The early-blooming daffodils may bow their trumpets in defeat amid the frosty trickery following Fool’s Spring, but no amount of rain and dreary weather can thwart the annual blossoming of New York City’s spring art fair season. Over the next few weeks, over a dozen art fairs will simultaneously sprout across NYC, each consisting of their own ecosystem of thematic presentations and desired audiences.
So without further ado, we present Hyperallergic‘s annual spring art fair field guide for 2025 — a quick and easy lowdown on what to expect at each show, plus a few events and programs coinciding with the fair frenzy.
Fairs
The Photography Show (AIPAD)
April 23–27 | aipad.com
Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Hosted by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), the Photography Show features displays from long-time association members alongside guest exhibitors — namely young galleries and emerging or experimental photographers who will be in dialog with the canonized greats and legacy institutions in the field. This year, the fair debuts a revamped floor layout that emphasizes publishers’ crucial role in contemporary photography, in addition to a new Discovery Sector for solo and thematic presentations. Keep an eye out for images of Indigenous persistence from Shelley Niro and Zig Jackson (Rising Buffalo) at Andrew Smith Gallery, as well as Tania Franco Klein’s cinematic self-portraits via Rose Gallery.
Clio Art Fair
May 1–4, 8–11 | clioartfair.com
456 West Broadway, Soho, Manhattan
In its eleventh year of uplifting independent artists, Clio Art Fair has chosen to double up on its fair time with programming for two consecutive weekends. Clio shrugs off the established fair culture of exclusivity and market-watching, instead handing the reins over to the exhibiting artists who curate their own sections and interact directly with collectors and art enthusiasts onsite. In this counter-fair, visitors can expect to find work priced between $250 to $40,000, as well as a devoted performance art block ruminating on humanity in the age of artificial intelligence and religious morality.
Esther II
May 6–10 | esther.ee
New York Estonian House, 243 E 34th Street, Murray Hill, Manhattan
After its first-year success, Esther comes back for its second iteration featuring a tight but varying selection of international galleries hailing from the Baltic States, Germany, Vietnam, Italy, and Japan, displaying alongside New York’s own Sargent’s Daughters, Sara’s, and Margot Samel, among others. This free-access alternative art fair will take over the historic Estonian House in Murray Hill with artwork displays, site-specific installations, and performances, activating previously unused spaces in the Beaux Arts-style building to connect visitors to its crucial history as a host for the working class, immigrant-based civic club.
Spring Break Art Show
May 6–12 | springbreakartshow.com
75 Varick Street, Hudson Square, Manhattan
After years of the checkered floors and laminate office fixtures of the old Ralph Lauren headquarters, Spring Break appears to be settling into its new digs on Varick Street. With this year’s curatorial theme of “Paradise Lost + Found,” over 120 projects will consider the notion of conquest, escapism, warfare, and dreams. Other highlights that make up the 2025 edition of Spring Break include an entire section devoted to Los Angeles artists and curators whose projects were upended during the January wildfires, an artist spotlight section for self-curated salon or booth displays, and a number of free working studios for select artists to make work onsite. Expect to see arbitrarily colored compositions snatched out of the zaniest of vivid dreams, artwork that breaks out of rectangular confines, and a DIY flare that keeps the experience very approachable.
Future Art Fair
May 7–10 | futurefairs.com
Chelsea Industrial, 538 West 28th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
One of the fresher faces on the block, Future Art Fair celebrates its fifth year with 69 local, domestic, and international exhibitors at Chelsea Industrial. This year, Future will begin putting 15% of its profits toward the Pay-It-Forward fund to be allocated to rising dealers who participate. Special selections from Less Than Half and Loft Projects in New York and Duran Contemporain in Montreal will be featured in the 2025 edition. Check out Raina Lee’s sgraffito and glazed ceramic postcards capturing the highlights of her travels in Europe at the Boston-based gallery Laisun Keane’s booth, as well as Matthew Rosenquist’s carved wood sculptures via Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe.
Frieze New York
May 7–11 | frieze.com
The Shed, 545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
Frieze New York is regarded as the main event of the spring fairs, annually taking over the entirety of The Shed at Hudson Yards. Known for intertwining blue-chip giants, New York City staples, and smaller, more experimental galleries on the same floors, Frieze also boasts a compelling Focus section devoted to adolescent galleries (10 years old or younger). Newcomers to this year’s Focus section include French gallery Champ Lacombe in Biarritz; G Gallery, King’s Leap, and Management in New York; Public in East London; Voloshyn Gallery in Kyiv and Miami; and Yeo Workshop in Singapore.
Fridge Art Fair
May 7–11 | fridgeartfair.com
Hotel Alameda High Line, 518 W 27th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Originally a play on “Frieze Week,” the Fridge Art Fair debuted in the Lower East Side in 2013 as an inventive, low-cost, and community-centric option for emerging artists, collectives, galleries, and nonprofits. Hosted in varying venues between New York and Miami, the premise of this event is that everyone can fit in the Fridge. This year’s edition is an ode to Paul Reubens’s portrayal of Pee-Wee Herman, so expect the unexpected and take a spin in Fridge’s own Playhouse. Oh, and bring your dog, too!
NADA New York
May 7–11 | newartdealers.org
Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 W 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
In addition to New Art Dealer Alliance’s (NADA’s) signature community of small to mid-sized galleries, the fair is known for its Curated Spotlight section that highlights up-and-coming spaces. This year’s Curated Spotlight section is organized by Asia Society Texas’s Exhibition Curator and Director Owen Duffy, who has selected nine galleries between Texas and Mexico to present solo exhibitions. I’m excited to see Julia García’s evocative and experimental handling of light, reflection, and saturation in her memory-based solo presentation at the Minneapolis-based Hair + Nails Art booth.
Independent Art Fair
May 8–11 | independenthq.com
Spring Studios, 50 Varick Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Independent Art Fair celebrates its Sweet 16 with over 130 artists across 83 international and domestic galleries. This year’s highlights include a posthumous solo presentation of unseen works by late performance artist Pope.L via Mitchell-Innes and Nash, a new body of Michelle Grabner’s work nodding to unsung custodial labor via Abattoir Gallery, and established curation on themes of ecology, Indigenous identity, and humor.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
May 8–11 | 1-54.org
Halo, 28 Liberty Street, Financial District, Manhattan
As the only art fair devoted entirely to African and diasporic African contemporary art, 1-54 christens its new FiDi location with 70 artists showcased through 30 galleries. Eighteen exhibitors will make their 1-54 New York debut this year, and the fair welcomes TERN Gallery, based in the Bahamas, as well as KUB’ART Gallery from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keep your eyes peeled for the Art Comes First collective’s “Textile Language” project centering the theme of Black Cotton in its analysis and exploration of African textile histories, and the Afro-Caribbean Resource Library developed by the Caribbean nonprofit art organization Forgotten Lands.
The Other Art Fair
May 8–11 | theotherartfair.com
ZeroSpace Brooklyn, 337–345 Butler Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
Presented by Saatchi Art, the Other Art Fair celebrates its 15th birthday with over 120 primarily independent exhibitors — in other words, gallerists and curators are visitors rather than participants. Putting emphasis on the fair part of art fairs, this event is infused with interactive events that promote connectivity, ranging from artist-led workshops, scavenger hunts, tattoo pop-ups, liquor tastings, live music, and more. The Other Art Fair’s featured guest is artist and author Anna Marie Tendler, who will be photographing visitor portraits in a lush tableau rooted in her recently published memoir Men Have Called Her Crazy (2024).
TEFAF New York
May 9–13 | tefaf.com
Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Luxe, lavish, and legacy are the words that come to mind when considering The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF)’s offerings of antique furniture, design, and jewelry, but there is a wealth of modern and contemporary art to admire as well. For 2025, 91 dealers will assemble at the Armory for this swanky event, boasting inspired paintings by Alexander Calder and Robert Cottingham, Ancient Roman marble busts, a priceless Hemmerle bangle, and Zaha Hadid’s “Liquid Glacial” (2012) coffee table.
Focus Art Fair
May 15 to 18 | focusartfair.net
Chelsea Industrial, 538 West 28th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
In its third iteration in New York, Focus Art Fair closes out the season and maintains its mission of promoting artwork born from collaborations with technology. As conversations about the moral, ethical, financial, and environmental impacts of artificial intelligence proliferate in the creative sector, Focus contributes to the dialogue by incorporating artists whose practices are enhanced by AI, robotics, and other assistive technology. This fair is split up into four sections that emphasize international and Asian contemporary artists as well as a closer look into the creation of certain tech-driven artworks from replicas of new media artists’ studios to live demonstrations of robots at work.
Events
An Homage Performance to Keith Haring
May 4, 5pm | nycaidsmemorial.org
New York City AIDS Memorial, 76 Greenwich Avenue, West Village, Manhattan
For the first time in 30 years, American choreographer and performance artist Molissa Fenley, who was Keith Haring’s friend and artistic collaborator, revives a sensitive performance that she developed as an homage to the artist for his memorial service in 1990. Restaging “Bardo” (1990), named after the term for the esoteric transitional state between death and reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism, Fenley’s contemporary troupe embodies the choreographer’s grief on what would have been Haring’s 67th birthday. This is a free and public performance.
Soft Launch of 2026 Conductor Fair
May 8–11 | powerhousearts.org
Powerhouse Arts, 322 3rd Ave, Gowanus, Brooklyn
In anticipation of its official 2026 debut, Powerhouse Arts presents a sneak peek into its forthcoming art fair. Seeking to remove barriers of entry for exhibiting in New York, Conductor will work with young galleries and individual artists by keeping exhibition costs low, and reducing shipping and production fees by enabling exhibitors to create their work through access to all of Powerhouse Arts’s fabrication shops. While it won’t launch officially until next year, this four-day event will give us a glimpse of what’s to come. Keep an eye out for work by Khaled Jarrar, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, Suchrita Mattai, and the artists of the Indigenous Brazilian collective Movimento do Artistas Huni Kuin (MAHKU), among others.
Tribeca Gallery Night
May 9, 6–8pm | hesseflatow.com
70+ art galleries in Tribeca, Manhattan
Timed around the peak fair runtime, Hesse Flatow and around 70 other art galleries in and around Tribeca will keep their doors open until 8pm on Friday, May 9, for the seasonal and timely Gallery Night. If you don’t want to pay out big bucks to see your frenemy’s display at any of the above fairs, cap off the second week of May and get your money’s worth (see: $0.00) with this late evening crawl through one of the city’s most art-aligned neighborhoods. Remember, the best things in life are free! ;~)
Earth and Cosmos Conversation and Video Screening
May 6, 6–8pm | as-coa.org
Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
Surrounding the ongoing Earth and Cosmos exhibition spotlighting Los Angeles-based artists Beatriz Cortez and rafa esparza at the Americas Society, this discussion will provide additional insights into their art practices, centering the survival of ancient Indigenous cosmologies and relationships with the physical and spiritual world. The artists will be in conversation with Vera List Center for Art and Politics Director and Chief Curator Carin Kuoni and Museum of Modern Art Curatorial Assistant Rachel Remick. The program also includes a premiere screening of two videos the artists created followed by a reception.