Every field gets its moment. College basketball has March Madness, Hollywood its winter awards season and the art world May in New York.
Auction houses stage big-ticket sales of modern and contemporary art, galleries and museums host high-profile exhibitions, and art fairs alight around town, competing for the attention of collectors from near and far.
This year, breaking with custom, the major fairs are all overlapping during one week, instead of spreading out over a longer stretch. “That’s the challenge for dealers,” said Augusto Arbizo, a senior director at Schwartzman&, a New York firm that advises collectors, artists and art institutions. “Everybody’s attention is a little more focused, but you may have somebody in your booth for like two seconds.”
There will be more than 360 exhibitors with booths across the four main events: Frieze New York (May 8-11) with 67 at the Shed; NADA New York (May 7-11) with 121, just a few blocks from Frieze, in the Starrett-Lehigh Building; Independent (May 9-11) with 85 at Spring Studios in TriBeCa; and TEFAF New York (May 9-13) with 91 at the Park Avenue Armory.
There are also smaller events in various locations, including the Spring/Break Art Show (May 8-12), the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (May 9-11), the Future Fair (May 8-10) and Esther II (May 7-10).
They arrive at a fraught moment. “People are nervous,” Heather Hubbs, the executive director of the New Art Dealers Alliance, which runs NADA New York, said in a phone interview. “I think it’s hard not to be.”
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