is by artists from around the world who don’t have exclusive gallery representation, so it can be more eclectic, riskier and overall more exciting. It’s also (sometimes) less expensive, with some price points in the hundreds, versus the hundreds of thousands. Fun fact: Clio Art Fair was one of the first to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment.
Fridge Art Fair 2025
May 6-9
Launched in 2013 by artist Eric Ginsburg as an antidote to the corporate gloss of New York’s larger fairs, Fridge Art Fair returns during Frieze Week with its signature mix of accessibility, whimsy and sheer unpredictability. This year’s edition, held at the Lobby Bar & Garden at the Hotel Alameda High Line, leans fully into nostalgia with The Fridge Art Fair Playhouse, a tribute to Pee-wee Herman and the late Paul Reubens. True to form, Fridge offers booths for just $225 and free admission, preserving the scrappy, welcoming atmosphere that has made it a cult favorite among artists and collectors alike. Alongside affordable artworks and surreal installations, visitors will encounter a cast of Pee-wee Playhouse favorites like Chairry and Jambi, Fridge mascots like Nick the Dog and the Flamingos, and the debut of the absurdly named Fridge Art Fair Yard Balls. With playful cocktails, bright colors and interactive experiences layered throughout, Fridge continues to prove that in a week dominated by million-dollar deals, there is still plenty of room for weirdness, heart and fun.
Esther Art Fair 2025
May 6-10
After making its debut in 2024, Esther Art Fair is already rewriting the rules for what an art fair can look like—and more importantly, what it doesn’t need to. Founded by gallerists Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, Esther skips the booths, the branding and the business-as-usual, opting instead for a collaborative exhibition model that feels closer to a curated group show than a trade event. The second edition, dubbed Esther II, returns to the Estonian House with an entirely new lineup—only three galleries from last year’s roster are back—and expands its footprint across two new upstairs rooms and a redesigned basement level, now functioning as a “showroom” space for designers. With twenty-five galleries representing eighteen cities, this year’s fair skews even more international, but never loses its focus on intimacy, experimentation and flexibility. Esther isn’t trying to scale—it’s trying to stay interesting.
Future Fair 2025
May 7-10
Future Fair, first conceived during the turbulence of 2020 and firmly rooted in New York by 2021, has spent the past five years carving out a space for galleries and collectors who prefer collaboration to spectacle. Designed as a capsule-sized event, the fair was built to grant sustainable visibility to young dealers while making the notoriously opaque art market feel a little less forbidding to a new generation of buyers. As it returns for its fifth edition, Future Fair is doubling down on its founding ethos, announcing that starting in 2025, 15 percent of its profits will go toward a Pay-It-Forward Fund supporting rising galleries exhibiting at the fair—an offshoot of the original profit-share model launched during its first edition. In an interview with Observer, co-founder Rebeca Laliberte described wanting to create a platform polished enough to satisfy seasoned collectors yet accessible enough to engage younger audiences looking for a foothold, with direct collaboration between exhibitors at the heart of its long-term strategy for building a stronger, more resilient art community.
CONDUCTOR 2025
May 7–11
Powerhouse Arts is setting the stage for a meaningful recalibration of the art fair circuit with the introduction of CONDUCTOR, a new fair dedicated to showcasing leading artists and galleries from the Global Majority. While the full fair is set to debut in 2026 at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Gowanus, a curated preview will be presented this year as a soft launch. Rather than replicate the high-gloss format of traditional fairs, CONDUCTOR is designed to provide more accessible entry points for galleries and artists from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and Indigenous Nations. Low booth fees and collaborative presentation models will help open up the New York market to participants typically excluded from the commercial fair landscape, while the curatorial focus—led by Adriana Farietta—aims to bring urgent, culturally grounded work into sharper view for both established and emerging collectors. In 2025, expect to see work by MAHKU (Brazil) through Carmo Johnson Projects; Gabriella Torres Ferrer (Puerto Rico) with Embajada; Ray Smith and collective Mono Rojo (Mexico) with AGO Projects; Tracey Moffatt (Aboriginal/Australia) with Tyler Rollins Fine Art; Khaled Jarrar (Palestine), Modupeola Fadugba (Nigeria), and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (Indonesian-Thai diaspora) presented by PHA; and Suchitra Mattai (Guyana/ South Asian descent) with Roberts Projects.
Frieze New York 2025
May 7-11
Frieze New York returns to The Shed this spring under the direction of Christine Messineo, anchoring a citywide week of art world gravity that spills well beyond the confines of Hudson Yards. With more than sixty-five galleries from over twenty-five countries—over thirty-five of them based in New York—the 2025 edition delivers a tightly curated snapshot of contemporary art’s global circuitry. Standout solo presentations include Sherrie Levine with David Zwirner ahead of her Aspen Art Museum show, Dr. Esther Mahlangu’s bold Ndebele-rooted paintings with Jenkins Johnson Gallery and Claire Tabouret’s psychologically charged works. Dual presentations make strong plays too: Adam Pendleton curates his own paintings alongside Lynda Benglis’ sculptures at Pace Gallery, just in time for his exhibition at the Hirshhorn, while Donald Moffett and Jennie C. Jones pair up in another tightly conceptual booth. As always, the fair’s influence extends well beyond its walls, setting the tone for Frieze Week’s satellite exhibitions, performances and panels across the city. As Observer correspondent Max McCormack aptly noted, “Frieze New York—much like its Los Angeles, London, and Seoul counterparts—offers an opportunity to discover, to see old friends and to gain new insights around what’s culturally significant in art today.”
NADA New York 2025
May 7-11
Now in its 11th edition, NADA New York continues to carve out a crucial space for younger galleries, artist-run spaces and non-profits that might be priced out or passed over by larger commercial fairs. This year, the fair expands to 120 exhibitors across nineteen countries and fifty cities—from Brussels to Belgrade, Wroclaw to Shanghai—while also relocating to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea, a move that puts it squarely in Frieze territory and in the center of the gallery district. NADA has always prioritized accessibility in both programming and ethos, with ASL interpreters for talks and a steady commitment to showcasing work that’s thoughtful, fresh and often under the radar. The 2025 roster includes sixty-five NADA members and fifty-four first-time exhibitors like Eugster || Belgrade, Gallery Common from Tokyo and DARLA from New York, underscoring its reputation as a fair where discovery actually means something. NADA Presents will return with a full slate of talks, performances and events, alongside the TD Bank Curated Spotlight, this year focused on Texas and Mexico and organized by Owen Duffy of Asia Society Texas.
PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai 2025
May 8-11
Since its founding in 2014, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai has become the leading platform for contemporary photography in China, responding to a rising interest in the medium among collectors and embedding itself firmly in Shanghai’s cultural landscape. The fair, launched by Scott Gray of Creo Arts (who also founded the World Photography Organization and the Sony World Photography Awards) has steadily expanded its influence with a cross-disciplinary approach that highlights the evolving voices shaping visual culture. Drawing more than 30,000 visitors each year, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai brings together over fifty national and international galleries and offers a layered program that includes exhibitions, awards and extensive talks. Initiatives like Insights, launched in 2016 to explore key themes in photography through curated exhibitions, and Spectrum, introduced in 2023 to spotlight the role of museums and institutions, have helped broaden the fair’s scope beyond the commercial, while Dialogues sessions between artists, curators, and gallerists offer a deeper look at the critical ideas driving photography and digital art forward.
Artist Project 2025
May 8-11
Artist Project in Toronto is less about spectacle and more about sparking real conversations between artists and audiences, offering a rare chance to engage directly with over 250 independent Canadian artists under one roof. Staged at the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place, the fair draws collectors, curators, gallerists and designers who come not for brand-name galleries but for the prospect of discovering new talent and acquiring work straight from the source. Alongside thousands of original artworks, visitors can take in (and presumably purchase) large-scale installations like Stan Olthuis’ Mira la Vida (2024) and Alex R.M. Thompson’s Carbon Generations, which tackle themes from climate to consumerism without flattening the complexities. The Untapped section, a juried showcase for emerging artists, strips away the pretense and offers a free platform for newcomers to introduce themselves to the contemporary art world. For those wanting a little more guidance, curator-led tours promise a sharp insider’s take, but the overall tone remains refreshingly personal in a fair landscape too often dominated by polished sameness.
Independent Art Fair 2025
May 8-11
Independent returns to Spring Studios in Tribeca for its 16th edition this May, bringing together eighty-two international galleries and nonprofits to showcase work by more than 118 artists, balancing emerging names with established figures ripe for a second look. This year introduces Independent Debuts, a new curatorial initiative spotlighting over twenty-two artists who have had no more than one previous solo show in New York and have never exhibited at a fair, reinforcing the fair’s reputation as a place for discovery without sacrificing rigor. Highlights include Abattoir Gallery’s debut of a major new body of work by Michelle Grabner—artist, educator and former Whitney Biennial curator—whose process-driven paintings and embroideries continue to mine the aesthetics of domestic labor, Hannah Traore Gallery’s presentation of Turiya Adkins’s exploration of running and flight as ancestral narratives and Long Story Short’s showing of new works by Japanese painter Keita Morimoto.
1-54 New York 2025
May 8-11
Since its founding in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 has grown from a London experiment into the definitive gathering place for contemporary African art, pulling together galleries, collectors and institutions from around the world. Now celebrating its tenth New York edition, the fair moves to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea after a one-year stint in the Manhattanville Factory District, bringing its largest lineup yet with more than thirty galleries and over seventy artists from Africa and the diaspora. This year’s roster spans five continents and seventeen countries, with first-time appearances by fifteen new galleries and eighteen exhibitors making their New York debut, a reminder that 1-54 continues to expand without losing sight of its core mission. Highlights include TERN Gallery, marking the fair’s first representation from The Bahamas, and KUB’ART Gallery, the first exhibitor from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Far from just ticking boxes, the expanded exhibitor list underscores 1-54’s ability to stay agile and ambitious as the global appetite for contemporary African art keeps growing.
The Other Art Fair 2025
May 8-11
The Other Art Fair Brooklyn returns for its 15th edition this May during New York Art Week, once again positioning itself as the friendly counterpoint to the city’s more formal art fairs. Presented by Saatchi Art and staged at ZeroSpace in Gowanus, the fair keeps its focus on accessibility, listing prices up front and giving collectors the chance to connect directly with over 125 artists working across documentary photography, embroidery, illustration and more. Beyond the booths, this year’s lineup leans heavily into experiences, with Anna Marie Tendler offering lushly styled portrait sessions inspired by her Rooms in the First House series, and Joe Kraft leading a scavenger hunt that rewards persistence with original artwork. Summer Space Studio will host hands-on paper flower workshops to celebrate spring and Mother’s Day, while Arts Gowanus organizes Flowers for Mom, a group exhibition where every work is priced under $300. As always, the fair’s late-night events bring a lively edge, with DJs, free custom artwork by Ben Lenovitz and even a machine-free tattoo pop-up (whatever that is) rounding out an atmosphere that favors curiosity over convention.
TEFAF New York 2025
May 9-13
Since launching its New York edition in 2017, TEFAF has established itself as the fair where museum-quality works meet the city’s sharpest collectors, set against the imposing backdrop of the Park Avenue Armory. Originally born in Europe in 1985 through the merger of Pictura and De Antiquairs International, and renamed TEFAF in 1988, the fair carries a level of art historical rigor that sets it apart from flashier counterparts. Ninety-one top dealers and galleries from thirteen countries and four continents are lined up this year, offering modern and contemporary art, design, jewelry, antiquities and ethnographic works, all subject to TEFAF’s famously stringent vetting process. Big names like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Gladstone and Kasmin are a given, but what distinguishes TEFAF is the atmosphere of serious connoisseurship, with curated exhibitions not just in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall but throughout the Armory’s sixteen period rooms. Highlights include Sprüth Magers’ solo booth for Anne Imhof, debuting her first bronze works in a major turn following her DOOM: House of Hope performance at the Armory, and Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert’s focused presentation of Howard Hodgkin, offering rare access to works rarely seen outside of institutional walls.
FOCUS Art Fair New York 2025
May 15-18
Only two years after its New York debut, FOCUS Art Fair is back, staking out 548 West between Chelsea and Hudson River Park with its mix of traditional media and boundary-pushing digital work. Organized by Paris-based curator HongLee, the fair first built momentum with editions in Paris and London before importing its so-called “sustainable art fair experience” to New York, where it drew an impressive 50,000 visitors in 2024 by offering what FOCUS bills as “a museum-like experience in an art fair setting” and promising a curatorial approach that blends paintings, sculptures and photography with NFTs, digital art and immersive, multi-sensory installations. It is a distinctly fresh and idiosyncratic fair, intent on crossing the lines between virtual and physical worlds while presenting trend-driven contemporary messages with just enough edge to stand out in a very crowded spring calendar.
Affordable Art Fair Austin 2025
May 15-18
This year, Will Ramsay’s Affordable Art Fair returns to Austin’s Palmer Events Center with a selection of booths mounted by fifty-five local, national, and international galleries showcasing contemporary art for the rest of us. The fair was initially launched in London in 1999 with a mission of democratizing the art market by making contemporary art accessible and affordable to a wider audience. Today, the Affordable Art Fair is a global phenomenon, with fairs in cities all over the world offering a diverse array of artworks to collectors and art lovers, including paintings, sculpture and photography, with prices capped at $10,000 to ensure the fair actually delivers on its stated goal of art market affordability. While the Affordable Art Fair lineup doesn’t typically feature “celebrity” artists, the fairs have become a significant platform for emerging artists and galleries to gain exposure and connect with new collectors. They’re also just a lot of fun, with a signature Friday night party and family activities on Saturday morning.
Market Art Fair 2025
May 16-18
Stockholm’s Market Art Fair returns for its 19th edition with a sharpened international focus, showcasing over 150 artists from more than fifty galleries at Liljevalchs and Spritmuseum. Launched in 2006 by a consortium of Nordic galleries, the fair has long served as a barometer for contemporary art from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. This year, however, Market steps further onto the global stage, inviting international galleries and dedicating presentations to artists from beyond the region for the first time in its history. Selected by a committee of prominent Nordic museum directors and curators, the participating galleries are chosen not for name recognition but for curatorial strength, presentation and relevance, resulting in a lineup that continues to feel smart and forward-thinking. The public talks program will run in parallel, offering discussions on topics ranging from art as investment to the Polish art scene, alongside appearances from notable artists and cultural figures. Under the direction of Sara Berner Bengtsson, Market also places art within the broader civic discourse, partnering this year with Human Rights Watch to underscore the belief that a strong democracy and a strong art community are inseparable.
Beijing Dangdai Art Fair 2025
May 22-25
Beijing Dangdai, or Beijing Contemporary, returns to the National Agricultural Exhibition Center for its seventh edition this May, reaffirming its role as a central pillar of the city’s burgeoning “Beijing Art Season.” With over 150 exhibitors expected and a projected visitor count nearing 80,000, the fair offers a sweeping look at contemporary art across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Organized into ten sectors and six thematic sections, the fair explores the structural ecology of the art world—linking trade, exhibition and discourse—under the 2025 theme CONCAVE & CONVEX. Positioned alongside Beijing International Design Week, Gallery Week Beijing and ART021 BEIJING, the fair continues to build momentum for the capital as a major hub on the global art calendar. This year’s edition will also feature a poster series centered on works presented at the fair, underscoring its role not only as a market event but as a visual and conceptual showcase for the city’s evolving contemporary art landscape.
ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH 2025
May 23-25
After decades at the Kongresshaus, ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH is entering a new chapter, moving its 27th edition in May 2025 to the historic Giessereihalle Puls 5, a former industrial site now primed for a different kind of heavy lifting. Since 1999, the fair has been a steady, if sometimes under-the-radar, platform for contemporary art, assembling an eclectic mix of artists, galleries and collectors from Switzerland, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy, Zimbabwe and beyond. With around 50 exhibitors slated for this year’s edition, the fair promises a broad range of painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and installations, without leaning too hard on any one genre. ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH has long pitched itself as a venue for dialogue as much as commerce, and this year’s program stays true to form, with projects tackling cultural identity, sustainability, feminism, urban life and intercultural exchange.
ARCOlisboa 2025
May 29 to June 1
The eighth edition of ARCOlisboa returns to the Cordoaria Nacional in 2025, bringing together around seventy galleries selected by the fair’s Organizing Committee for a program that remains rooted in Portuguese artistic discourse while expanding outward through international connections. While much of the work on view is either by Portuguese artists or those tied to Lusophone contexts, the fair’s two curated sections push the scope further: As formas do Oceano (“The Shapes of the Ocean”), curated by Paula Nascimento and Igor Simões, explores relationships between Africa and its diaspora, while Opening, curated by Sofía Lanusse and Diogo Pinto, focuses on emerging galleries and experimental voices. Alongside its General Programme, ARCOlisboa also offers a robust slate of talks through the Millennium Art Talks series, organized by EGEAC and curated by Filipa Oliveira, which touches on everything from collecting and architecture to curatorial content from within the fair. The Foro auditorium in the Torreão Nascente will house ArtsLibris Speakers’ Corner, a platform for conversations on artist books, photobooks, self-publishing and digital formats.
Even more May art fairs in 2025
As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the May art fair calendar in 2025—there are always plenty of smaller, lesser-known and niche art fairs happening around the world. Here’s a quick roundup of several more art events you might want to check out this month.
ARTMUC 2025 (Munich)
May 1-4
Art Busan 2025 (Busan)
May 8-11
The Phair 2025 (Turin)
May 9-11
The Other Art Fair 2025 (Dallas)
May 15-18
Art-Thessaloniki 2025 (Greece)
May 15-18
BAD+ 2025 (Bordeaux)
May 27-31
