Frieze New York in 2019. Courtesy Frieze

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.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

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........

© Observer