The calendar has already flipped to 2026, ushering in a fresh year of creative potential for artists, collectors, dealers and institutions. The most anticipated exhibitions of 2026 are already taking shape, promising new thrills and revelations. Gallerists, meanwhile, are savoring a brief respite between the high-octane frenzy of Art Basel Miami Beach and the whirlwind of shows yet to come. And after the wave of viral hits at Zero 10—Beeple’s Everyday Animals among them—we’re all on tenterhooks waiting for the next big thing in new media.

As usual, the January art fair calendar wastes no time getting started. Este Arte kicked off in Uruguay just days after New Year’s, and then motivated collectors might head to Los Angeles (though there’s something to be said for taking a break before the long trip to Singapore for Art SG and S.E.A. Focus, which coincide with Singapore Art Week). Then, of course, there are the art fairs in London, Palm Beach and New York worth checking out before everyone heads back across the Atlantic for several more European art fairs.

All that said, for the truly dedicated art enthusiast, this month’s art fair calendar demands a certain degree of wanderlust—continent-hopping included. But the rewards are bound to be worth the miles, so here’s what’s on:

Este Arte 2026

January 4-7

Este Arte was established in 2015 by Uruguayan curator Laura Bardier to create a high-quality and exclusive platform for contemporary art in the region. Many participants come from Argentina, Brazil and Chile, but the roster of attendees also typically includes galleries from the U.S. and Europe—the fair emphasizes a balance between local Latin American artists and international artists, providing a dialogue between regional art scenes and global trends. Now in its 12th edition, this art fair distinguishes itself by asking exhibitors, whether galleries or cultural institutions, to mount only single-artist displays featuring never-before-exhibited works. Some participants create exhibitions in miniature, while others may show a handful of pieces or even just a single work. The only exception is made for deceased or inactive artists, whose work may be shown if it is of particular historical relevance. In other words, “Only the unseen, one artist at a time.”

LA Art Show 2026

January 7-11

As Los Angeles continues to assert itself as a global art capital shaped by layered histories and deeply intertwined cultural communities, the LA Art Show—now in its 31st edition—positions itself as a broad-spectrum survey of how contemporary art is made, shown and collected right now. Framed as the most comprehensive international contemporary art fair in the U.S., the event brings together more than 90 galleries, museums and nonprofit organizations from around the world to showcase paintings, sculpture, works on paper, installation, photography, design, video and performance in more than 180,000 square feet of exhibition space. Its scale is matched by an emphasis on curatorial ambition, with participating galleries extending beyond standard booths to present special exhibitions that reflect current directions in the contemporary market rather than simply rehearse greatest hits. The LA Art Show’s strength lies in its range and context: a city whose multicultural fabric naturally resists a single narrative and a collecting base that continues to expand in both sophistication and appetite. This year, actress, producer, author and entrepreneur Sasha Pieterse will serve as the celebrity host for the fair’s Opening Night Premiere Party, and the fair will debut an invitation-only Latin American Pavilion.

Condo London 2026

January 17 – February 14

In the labyrinthine art scene of the U.K., the distributed art fair Condo London offers collectors and art lovers a blueprint for discovery. More specifically, it’s a collaborative exhibition mounted by 50 galleries across 23 London spaces—labyrinthine, yes, but also manageable. How does it work? Each host gallery either co-curates with a visiting gallery or thoughtfully divides its spaces, giving the visiting gallery square footage in which to mount its own display. Hit the preview weekend for an immersive initiation into this month-long cultural odyssey, which spans the city’s eclectic neighborhoods, from the central elegance of Arcadia Missa in Duke Street to the eastern avant-garde of The Approach on Approach Road.

Miami Modern + Contemporary 2026

January 21-25

An early-season counterweight to December’s frenzy, MM+C is a new international fair presented by Art Miami that’s making a calculated play for collectors who tend to arrive late to Florida or skip December Art Week altogether, extending Miami’s market gravity into January. Set on Herald Plaza overlooking Biscayne Bay inside the spacious CONTEXT Art Miami Pavilion, the inaugural five-day edition is co-directed by Nick Korniloff and Julian Navarro and brings together more than 70 international galleries spanning blue chip contemporary, postwar and modern material alongside emerging and mid-career artists. The fair’s marketing leans heavily on timing and logistics: by positioning itself as a de facto kickoff fair for the new year, it allows galleries to build on December momentum while keeping inventory already in the U.S. and in Miami, sidestepping the escalating costs and friction of transatlantic shipping. The result is a pragmatic addition to the global fair circuit that acknowledges how dealers actually operate, offers collectors a quieter and more focused window to engage with work and subtly reframes January as an active market moment rather than a post-holiday lull.

FOG Design+Art 2026

January 21-25

FOG Design+Art—which has become a measured but influential fixture on San Francisco’s cultural calendar—is returning to the Fort Mason Center with a tightly edited roster of more than 60 international galleries (with 15 participating for the first time). The fair’s appeal lies in its calibrated scope rather than sheer scale, pairing a global exhibitor base with an expanded presentation of FOG FOCUS, a dedicated pier highlighting artists in earlier stages of their careers and offering works at more accessible price points without diluting curatorial intent. Under the leadership of inaugural director Sydney Blumenkranz, the fair sharpens its identity as both a marketplace and a platform, complemented by the return of FOG Talks, a curated speaking series that frames collecting, design and visual culture as active conversations rather than fixed expertise. Add to this FOG MRKT, a dynamic entryway installation spotlighting artists, designers and makers across disciplines, and the result is a fair that resists stasis.

London Art Fair 2026

January 22-25

London Art Fair has been a mainstay of the U.K.’s art calendar for 38 years, offering collectors, curators and casual art enthusiasts an annual deep dive into the best of modern and contemporary art. As always, it brings together a tightly curated selection of leading modern and contemporary galleries from the U.K. and abroad. Long valued by collectors for its balance of discovery and confidence, the fair continues to function as a practical entry point into the year’s market, a place to encounter new work, reinforce relationships and make considered acquisitions early in the season. This year’s Museum Partner, the National Trust, introduces a distinct curatorial lens by presenting surrealist and post-war abstract works drawn from two modernist London homes: 2 Willow Road, designed by Ernő Goldfinger, and The Homewood, home of architect Patrick Gwynne, foregrounding how modernist experimentation unfolded within lived domestic spaces. Curated by art historian Dr. Ferren Gipson, the 2026 edition of Platform, “The Unexpected,” sharpens the fair’s experimental edge by focusing on artists who push material and process beyond conventional frameworks, while Encounters expands London Art Fair’s international reach with emerging galleries from Mexico, Turkey, Japan and France, injecting new perspectives into the local market.

NAARDEN The Art Fair 2026

January 22-25

In the charming historic town of Naarden in the Netherlands, the 28th edition of NAARDEN The Art Fair (known until recently as “Kunst & Antiek Weekend”) will once again transform the fortified Grote Kerk into a vibrant art hub writ small, where artists, dealers and collectors come together in shared appreciation. More than 60 galleries will present a curated selection of classic and contemporary artworks, ranging from paintings and sculptures to photography and mixed-media pieces, along with the best in jewelry and design. This year, visitors will no doubt notice that many of the works on display reflect sea or sky and are otherwise rendered in cerulean, navy, cobalt and indigo in keeping with the 2026 theme, “Blue is the colour.”

ART SG 2026

January 23-25

In 2024, Magnus Renfrew, co-founder of ART SG and founder of The Art Assembly (the organization behind ART SG and a broader portfolio of fairs in the region that also includes Taipei Dangdai and Tokyo Gendai), told Observer that “logic dictates that an area of that scale deserves one major international art fair, especially once we consider that it’s today home to many of the fastest growing economies in the world. I think that the rise of the fair will be part of a broader Southeast Asia and Singapore rising story.” This year, ART SG brings together 106 galleries from more than 30 countries and territories with programming that privileges context and experimentation, sharpening its curatorial ambitions in ways that reflect Singapore’s growing pull as an Indo-Pacific cultural hub. (We’re looking forward to the debut of a dedicated Performance Art sector curated by X-Zhu Nowell of Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum.) Institutional collaboration plays a more visible role this year, notably through the latest iteration of Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait, which extends Rockbund’s itinerant exhibition model into Singapore by transforming The Warehouse Hotel lobby into an immersive, hospitality-inflected exhibition exploring maritime identity and archipelagic thinking across Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific.

S.E.A. Focus 2026

January 23-25

This year’s S.E.A. Focus in Singapore will be mounted for the first time in Sands Expo & Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands—a move that could amplify its visibility. Curated by John Z.W. Tung, this 2026 edition of the art fair will be organized around the theme The Humane Agency; artists from across the region will show work that responds to contemporary instability without defaulting to spectacle or didacticism. Rather than treating shifting borders, climate precarity or questions of belonging as abstract conditions to be illustrated, the exhibition foregrounds artistic agency as a quiet but deliberate form of engagement, emphasizing material choices, gestures and images that register care, responsibility and ethical presence. Though positioned within ART SG, S.E.A. Focus retains its distinct curatorial identity and maintains its commitment to exploring how artists in Southeast Asia are shaping cultural response in unsettled times.

art3f Paris 2026

January 23-25

art3f art fairs, held in several European cities throughout the year, cut through the noise with a warmth and accessibility that’s refreshing. The January edition in the heart of Paris unapologetically shuns the stuffy pretense of many fairs and instead cultivates an atmosphere where emerging talents mingle with established names in a space that feels more like an art event than a commercial event. With a mix of paintings, sculptures and photographs curated by a selection committee, art3f Paris offers fairgoers what they don’t always get: a human touch, direct exchanges with artists and fun. Its vernissage, with every exhibitor hosting their own opening at each booth, transforms the fair’s Friday launch into an egalitarian gala where conversations flow as freely as the drinks. Did we mention the bar? It, plus live music, keeps the vibe convivial and lighthearted. As art3f puts it, “Because life goes on and optimism takes back its rights, because you have to be positive, drink, eat, have fun, marvel, art is an excellent remedy!”

The Winter Show 2026

January 23 – February 1

Showcasing 5,000 years of art and design in New York City’s historic Park Avenue Armory, The Winter Show returns for its seventy-first edition with the best in art, antiques and design, plus thoughtfully curated panel discussions and exhibitor talks. This is one of the oldest and most distinguished fairs in the city, offering a quintessentially sumptuous Upper East Side experience, and it sets itself apart with an encyclopedic range, spanning everything from Roman glass and Chinese ceramics to modern and contemporary American art and furniture. But beyond the spectacle, the fair serves a greater purpose: it is owned by East Side House Settlement, which has transformed it into an annual benefit event supporting its mission to provide critical services and resources to over 14,000 residents of the Bronx and Northern Manhattan.

Art Palm Beach 2026

January 28 – February 1

Art Palm Beach is considered by many snowbirds to be a ‘midwinter must’ following the triumph of its second edition under the new leadership of Kassandra Voyagis in 2024 and a third edition that was bigger, bolder and even more curated. Visitors to the Palm Beach County Convention Center can expect a wide-ranging display of artistic disciplines, from painting and sculpture to video and fine art glass, reflecting the evolving landscape of 20th- and 21st-century art. In something of a landmark moment, the 2026 edition of the fair will debut “Sylvester Stallone: Evolution,” the first exhibition to unite six decades of the actor’s paintings in one retrospective. Get ready to do some people spotting. Famous faces at prior editions have included supermodel Lais Ribeiro, Shark Tank entrepreneur Daymond John, Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark (an artist himself, he exhibited in “Dialogos”) and artist and collector Eric Fischl. Who knows who might make an appearance in 2026!

Art Genève 2026

January 29 – February 1

Art Genève will return to Palexpo Geneva for its 15th edition with displays mounted by 80 contemporary galleries and several prominent Swiss institutions, public and private collections and nonprofit cultural organizations. Known for its intimate atmosphere and unifying spirit, this art fair founded in 2012 bills itself as being more like a classic salon: a place to cultivate relationships built on shared interests. Highlights of Art Genève include the Mobilière Prize, recognizing young Swiss talent, and the Solo-F.P. Journe Prize, awarding the best solo presentation with a work donated to a regional institution. The innovative Sur-Mesure section returns this year with unusual or monumental works, while the Music section immerses visitors in sound installations and performances that extend beyond the fair’s walls. There are also thought-provoking discussions on selected topics au courant in the contemporary art world and browsable (and buyable) selections of art books bought by some of the world’s best publishers—all beside beautiful Lake Geneva.

Even more January art fairs in 2026

As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the January art fair calendar in 2026—there are always plenty of smaller, lesser-known and niche art fairs happening (or opening for the first time) around the world. Here’s a quick roundup of several more midwinter art fairs you might want to check out this month.

Art Herning 2026 (Denmark)

January 9-11

Italian Fine Art (IFA) 2026 (Bergamo)

January 14-23

Bergamo Arte Fiera 2026

January 16-18

ceramic brussels 2026

January 22-25

THE ART FAIR kunst for alle 2026 (Aarhus, Denmark)

January 22-25

Pavilion Art Fair 2026 (Taipei)

January 22-26

Brafa Art Fair 2026 (Brussels)

January 25 – February 1

Master Drawings New York 2026

January 30 – February 7

In the past year, museums have grappled with disastrous wildfires, much-derided rebrandings, overt attempts at censorship, declining attendance, the loss of federal funds and the longest government shutdown in history. Yet, the institutional landscape wasn’t entirely grim. Many major museums began exploring ways to engage new generations of supporters and new audiences. Some started welcoming four-legged visitors or hosting yoga classes. At many institutions, the humble museum café got Michelin-worthy upgrades. There was a trend of doctors prescribing museum visits, and science began studying how museums might boost well-being.  And many more art museums opened last year than closed.  

A few institutions, however, did not open as planned in 2025, which is why some of the most anticipated 2026 museum openings and expansions are holdovers from last year’s list. Will the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi finally open its doors after all this time? That remains to be seen, but there’s certainly a chance! Here’s what you can look forward to in the coming months:

Opening: The New Museum

• March 21, 2026

The New Museum‘s $89 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion, designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas alongside Cooper Robertson, was supposed to open in the fall of 2025, but delays happen. Named in honor of the late visionary philanthropist Toby Devan Lewis and rising 174 feet directly south of its SANAA-designed flagship, the seven-story annex will replace 231 Bowery, in which the museum’s cultural incubator NEW INC, media affiliate Rhizome and artists’ residencies have been housed. “The New Museum is an incubator for new cultural perspectives and production, and the expansion aims to embody that attitude of openness,” Shigematsu said in a statement. More importantly, the new space seamlessly integrates with its predecessor, fusing the facades from the second through fifth floors while nearly doubling the institution’s footprint to a sprawling 115,277 square feet, adding three expansive gallery floors, an 80-seat restaurant, a larger bookstore and much-needed office space. Notably, this isn’t the institution’s first expansion. Since its founding in a temporary Hudson Street space in 1977, the New Museum has strategically grown at pivotal moments, from its 2007 debut of SANAA’s modernist cube at Bowery and Prince Street to this latest iteration on Bowery and Spring.

Opening: Refik Anadol’s DATALAND

• Spring 2026

Refik Anadol, who made headlines when his monumental work Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations was acquired by MoMA, is set to make history by opening the world’s first institution dedicated entirely to championing, promoting and showcasing the creative synergy between art and A.I. Rescheduled for a spring 2026 debut, Dataland will be located in The Grand LA, the Frank Gehry-designed development in Los Angeles’ cultural epicenter, close to other important L.A. cultural institutions, such as The Broad, MOCA, The Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, REDCAT and The Colburn School. The opening, Anadol told Observer, is the realization of a long-held dream. “With DATALAND, we will be able to create and exhibit immersive experiences that fully integrate digital art with architectural spaces in collaboration with renowned firms like Gensler and Arup.”

Opening: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

• Date TBD

The long wait for the opening of the much-delayed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is nearly over. Maybe. In 2024, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism announced that the Saadiyat Cultural District was on track for completion by the end of 2025, but it was unclear when the Guggenheim outpost would actually open. With its striking Frank Gehry-designed building (that some have called the ugliest museum to ever be constructed) and a price tag of over a billion dollars, the enormous 320,000-square-foot museum initially announced almost two decades ago was supposed to go up in the 2010s, but the project was hit by construction delays and protests by artists and labor activists responding to the treatment of workers in Abu Dhabi. It’s anticipated that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will play a significant role in the cultural development of the U.A.E., along with the Louvre Abu Dhabi. And for those wondering if there will be further delays, construction is ongoing, and the Guggenheim’s updated brand identity includes Arabic in anticipation of the museum’s opening. And if not in 2026, then definitely in 2027. Probably.

Opening: KANAL-Centre Pompidou

• November 28, 2026

The opening of KANAL in Brussels will give the city a large-scale contemporary art institution with the ambition and infrastructure to match its cultural capital. Occupying a transformed former Citroën garage on the northwestern edge of the city center, it spans 12,500 square meters across five floors, a footprint that exceeds the original Tate Modern and the Palais de Tokyo. Conceived as a multifunctional civic space rather than a single-purpose museum, KANAL will combine permanent and temporary exhibition space with performance venues, an architecture center, a library, restaurants, a bakery and a café. Its inaugural exhibition is set to include works by Matisse, Picasso and Giacometti on loan from the Centre Pompidou, with trilingual wall texts in English, Dutch and French already approved, signaling an outward-looking institution attuned to Brussels’s multilingual reality. Crucially, KANAL aims to address a long-standing gap in the country’s cultural infrastructure by ensuring its collection incorporates significant Belgian artworks.

Opening: Dubai Museum of Art

• Date TBD

Rising above Dubai Creek, the forthcoming—and floating—Dubai Museum of Art (DUMA) will, if all goes as planned, anchor the city more firmly in the global art world. (In statements, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid has cast it as a mirror of Dubai’s cultural ambitions.) Renderings of the curvaceous, shell-like exterior suggest Pritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando’s design will fold past and future into a museum that could be a contender for one of the world’s most beautiful. In the works are flexible exhibition floors, rooms built for talks, panels and education and even space for an art fair when the calendar demands it. 

Opening: Fondation Bustamante

• July 2026

Founded by French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante, the new institution will be housed in Arles’ Sainte-Croix church, a former medieval parish rebuilt in the 18th Century and redesigned for its new purpose by architect Charles Zana. Exhibition spaces will unfold across three levels, alongside programming that includes classes, lectures and symposiums, while also preserving Bustamante’s archives. Born in Toulouse in 1952, the artist has built a career spanning photography, painting and sculpture; he represented France at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, directed Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse and led the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris from 2015 to 2018. Elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 2016, he will also be the subject of a retrospective at Ludwig Museum Koblenz in 2026. Beyond showcasing his own work, the foundation aims to become an outward-facing platform for contemporary art, with Bustamante stating, “My goal is to position the foundation among the exceptional cultural offerings of the city, providing support and visibility to artists from all generations and to young exhibition curators, critics and historians from around the world.”

Opening: CANYON

• Date TBD

Designed by New Affiliates Architecture, CANYON introduces a new model for contemporary art on the Lower East Side by both centering durational works and staying open late into the night to meet its audience where they already are. Conceived by veteran museum director Joseph C. Thompson (founding director of MASS MoCA) alongside financier Robert Rosenkranz, the institution positions itself as a hub for video, sound, performance and other practices that take time to appreciate. Housed in a vacant commercial space, CANYON will have 18,000 square feet of galleries equipped with advanced sound and display technologies, plus a performance hall seating up to 300 for concerts and other performances, screenings and podcast tapings. A large skylit piazza with a cafe, bars and a full-service restaurant will function as a social commons, reinforcing the idea of cultural space as communal space. “We believe that if the art invites you to settle in and stay awhile, it should be in a really comfortable, sociable space, more like a living room than a typical white or black box,” Thompson told Observer. “Little things—like soft seating with backrests and a place to put a drink—and big things, like precise articulation of image and sound, make a difference with this work.”

Opening: V&A East

• April 18, 2026

After years of planning and revised timelines, the V&A East Museum is now set to open, marking a major expansion of the Victoria & Albert Museum into east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Conceived as a cornerstone of the East Bank cultural complex, the five-story museum builds on the earlier opening of the V&A East Storehouse in May 2025, which offered public access to the V&A’s collections and archives. The new museum will have two free permanent “Why We Make” galleries presenting more than 500 objects spanning global art, architecture, design, performance and fashion, alongside temporary exhibitions, beginning with “The Music Is Black: A British Story.” Highlights range from Leigh Bowery and Mr Pearl’s fetish-inspired ballet costumes for Michael Clark Company’s 1987 production Because We Must to Derek Jarman’s abstract set model for Don Giovanni at Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1968, as well as a 17th-century gown by textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite. New acquisitions by figures including Yinka Ilori, the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh, VIN + OMI and east London publishers One of My Kind and Rabbits Road Press will anchor the museum’s focus on contemporary global culture.

Opening: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

• September 22, 2026

“Stories are mythology, and when illustrated, they help humans understand the mysteries of life,” said director George Lucas in a statement announcing the opening date of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park. Co-founded by Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum’s collection will be housed in a building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD, with surrounding gardens designed by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA. The institution’s mission frames narrative art as a universal form of meaning-making, and Hobson echoed this ethos in a statement, describing the institution as “a museum of the people’s art,” adding, “Our hope is that as people move through the galleries, they will see themselves, and their humanity, reflected back.” The permanent collection will comprise more than 40,000 works, displayed across 35 galleries totaling 100,000 square feet, and organized around themes drawn from everyday experiences, including love, family, community, work, play, childhood and adventure. The collection, which spans pop culture and fine art, includes everything from illustrations, sketches, mural painting and comic art to children’s book imagery, science fiction, cinematic artifacts and documentaries about artists and filmmakers.

Opening: Tashkent’s Centre for Contemporary Arts

• March 2026

The opening of the Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent will mark a significant moment for Uzbekistan’s cultural landscape, positioning the country more firmly within global contemporary art conversations. Led by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation under the direction of chairperson Gayane Umerova, the expanded CCA reflects a broader investment aimed at strengthening the nation’s cultural ecosystem, stimulating its creative economy and creating new opportunities for artists at local, regional and international levels. Housed in a revitalized 1912 industrial building originally used as a diesel station and tram depot, the center has been transformed by French architecture firm Studio KO, whose design establishes a dialogue between historical structure and contemporary form through the use of traditional techniques and local materials. The result is a forward-looking institution grounded in Uzbekistan’s artisanal legacy and artistic heritage. Curated by artistic director Dr Sara Raza, the inaugural exhibition, “Hikmah,” will bring together artists including Ali Cherri, Kimsooja, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Nari Ward, Muhannad Shono, Shokhrukh Rakhimov and Tarik Kiswanson, signaling the CCA’s ambition to function as a hub for cross-cultural exchange.

Opening: LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries 

• April 2026

The long-anticipated expansion of LACMA marks a transformative moment for the museum and its role within Los Angeles. When the project was announced in 2019, its necessity was not immediately obvious, but much of LACMA’s campus infrastructure dated back more than 50 years, increasingly constraining a museum whose international stature had outgrown its buildings. Rather than simply enlarging the footprint, the expansion extends LACMA’s physical and cultural presence across the city. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the new concrete-and-glass structure replaces four aging buildings and unifies the campus through a sweeping elevated form that spans Wilshire Boulevard. Named for David Geffen following a $150 million gift, and supported by an additional $125 million from Los Angeles County, the building introduces a new curatorial approach that rethinks how art history is presented. At a preview event, Michael Govan explained that the design is intentionally organic, with windows throughout that maintain a constant visual exchange with the city beyond. “There’s no hierarchy—no clear front or back. The narrative is open, and there’s no prescribed journey within the space,” he said.

Opening: The Crystal Bridges Expansion

• June 6 and 7, 2026

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will soon open a major expansion, aligning its next chapter with the United States’ 250th anniversary and marking a milestone of its own. The project will increase the museum’s footprint by 50 percent, adding 114,000 square feet of new galleries, studios, dining options and event spaces set within the natural landscape of the Ozarks. The expanded and reinstalled galleries will offer new pathways through the breadth of American art, emphasizing the diversity of the nation’s stories, people and places. More than a physical enlargement, the expansion, which was designed by Safdie Architects (the firm behind the original building, too), underscores the museum’s broader ambition to deepen public access, encourage sustained engagement with American art, and strengthen its role as a civic and cultural gathering place. Admission will still be free.

Opening: The Bronx Museum of the Arts Expansion

• Fall 2026

The Bronx Museum’s $42.9 million expansion, slated to open in fall 2026, is a reminder that serious art doesn’t stop at 110th Street. Marvel Architects’ renovation will finally stitch together the museum’s fractured footprint, adding a new triple-height lobby, a café and a fully accessible gallery loop that connects the entire institution. The decision to shift the entrance to the corner of 165th Street and Grand Concourse is both pragmatic and symbolic, placing the museum in the literal path of the borough’s life and foot traffic, rather than tucked away. While the construction has partially shuttered the South Wing, the North Wing has remained active with programming that keeps community at the center, including the AIM Biennial, which opens later this month.

Reopening: The Gilcrease Museum

• Fall of 2026

The reopening of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will mark a major cultural milestone for the city. Located northwest of downtown, the museum has the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, held alongside a growing body of art and artifacts from Central and South America, encompassing more than 350,000 items dating from 12,000 BCE to the 21st Century and representing hundreds of Indigenous cultures across the Americas. The re-envisioned 91,000-square-foot building, funded through voter-approved measures and private support, is designed to meet contemporary standards for conservation, research and touring exhibitions while providing a state-of-the-art setting for Western and Native American art. “As we open the doors to the new Gilcrease Museum to the public for the first time, we celebrate a historic milestone on a project that will transform Tulsa’s cultural legacy for generations,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement, referring to the museum’s holdings as “the greatest collection of American art outside of the federal government.”

Reopening: Museo Dolores Olmedo

• Date TBD

The planned reopening in 2026 of Mexico City’s Dolores Olmedo Museum will restore one of the country’s most significant cultural institutions after more than half a decade of uncertainty. Home to the world’s largest collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the museum closed in 2020 during COVID, prompting years of speculation about its fate. Founded in 1994 by Dolores Olmedo, a prominent collector and close friend of Rivera, the museum was established in La Noria, a 16th-century hacienda in Xochimilco that quickly became a beloved cultural hub known not only for its art but also for its lush gardens, Day of the Dead altars and resident Xoloitzcuintli dogs. Olmedo, who died in 2002, acquired more than 140 works by Rivera and 25 paintings by Kahlo, many directly from the artists, and made it clear that she wished the collection to remain in Xochimilco “for the Mexican people.”

Reopening: The Musée de la Vie Romantique

• February 14, 2026

The Museum of Romantic Life in Paris is set to reopen on—what else—Valentine’s Day, after an extended renovation. The museum, rose gardens and beloved tea room were refreshed while maintaining the charm that has long defined the former home of artist Ary Scheffer. On its first floor, the museum houses an evocative ensemble dedicated to George Sand, including family portraits, household objects, jewelry, rare watercolors known as dendrites and plaster casts by Auguste Clésinger of the writer’s right arm and Frédéric Chopin’s left hand. Paintings by Scheffer include portraits of Pauline Viardot and Queen Marie-Amélie alongside literary scenes inspired by The Giaour, Faust and Marguerite and The Heart of Midlothian, complemented by works from contemporaries such as François Bouchot, Camille Roqueplan and Redouté. The reopening will coincide with the exhibition “Facing the sky, Paul Huet in his time,” which foregrounds the Romantic landscape painter while reactivating the site’s dialogue between art, nature and domestic space.

I’ve never been to Asia before, and in the weeks leading up to my art trip to Hong Kong, I experience far more pre-travel anxiety than usual. I obsess over losing an entire day, fret about what to pack, worry about jet lag and fail repeatedly to memorize what is easily the most ambitious itinerary of my growing travelogue series. (Forty-eight hours of art is not long enough when you’re flying halfway round the world.) I also become oddly superstitious, reading portents into everyday moments. This is not my normal, and even now, weeks after returning, I’m still not sure what rattled me so deeply.

But in a strange but welcome twist, the very first leg of my journey offers reassurance: my tough-guy Uber driver plays soothing spa music. Score one for the universe. And then it’s priority check-in, empty security lines at 10 p.m. and smooth sailing all the way into the Delta One lounge, where I snack, study Hong Kong’s art scene and eventually notice I’m already surrounded by artworks: Gregory Block doughnuts, a Miles Jaffe matchbook piece and a balloon work by Patrick Nevins, whose adorable “crayon” painting delighted me in Denver once upon a time.

Am I relaxed? Not exactly. I still believe humans were never meant to fly, but priority boarding gets me into my business-class seat about 40 minutes before takeoff, leaving time to settle in. My husband always says, “You’re just in a room,” and on no plane has that ever felt more accurate. The Airbus A350 ceilings are unexpectedly high, and I’m tucked into a window cubicle that will be home for the next 15 hours.

Waiting for dinner, I explore the amenities of my cube: noise-canceling headphones, a remote that doubles as a video game controller, Bamford toiletries and several storage nooks. Then I eat noodle soup with dumplings while binge-watching The Office and Silicon Valley, sip the airline’s signature in-flight drinks (a non-alcoholic Cathay Delight and a boozy Cloud Nine) and play a little Tetris. I assume they’ll dim the cabin lights after the coffee service—chamomile tea for me—and pretty chocolates, but when I return to my cubicle after changing into pajamas and brushing my teeth, my seat has become a bed and it’s dark. Really dark. And surprisingly quiet. I needn’t have worried about sleeping on the flight. I snooze for roughly nine hours, waking with plenty of time for a couple of cups of coffee before breakfast: pumpkin and crab congee with lots of Lee Kum Kee Guilin-style chili sauce, Singapore Mei Fun and another Cathay Delight.

For all my anxiety, I do begin every journey believing something beautiful will happen. And so it already has. This is the calmest, most enjoyable and most delicious flight I’ve ever taken. When we touch down in Hong Kong in the pre-dawn darkness, Yunchan Lim’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” playing in my headphones, I’ve officially time-traveled through Tuesday, and a big, busy Wednesday awaits.

Day 1

I arrive in a mostly empty Hong Kong International Airport at roughly 5:30 a.m., though it’s hard to tell because my body clock is screaming at me incoherently. I blearily make my way to the taxi stands, stopping to double-check which color cab I’m meant to take. (Red.) There’s little to see in the dark until we reach Tsim Sha Tsui, quiet at this hour but brightly lit. The Langham, Hong Kong, by contrast, is anything but subdued—Christmas music fills the vast neoclassical lobby, which is dominated by a massive pink Christmas tree.

Naturally, my room isn’t ready, so I head to the dual-level Health Club to freshen up. Sauna’ed and showered, I eat breakfast in the Club Lounge, a space that nods to the brand’s London roots with its button-tufted velvet, gilt wallpaper and chandeliers. There’s a full spread of American breakfast staples, but I go straight for the chicken congee, piling it with century egg and chili sauce, and adding a side of dumplings.

I’m not jet lagged exactly, but I feel gauzy-headed and the world is gently rocking around me. I drink a drip coffee, then a flat white, while mapping my way to West Kowloon Art Park and the Hong Kong Palace Museum for the editor’s preview of “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums,” led by associate curator Wenxin Wang. It’s only about a mile and a half away, and a walk in mild weather seems like the best way to convince my brain it really is Wednesday morning.

Jonathan, the lounge’s ebullient host, is about to store my bag when he gets word that my room is ready. It’s cozy, with curved floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Dior, Chanel and Cartier storefronts, which I quickly learn is very Hong Kong. The table has been laid with dainty strawberries and hilariously large grapes, plus chilled bottles of Saicho sparkling jasmine tea, a welcome alternative to the usual champagne.

The walk to West Kowloon Art Park is easy, though waterfront construction means more crossings than expected. Still, I arrive at the Hong Kong Palace Museum with time to grab my earpiece and join the tour of 250 treasures from pharaonic times, on loan from seven major museums and the Saqqara archaeological site. The irony is obvious—the first art I see in Hong Kong is Egyptian—but there hasn’t been a major exhibition of Egyptian antiquities here in decades, and it feels special to be part of it.

The show is excellent, presenting ancient Egypt through daily life as much as royalty. “We tried really hard to connect what ancient Egyptians wanted and what modern people want,” Dr. Wang says, noting how challenging the installation was. Organized into four sections—“The Land of Pharaohs,” “The World of Tutankhamun,” “The Secrets of Saqqara” and “Ancient Egypt and the World”—it mixes statues, coffins and gold ornaments with humbler objects: a Senet set, a pigment-stained painter’s palette, sandals, a toilet seat, a 4,000-year-old piece of bread and even several mummified cats.

From there, I move on to “Brilliance: Ming Dynasty Ceramic Treasures from the Palace Museum, 1368–1644,” and then “The Quest for Originality: Contemporary Design and Traditional Craft in Dialogue.” I’ve never been much of a plate-and-vase person, but the latter’s dialogue between historic objects and contemporary Hong Kong designers deepens my appreciation of the porcelain artifacts by several degrees.

I grab lunch in the park, which has everything from fine dining to food trucks, before walking a few hundred meters to the M+, billed as Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture. With 33 galleries, a roof garden and four permanent collections, including one of the world’s strongest holdings of contemporary Chinese art, it deserves hours I don’t have. Beyond works by Qiu Shihua, Kan Xuan, Chang Xugong, Duan Jianyu and Shao Fan, along with Hassan Khan’s fantastic Jewel (2010) and Chiharu Shiota’s immersive Infinite Memory, what stays with me are the music pairings and wall prompts. My favorite asks, “Can sadness be beautiful?”

On my way out, I stumble into “Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s–Now,” where I see people removing their shoes. I’m powerless to resist a hands-on show, and inside is pure delight: Pinaree Sanpitak’s monumental pillow fort, The House Is Crumbling; rebirth via Lygia Clark’s A casa é o corpo: penetração, ovulação, germinação, expulsão (The House is the Body); and, best of all, Judy Chicago’s Feather Room, tucked away around a corner and so blissfully uncrowded.

Back at the hotel, I tour The Langham, Hong Kong, Art Collection with Emilie Zhang, director of marketing services. In all its common areas, the hotel displays a rotating selection of works by established Chinese artists collected by Langham Hospitality Group chair Ka Shui Lo. Aside from a few fixed pieces, including a particularly Instagrammable painting near the elevator bank, the collection changes constantly. The lone non-Chinese work is a modest Dale Chihuly behind reception; it’s overshadowed by stronger pieces in the lobby, the Palm Court and T’ang Court, one of the few Cantonese restaurants with a MICHELIN three-star rating and my destination for tonight’s dinner.

Zhang joins me for a glass of champagne before I dive into a tasting menu featuring four courses and dessert. The stuffed crab shell is a Hong Kong classic, with every restaurant claiming supremacy. The Wagyu beef may be the best thing I’ve ever eaten, with the cod fish with honey close behind. Dessert is a classic egg tart and, unexpectedly, a fragrant almond cream soup. Then, as exhausted as I am, I make my way to the Avenue of Stars for “A Symphony of Lights,” the nightly lightshow on the buildings of Hong Kong Island. The waterfront is packed. The show is just okay. Or maybe I’m simply too tired to enjoy it.

Day 2

Tip: If you’re going to have insomnia anywhere, have it in a hotel with deep bathtubs. I find myself wide awake in the middle of the night, maybe because my body thinks it’s the middle of the day or possibly because my first day in Hong Kong was massively overstimulating. I’m moving slowly this morning, and getting out the door is priority one. Because I need to put money on my Octopus card—or so I think. After a quick snack of giant grapes, I speedwalk to a packed 7-11 and watch the people ahead of me at the counter for clues on how to load up my card.

I add funds, but turns out the card with which I will pay my metro and ferry fares came pre-loaded, and I now have enough credit to travel around the city for possibly weeks. Public transit in Hong Kong is cheap: the most expensive peak fare on the Star Ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central is roughly 85 cents. Most metro trips cost between 50 cents and two bucks. But back to the ferry, which is my ride to a breakfast appointment with a PR. The Star Ferry, which crosses Victoria Harbour every 10 minutes or so, is an iconic Hong Kong fixture founded in 1888 as the Kowloon Ferry Company, and while the boats are obviously newer, their look hasn’t changed much. It’s all utterly charming, and I vow to take the ferry as often as possible during my trip.

Citymapper is my go-to app in unfamiliar cities, Hong Kong included. Mostly it works well, but there are two exceptions. One is in Central’s urban canyons, where skyscrapers reflect the signals that tell the app where I am. The other is anywhere an overpass or underpass bisects an intersection or cuts diagonally across a plaza. Hong Kong is a city of levels, threaded with pedestrian pathways that make walking easier but navigation harder. It doesn’t help that many destinations you’d expect to be storefronts are tucked inside buildings, and I wander hopelessly until my PR contact finds me looking lost in front of a Prada.

Next up is a tour of Sotheby’s two-story, 24,000-square-foot Hong Kong Maison, which my colleague Elisa Carollo has covered extensively for Observer. For those unfamiliar, every major Sotheby’s location now includes a retail component, and this one is a testament to its city’s luxury-shopping culture. There are pre-auction exhibition spaces (showing historical works from China, Korea and Japan during my visit), alongside salons that can be reconfigured for privacy or accessibility. “Every salon has a focus: jewelry, watches, wine or handbags,” comms manager Vinchi Wong tells me. “The enclosed space lets clients try pieces on in a more personal way, surrounded by art to create a cohesive environment.”

Walking with Wong, comms manager Fei Yip and head of comms Nancy Wong, I admire a fossilized skeleton of a rare juvenile Gryposaurus, intricately articulated animal-themed jewelry by Buchin Yoshioka, rare vintage wines and luminous jade. “Some clients walk in knowing exactly what they want, like a huge pink diamond; others want to learn,” Nancy Wong says. “Asian collectors, especially, love the educational side—understanding quality, craftsmanship and design. Our specialists are trained to tell those stories.” The highlight for most, though, is the gleaming wood portal and staircase leading down to the maison’s much-lauded exhibition space. “The curves continue all the way down to the ground floor; there are no straight lines, so the space flows naturally,” Yip explains. “When it’s dark, visitors slow their pace, like moving through your home at night. The lighting is focused strictly on the artworks.” Unfortunately, the space is closed during my visit for the installation of “Heaven’s Mandate: Giuseppe Castiglione’s Auspicious Lotus for the Yongzheng Emperor,” so I only get a brief peek.

Then I’m off again, this time to explore Central. This is my one free afternoon, and I’m meeting up with a friend, and sometimes Observer writer, Xinyi Ye, for gallery hopping and sightseeing. We start at David Zwirner, which is showing “Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Somewhere better than this place / Nowhere better than this place,” on view through Feb. 14, 2026. The exhibition includes candy and stack works, the mirror piece Untitled (Fear) (1991), a light string sculpture Untitled (Couple) (1993) and Untitled (Welcome Back Heroes) (1991), with elements extending into the city to emphasize chance. Next is Tang Contemporary, where a solo exhibition of painter Ming Ying’s faceless figurative works invites speculation. (Pace was meant to be our third stop, but the gallery shuttered the space the week before.)

Xinyi then leads me to Tai Kwun, the former Central Police Station Compound turned cultural complex, and it strikes me how nice it is to walk without Citymapper for a while. With a friend, I stumble into corners I would never have found on my own, especially within the maze that is Tai Kwun.  There are art galleries here, too, and we check out Finding a Place to Call Home by Philadelphia-based muralist and glass artist Eric Okdeh before making our way through the Central Magistracy and the former Victoria Prison exhibitions that show what these spaces were like before the historic buildings were restored. And then we visit JC Contemporary, home of Tai Kwun Contemporary, which I forget I’m scheduled to visit tomorrow.

After we part ways, I make a quick stop at Pottinger Street, a cobbled path from Hollywood Road to Queen’s Road dating to the 1850s. It hosts a fancy dress market, and during my visit, the sellers have gone all-in on Santa hats, red-and-green garlands and other Christmas trappings. I can’t linger, though, because dinner awaits. Roganic in Causeway Bay is both MICHELIN-starred and MICHELIN Green-starred, a farm-to-table restaurant helmed by head chef Adam Catterall. Like many things in Hong Kong, it’s in a mall, though you’d never guess once inside. The warm wood, matte stone and curvingly organic design feel oddly like a natural extension of Sotheby’s glowing portal.

A few things to know about Roganic: the menu is the menu, though it shifts with what’s coming from the farms. There are wine pairings, but I opt for the thoughtful non-alcoholic pairings, all made in-house from ingredients that might otherwise be discarded, in keeping with the restaurant’s low- and no-waste philosophy. The food arrives as a parade of surprises: umami-maximized mushroom mousse, horseradish trout wrapped in a crisp beetroot cylinder, honey-soaked brioche with salted butter, a simple pork croquette that is shockingly good, frozen Yoshida cheese with Alpine plum and caramelized soda bread that eats more like a sundae than a cheese course. I try to stay present with each dish and pairing, noting how salty, bitter, acid and fruity notes balance and echo one another. At some point in the menu, I jot down that it “feels like I’m eating the platonic ideal of food.” But when the final dessert lands, I’m uncomfortably full and two and a half hours have passed. Plan accordingly.

Day 3

It’s hotel transfer day, which for me begins at 5:30 a.m. and not especially well. I’m anxious about making it to a scheduled street art tour, and I’m starting to suspect that biology cannot be ignored. I’m so discombobulated that after a final bowl of congee with century eggs in the Club Lounge, I leave The Langham, Hong Kong, to check into the Cordis Hong Kong in Mongkok without saying goodbye to my contact there. Then I leave the Cordis without connecting with my contact there, who is gracious about it and happy to reschedule our planned walkthrough for the following morning. Fortunately, getting to the tour meet-up is as straightforward as can be. From my new home base, I walk past Larry Bell’s Happy Man to the metro, take the ferry back to Central, and make my way to a coffee shop near Tai Kwun, where I meet Alexandra Unrein, a self-taught expert on street art and its practitioners.

On our stroll from Central to Sheung Wan, we stop at one of the city’s most photographed spots, Alex Croft’s Graham Street painting inspired by the Yau Ma Tei tenement buildings in Kowloon. From there, we move on to Jaune’s tiny stenciled sanitation workers, Innerfields’s spacewoman, HERA’s reading girl, Mon’s celestial deer and many others. Along the way, Unrein points out several small, solitary statues by Isaac Cordal, tucked high into out-of-the-way places: businesspeople in suits and tourists in shorts gazing down at the city with inscrutable expressions. As for how she learned so much about Hong Kong’s street art scene, Unrein tells me she simply engaged with the artists, showing up where she knew, or suspected, they’d be. “Hong Kong is influenced by New York, where graffiti really grew up and evolved into a mural scene in the 1990s,” she explains. “Here, graffiti only began to appear in the late 1990s, but by 2010, when I arrived, a small group focused on street art had started hosting exhibitions featuring many internationally renowned artists.” That momentum eventually became the annual HKwalls festival, which brings artists from around the world to leave their mark on the city.

Before we part ways, Unrein gives me a copy of her new book, Colourful Hong Kong – Street Art Stories. I flip through it by the pagoda in Hollywood Park, watching turtles play king of the mountain while I eat an Okinawan musubi, a sandwich-like onigiri, Hawaiian by way of Japan, here filled with fried chicken, honey mustard, an egg and Spam. Among the photos in the book are two murals, one from the tour, that feel oddly familiar. It turns out HKwalls artist Alex Senna has also painted in my hometown. Sometimes the world really is surprisingly small.

Next comes more gallery hopping, which is easy on Hollywood Road, once dominated by antique shops and now home to an increasing number of contemporary art spaces. I stop into “SWAG” at Contemporary by Angela Li, a solo show of charming character paintings by artist and gamer Agnes Leung Po Ying, then head to 13A New Street Gallery to meet owner Ruby Fung and see Sinje Lee’s “Childtopia,” the Golden Horse Award-winning actress’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. While the show centers on her newer, sweetly childlike circular canvases, my favorites in the show are several earlier, meditative works: Quietly, Ocean and Mother. When I ask Fung about Hong Kong’s art scene, she’s candid. “Buying and selling slowed down after COVID,” she says, “but I do think more people appreciate art now. The government also has a lot of big events and exhibitions in the art and culture sectors. In general, the culture is evolving, but money-wise it might take time for people to really know how to appreciate or invest, or to own a work at home.”

There’s certainly no shortage of places to buy it. Continuing down Hollywood Road, I peer into the window of Liang Yi Museum, open by appointment only (I have no appointment), then step into Gallery 149, also by appointment but welcoming anyway. There I see a striking pairing of Tracey Emin’s gouache Waiting to be with You with contemporary Chinese ink pieces. I also make a brief stop at Illuminati Fine Art, which is showing dramatic brush works by Ng Kwun Lun Tony, Zhou Jin, Chan Keng Tin, Yau Wing Fung and Tony Ng.

Then it’s back to Tai Kwun, where I meet a group of the complex’s reps in front of the JC Contemporary & F Hall Gallery building. They tell me that Tai Kwun Contemporary presents three to eight exhibitions each year across its 1,500-square-meter space, which includes the former Central Police Station compound and a modern addition designed by Herzog & de Meuron, in a program organized into three categories: “New Narratives,” large thematic group shows spotlighting emerging generations (of which “Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud is one), solo exhibitions commissioning new work by artists who have not shown widely in Asia; and “Pioneers,” monographic shows of major figures.

Exploring “Stay Connected” on my own, I realize how much I missed earlier while walking through with a friend. This time, I take in Ye Funa’s Curated Nails: Diamond Nail Salon installation, Lu Yang’s The Great Adventure of Material World, Gong Jian’s paintings of iconic historical moments and two of my favorites, Cao Fai’s Asia One and What Is Your Favorite Primitive by Li Yi-Fan. I’ve always been a little skeptical of video art, but this show, along with Jewel at M+, is changing my mind. But my favorite work in the exhibition is Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s Can’t Help Myself, the leaking industrial robot endlessly trying to clean up after itself. I feel an immediate kinship with that robot arm because we’re both just doing our best.

Dinner is at Madame Fu Grand Cafe Chinois, a contemporary dim sum restaurant also in Tai Kwun, which has a series of theatrically themed rooms. One is drenched in tufted Millennial pink, inspired by India Mahdavi’s iconic design for London’s Sketch. Madame Fù’s verandahs feature lamps crafted from Hermès scarves. Meanwhile, my dining room is heavy on dark velvet and leather, clubby and masculine, softened by more delicate art on the walls. The crystal shrimp dumplings are my favorite, with the mushroom truffle close behind, and the roast pork is everything you wish it would be elsewhere. Here, too, there are thoughtful non-alcoholic options. I sip a spiced mango and basil mocktail, then head back across the harbor during the light show, which is far more impressive from the ferry’s upper deck.

Day 4

Biology really won’t be tricked, and I wake before sunrise yet again, this time at 4:30 a.m. It’s too early for breakfast and I’m too mushy-headed to work, so I head to the Cordis’ 41st-floor gym, which is easily the best hotel gym I’ve ever used, if only because there’s nothing quite like plodding along on a treadmill while staring out at the vast, twinkling city below. (I learn later that there’s also a private fitness room guests can reserve for video classes or yoga.) Once the sun is up, I do laps in the open-air rooftop pool with another early bird, then park myself in the hot tub for a luxurious half hour. Back in my room, I flip through the deck of art cards that map the Cordis’s self-guided tour of its extensive collection, overseen by curator Angela Li, whose gallery I visited the day before.

There’s notable art everywhere on the property, reportedly valued at around $4.5 million when the hotel opened and almost certainly a lot more now. In the Club Lounge, I eat breakfast near a striking teal-and-yellow photographic work from German artist and Beijing resident Peter Steinherr. It’s part of his Cocoon series focused on a defining feature of Hong Kong’s urban landscape, the bamboo scaffolding and colorful construction draping that much of the world came to recognize after the tragic Wang Fuk Court fire. In the lobby are works from Ju Ming’s Taichi Series. Xiong Yu’s Feather Light is a favorite, as are Liao Yi Bai’s strange and wonderful chrome animal sculptures and works by Gao Yu, Wang Guangyi and Jiang Shuo.

cordis art image

On my rescheduled walkthrough with hotel rep Julia Leung, she points out a mix of art and amenities, and I’m disappointed I won’t have time to visit the Chuan Spa, whose treatments are built around traditional Chinese Medicine (another experience for next time). On the exhibition front, she explains that the hotel mounts several shows annually through its Art in Residence program, but I’ve arrived between installations. “SurrealHK: The City Reimagined,” featuring work by Tommy Fung of 13A New Street Gallery, had closed just a few weeks earlier.

(I’ll pause here for a brief compare-and-contrast for anyone choosing between The Langham, Hong Kong, and the Cordis Hong Kong, both operated by Langham Hospitality Group. The Langham, Hong Kong, is smaller, cozier and more traditional. You’re addressed by name and surrounded by classical opulence with a distinctly British sensibility. It’s high-end in an old-fashioned way. The Cordis, by contrast, is luxuriently modern. You’re one face among many, but surrounded by an impressive array of amenities and unbeatable views from the upper floors. The Langham, Hong Kong, art collection is thoughtfully curated but mostly unlabeled, while every piece at the Cordis has a placard. The Cordis is flashy and extremely Instagrammable, and attached to one hell of a mall; The Langham, Hong Kong, feels more like a home.)

I spend my morning with tour guide Agnes Tam, visiting the iconic Wong Tai Sin Temple and the Chi Lin Nunnery, a welcome palate cleanser after days of artful indulgence. We take the metro to the only landlocked district in Hong Kong, chatting the entire time about travel and our different backgrounds. The colorful Taoist temple, built by Leung Yan-am and open to the public since 1956, is a major attraction, and I mean major. Thousands visit daily, and during our stop it’s wall-to-wall people, some practicing kau chim or praying, others snapping photos or gathering luck to take home. Taoism, Tam explains, is inclusive, with everything unified and connected, much like Hong Kong itself. “What makes the city tick is a mix of the old and the new, the East and the West,” she says.

The nearby Buddhist nunnery is everything the temple isn’t. Hushed and serene, it’s widely recognized as the world’s largest handmade wooden building complex, constructed from cypress using Tang Dynasty techniques with interlocking joints and not a single nail. The courtyard holds ancient bonsai and lotus ponds, and inside the halls, where photography is forbidden, are monumental golden statues of the Sakyamuni Buddha and Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. But what’s most striking may be the contrast between the site’s disciplined serenity and the contemporary public housing estates and skyscrapers looming over it.

That contrast continues nearby at Nan Lian Garden, a nine-acre classical garden designed in the Tang Dynasty style and completed in the early 2000s through a partnership between the nunnery and the Hong Kong government. Surrounded by highways and towers, it feels like a true oasis, with koi ponds, cloud-pruned Buddhist pines, immaculate bonsais, a rockery of massive polished stones from across China set in raked gravel, a small gallery of ceramics and a teahouse. There’s also Chi Lin Vegetarian, tucked behind a water feature, where Tam leaves me for lunch. I linger over a light meal watching water slide down the window, then do all my souvenir shopping in the garden shop.

The weather today is the best I’ve enjoyed so far, and I could happily stay longer, but I’m due at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, a large public museum on the banks of the Shing Mun River dedicated to the city’s culture and creative life. After some confusion about how to cross the river from the metro, I begin with the special exhibition “Legacy of Lingnan School of Painting,” a retrospective of Chao Shao-an that includes stunning depictions of unexpectedly dramatic flora and fauna. Highlights from the permanent collection include the Cantonese Opera Heritage Hall and “Hong Kong Pop 60+,” which traces the flow of pop culture into and out of the city over six decades. I practically sprint through “Buddhist Pilgrimage: Treasures from the Donation of The Tsui Art Foundation,” because I have a dance performance to catch.

Freespace Dance presents forward-looking perspectives on dance from artists across the Asia-Pacific region, and tonight’s program is at the Xiqu Center, a curvaceous open oval building near West Kowloon Art Park I passed on my first day. Several short works, part of a broader festival that includes works in development by independent Hong Kong choreographers, followed by Q&A sessions. Lau Pak-hong’s Step 0, with sound design by Jonathan Ng, is beautiful but controversial. “For me, when I create a piece of work apart from watching with my eyes, I think about how it relates to other people: how can we experience the same thing together?” he says during the Q&A, but some audience members express their uneasiness about being physically drawn into the performance. “There’s a power imbalance between performer and audience—an element of peer pressure,” one notes. Touch also figures into Noon’s Body Capital, but here consent is obtained in advance for a moving, occasionally pornographic reflection on the commercialization of art and the body, social judgment and authenticity. (I have no doubt Body Capital will grow into a compelling full-length work.)

I leave feeling that familiar urge to make art after immersing oneself in it, hustling to make my dinner reservation at the Cordis’s Michelin-starred Ming Court. Outside, rows of clay pots replicate vessels unearthed during the hotel’s construction in 2003, with the 2,000-year-old originals now at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Inside, the atmosphere is calm without being stiff. The nine-course tasting menu is ambitious, with highlights including jellyfish, an eight treasure soup that warms me through and a delicate lobster dish. In the contest of stuffed crab shells, Ming Court wins with a version that’s crabbier, lighter on the onion and gently coconutty. Dessert is mango sago cream and a matching fruit-filled mochi. I’m full but not uncomfortably so—the tasting menu portions are refreshingly tiny—and I end the night soaking in my suite’s deep tub.

Day 5

I sleep until almost 6:30 a.m. on my last day of art in Hong Kong. There’s no point trying to drift back off—I can see a thin blade of light creeping above the blackout curtain. Besides, today is my departure day, but I’m also scheduled to visit one more museum so I need to pack up early. I could go back to the pool or have breakfast in the Club Lounge one more time, but yesterday I bought myself a coconut cream bun exactly like the ones I used to eat every day when I lived in Brooklyn, and there’s still some fresh fruit in the room. So I wrap myself in a hotel robe, turn an armchair toward the floor-to-ceiling window and eat my breakfast while watching the city wake up.

First stop: the pool deck for Master Cheung’s Tai Chi class, offered daily for hotel guests. I’ve never done Tai Chi before and have no idea what to expect, but Master Cheung is a wonderful teacher. He leads four of us, all beginners, through six of the art’s 24 forms with patience and humor, and I think I’d like to start every day like this. Next up, I’m speedrunning the Hong Kong Museum of Art; I can’t really give the museum my full attention with airport logistics looming, but what I do see is excellent. I linger longer than planned in “Art of Gifting: The Fuyun Xuan Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles,” mesmerized by these tiny vessels in their endless colors and configurations.

“Shopping in Canton: China Trade Art in the 18th and 19th Centuries” balances multimedia displays with vivid depictions of the port city, especially the export paintings. “Art Personalised: Masterpieces from the HKMoA” opens with a quiz that points you toward one of four collection groupings most likely to resonate. My personal favorite, though, is “Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five,” because there’s something deeply satisfying about encountering exquisitely made objects, hundreds or even thousands of years old, that were once part of everyday life.

My final stop is the nearby K11 Art Mall, where I briefly wander, marveling at iconic design pieces by figures like Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen displayed in the walkways. K11 lives up to its name, with art scattered across multiple floors, though finding it can feel like a scavenger hunt. As I browse, I briefly think about how much I didn’t see in five days. Museum shows friends raved about. Galleries shaping Hong Kong’s contemporary art scene. The Tian Tan Buddha and its cable cars. Lion Rock. And somehow I never found a good excuse to ride one of the streetcars in Central. Then I think about how much I did manage to see and how blessed I am to be able to see it.

I spend my last hours in Hong Kong, like many travelers, roaming the vast concourses of Hong Kong International Airport, buying gifts for people back home and marveling at the sheer scale of Terminal 1, one of the world’s largest passenger terminals. There’s plenty of art here too, mostly sculptural and travel-themed, from Monica Tai On-yau’s Little Explorer to Raymond Fung Wing-kee’s Letters from Afar, though it’s as spread out as everything else. There’s even an annual HKIA Arts and Culture Festival, which I’ve just missed. And, of course, there’s Louis Vuitton, Prada, Loro Piana, Valentino, Balenciaga and more, in case you feel like squeezing in one last shopping spree.

When hunger hits, I head down to The Pier, First, one of Cathay Pacific’s lounges, and find an airport oasis. There’s a full-service bar, massages, beautifully appointed showers, private workspaces, day suites for napping and aside from the central common area and snack pantry, it gives strong luxury-hotel energy. In the restaurant, I eat one of the most glorious things I’ve ever tasted: Cathay Pacific executive chef Adrian Upward’s Dan Dan Mein (I found the recipe!), paired with a perfectly sized black tea cocktail.

Still waiting on a gate assignment, I gather my things and backtrack to The Bridge, another Cathay lounge, for a change of scenery. It’s busier than The Pier, but the energy is lively and the Korean dishes on offer that day are solid. I take a latte to a cozy corner and sink into a deep, bowl-like armchair, where I admire the barista’s flawless unicorn latte art and lose myself in the low hum of other people’s conversations. My mind starts wandering and I think back to earlier in the day and my slow walk along the Avenue of Stars with hundreds of others, enjoying the sunshine and photographing the daytime skyline across a glittering Victoria Harbour. On a trip where nearly every minute was spoken for, it was a chance to pause and simply sit with the city. During Tai Chi that morning, a woman from Singapore told me the last time she’d visited Hong Kong was more than 20 years ago. I asked if it had changed much. “No,” she said, “some buildings are taller, but it’s not that different.” Sitting by the water, I think to myself that I don’t want to wait two decades to come back. But if that’s how life unfolds, I hope not much will have changed.

François-Xavier Lalanne’s Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique delivered a historic result at Sotheby’s Important Design, Featuring Works from the Schlumberger Collection sale yesterday (Dec. 10), where it sold for $31.4 million over a high estimate of $10 million. The work—commissioned in 1976 by Anne Schlumberger, one of Lalanne’s early patrons—inspired a lively 26-minute bidding battle among seven collectors, underscoring the significant demand for works of this scale and rarity. Notably, the sale established the highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction and the highest price ever realized for a work of design, confirming both the artist’s singular place in the market and the surging global market for functional art.

The piece, which showcases Lalanne’s signature blend of whimsy and technical mastery, marks a pivotal moment in his long fascination with the hippopotamus form. Crafted from hand-wrought copper, maillechort, stainless steel, brass and painted wood, it is the only version of the bar executed in copper. Hidden compartments—including a revolving bottle rack, ice bucket, hors-d’oeuvre tray and glassware storage—reveal Lalanne’s skill in engineering objects that are as practical as they are imaginative. The winning bidder also receives two original design drawings from Anne Schlumberger’s collection that trace the artist’s process from concept to sculpture.

In 2025, the design and decorative arts category has offered a rare bright spot in a cooling global auction market, growing 20.4 percent year-over-year to $172 million in the first half of the year, according to ArtTactic. This surge stands in sharp contrast to declines in other major categories: postwar and contemporary art fell 19.3 percent, impressionist and modern dropped 7.7 percent and luxury remained flat (down just 0.5 percent).

Sales from the £73 million Pauline Karpidas collection in London—with works from Les Lalannes totaling nearly $18.5 million and several achieving up to 15 times their estimates—demonstrated the growing international interest not only in design but also in Lalanne pieces more specifically. This latest result reshuffles the ranking of Lalanne’s top-selling works at auction. In June 2025, Grand Rhinocrétaire II brought in $16.4 million in New York—more than tripling its $5 million high estimate—then the second-highest result for the artist and now the third. Just weeks earlier, Bar aux Autruches fetched €11.1 million ($12 million) in Paris, setting a new bar record.

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• The $10 Million Hermès Problem: Estate Planning When Luxury Collectibles Outpace the Art Market

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Sotheby’s inaugural Important Watches auction at the iconic Breuer Building on December 8 was one for the books. The sale, which included timepieces from the Robert M. Olmsted Complications Collection, achieved $42.8 million, more than doubling its high estimate and establishing the highest total ever for a watch auction in the auction house’s history. Among the lots was the “Grosse Pièce,” the most complicated known pocket watch crafted by Audemars Piguet still in private hands, which sold for $7.7 million with fees, setting a new record for the legendary watchmaker to become the most valuable timepiece by the atelier ever sold at auction and the fourth highest price ever achieved for a watch at Sotheby’s. The previous record for an Audemars Piguet watch was $5.2 million for a one-of-one “Black Panther” concept watch; the next highest price was for Gerald Genta’s personal “Royal Oak,” which Sotheby’s sold in 2022 for $2.1 million.

“The record-breaking result achieved by Audemars Piguet’s ‘Grosse Pièce’ is nothing short of extraordinary,” Daryn Schnipper, Sotheby’s chairman emeritus, international watch division, said in a statement. “It stands as a powerful reminder of the significance of this collection and the extraordinary heights that important horology can reach.”

The value of the “Grosse Pièce” lies not only in its rarity but in the remarkable convergence of innovations it embodies. Commissioned in 1914 by Smith & Sons of London for an American client and completed in 1921 after six years of meticulous work, it has been confirmed by the Audemars Piguet Heritage Department as the brand’s sole watch to feature an astronomical star chart depicting 18 constellations. It is also the only known Audemars Piguet pocket watch from this period to include a tourbillon, and the pairing of that mechanism with a sky chart and 19 additional complications positions it as a peerless achievement in the history of horlogerie.

With the watch, the buyer will receive an album assembled by the former director of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, Martin Werhli, with photocopies of the workbook records, including a copy of the Audemars Piguet Registre d’Établissage listing the movement number, components and the ordering agent, and a copy of two documents referring to the inspection of the jewelling, one dated 1915 and signed Ami Meylan.

The “Grosse Pièce” sold alongside a mix of vintage, modern and independent timepieces, including two previously unknown double-movement Patek Philippe pocket watches commissioned by industrialist John Motley Morehead: the 1924 Double Movement Split Seconds Minute Repeating Watch and a circa-1921 open-faced minute repeater with a double movement, both of which were acquired by the Patek Philippe Museum for a combined $6.2 million. The result follows the record-setting sale of Francis Ford Coppola’s F.P. Journe FFC prototype, which achieved $10.75 million earlier this week at Phillips’ $43.5 million The New York Watch Auction: XIII (the highest-grossing watch auction ever held in the United States).

More in Auctions

• In New York, Sotheby’s Repositions Itself as a Cultural Destination

• A $30.2 Million Fabergé Egg Commissioned by the Last Czar of Russia Sets a New Auction Record

• The $10 Million Hermès Problem: Estate Planning When Luxury Collectibles Outpace the Art Market

• The Most Watched Auctioneer in the World Isn’t Who the Industry Expected

• Sports Art Has Carved a Market Niche But Rarely Makes It into the Museum Canon

Miami Art Week, with its parade of parties, celebrity sightings, brand activations and the hype surrounding Art Basel, can sometimes feel unserious in its spectacle. The high-stakes, commercial-first vibe, exemplified by multi-million-dollar sales and constant talk of market jitters, can overshadow the creative spirit that ostensibly underpins the whole affair. There’s a reason locals love to hate Art Basel Miami Beach and its clustered orbit of satellite fairs.

But amid all the chaos, there are pockets of thoughtfulness where art is more than a commodity. Pinta Miami, for example, is a refreshing alternative, or perhaps an antidote, to the South Beach scene. This fair is dedicated exclusively to Ibero-American and Latin American art, offering a focused, curated and high-quality deep dive into the art of a region whose cultural production is increasingly essential to understanding global contemporary art. And it highlights practices, narratives and voices—often those challenging dominant Western hierarchies—that are not always present in the megas.

The fair’s 19th edition opens today (Dec. 4) at The Hangar in Coconut Grove, and Observer caught up with Irene Gelfman, Pinta’s global curator, to discuss the fair’s evolution into a key cultural hub for Ibero-American art, its evolving mission and its impact on the international art scene.

Pinta is the leading fair dedicated exclusively to Latin American art. How has that broad mission evolved over the fair’s 19 years? 

Pinta Miami has gone from being a fair that presented Latin American art to becoming a continental platform that actively connects and strengthens the region’s cultural ecosystem. What began as a single annual event has expanded into a network that now includes Pinta Art Weeks in cities like Panamá, Asunción, Lima, Buenos Aires and soon to come Medellín and Santo Domingo. These programs deepen Pinta’s mission by taking visitors into studios, local galleries, institutions and neighborhoods, giving each city a central role and offering a closer look at its artistic pulse. Today, Pinta not only showcases Latin American art—it builds the spaces, conversations and relationships that help the region’s artists and scenes grow internationally.

A major part of this evolution has been the fair’s curatorial vision and overall quality. Over the years, Pinta has expanded its team of curators and advisors, refined the selection process for galleries and strengthened its editorial line to highlight rigorous, thoughtful and diverse artistic practices. Programs like Special Projects, FORO and the curated sections now bring forward voices that challenge dominant narratives, elevate Indigenous and diasporic practices, and introduce new conceptual approaches. This curatorial focus has raised the bar for the fair, ensuring that each edition reflects the richness and complexity of Latin American contemporary art while maintaining a consistently high level of presentation and discourse.

What themes anchor this 19th edition, and how do they speak to political, social and cultural conversations happening across the region right now? 

For this year’s edition, I am looking forward to gathering in one place some of the most brilliant artists, curators, museum directors and foundation representatives engaged in Latin American/Latin(o)x art for an honest discussion about critical issues that impact their artistic practice. The idea is to gain awareness of the fascinating artistic production today in Latin American art and works.

This year, Pinta Miami features two sections distinguished by their conceptual depth and powerful discourse: RADAR, curated by Isabella Lenzi, and NEXT, curated by Juan Canela. Both function as platforms to illuminate practices that traverse territory, memory, identity and the connections between body, matter and knowledge. They explore urgent and poetic themes related to nuanced Latin American identity and the environment.

RADAR, titled Ombligo de la tierra (Navel of the Earth), brings together artists who work from an intimate relationship with material—textile, organic, or ceramic—conceived as an archive, living body and source of knowledge. For instance, Sandra Monterroso’s “Tradition, Body, and Spirituality in Latin American Women.” The Guatemalan artist creates work deeply rooted in memory, spirituality and colonial history. Through performance, video, installation and object-based media, she addresses personal and collective wounds that shape bodies, territories and female identity in Latin America, drawing from her maternal Maya Q’eqchi’ lineage. Monterroso activates symbols and gestures that challenge modern paradigms and propose a decolonized reading of the present. Her practice becomes an act of healing and reconnection with the sacred, where the mythical and political coexist in timeless poetics.

NEXT brings together galleries experimenting with new working models and expanded forms of artist support. This edition features four artist-gallery duos that open conversations where landscape, memory, spirituality, visual poetry and popular culture converge. Juan Canela, curates NEXT, where visitors will encounter artist Ana Teresa Barboza and her presentation “Territory, Textiles, and Landscape Transformation.” Barboza examines the tensions between nature, the body and technique through a practice that merges embroidery, weaving and other artisanal methods. Working with fibers of diverse origins, she develops a visual language that links manual processes to the life cycles of the environment. Her work offers an expanded vision of landscape, one in which threads map relationships among living beings and the artisanal traditions tied to each territory. For Barboza, textiles are not merely a support but a medium of sensitive inquiry expressing the interdependence between ecosystems and the transformations of the natural world.

Are there specific countries or movements that you felt were particularly important to highlight at this year’s fair? 

This year, Pinta Miami expands its geographic scope, welcoming galleries from 25 cities—more than double the number present in 2015: New York, Buenos Aires, París, Miami, Asunción, São Paulo, Weston, Rosario, Ciudad de México, Gijón, Santiago de Chile, Panamá, Bogotá, Madrid, San Juan, Santiago de Compostela, among others. Among the new participants are Galería T20 (Spain), Galería Arteconsult (Panamá) and Mateo Sariel Galería (Panamá). Approximately 35 percent of the participating galleries will be exhibiting for the first time.

Can you discuss any artists or galleries making especially significant debuts in this edition, or presentations that will surprise fairgoers? Or to put it another way, who should our readers be watching?

I am particularly excited about three artists whose work brings a crucial contemporary lens to historical and cultural practices in Latin America. First, the Peruvian artist Ana Teresa Barboza is a must-see. She has a deep engagement with the tradition of the ancient Andean quipus (knotted string records). You may find her work as a Special Project where she presents the installation Threaded Stories, an immersive proposal exclusively created for the fair. In the RADAR section with Galería Fernando Pradilla, we find Sandra Monterroso. A direct call for ecological awareness, Monterroso’s pieces now exclusively use natural, non-harmful dyes. This commitment, rooted in her Maya Q’eqchi’ heritage, restores ancestral knowledge through contemporary textile art. Finally, the collective effort of the duo David y Portillo in the MAIN Section engages in a compelling critique by problematizing and working within the contemporary dimension of the textile medium, offering a dynamic and thought-provoking new perspective on this vital art form.

Are there trends you’ve noticed in collector behavior around Latin American art? In what ways has Pinta responded to those shifts? 

We’re seeing several major shifts in collector behavior, especially within Latin American art. First, collectors—particularly younger ones—are increasingly seeking the story behind the work. They want to understand an artist’s relationship to their materials, their heritage, their environment and their broader community. Practices rooted in place and lived experience are receiving heightened attention. Second, there is a growing interest in artists working outside traditional Western art hierarchies. Indigenous artists and those reclaiming craft-based or community-based practices, historically excluded from “fine art,” are gaining prominence. The conversation around what counts as art is expanding, and collectors are responding enthusiastically. Third, collectors are looking for deeper engagement. They don’t just want to walk through booths—they want curatorial context, educational programming and opportunities to connect with the broader cultural ecosystem around the fair.

We’ve responded directly to these shifts. Our two main curated platforms—RADAR and NEXT—offer clear conceptual frameworks and highlight artists whose practices carry strong narratives and conceptual depth. This curatorial approach provides the context and storytelling collectors are increasingly seeking. Prices at the fair range from $2,000 (particularly within NEXT) to over $2,000,000 in the MAIN section, reflecting both the accessibility of the platform and the strength of the market. We’re also strengthening the ecosystem through long-term sustainability initiatives, an expanded program of awards and deeper institutional collaborations. We see collecting as a collaborative and ongoing practice that connects artists, galleries, collectors and institutions—building vibrant and resilient networks around Latin American art.

When visitors arrive at Pinta Miami, they experience this from the moment they enter The Hangar, a luminous venue surrounded by natural landscape and situated in the historic, cultural neighborhood of Coconut Grove. The fair is intentionally boutique in scale, with carefully curated sections, spacious design and a layout that makes navigation intuitive and the artwork experience intimate. The quality of the presentations—featuring some of the most relevant voices in contemporary art—upholds the excellence that characterizes all Pinta fairs globally.

For collectors, this translates into discovering works that are visually compelling, conceptually rigorous and deeply connected to the region—elements that can meaningfully enrich any collection. Interest in Latin American art continues to grow, as evidenced by its strong and consistent performance in major international auctions. The diversity of perspectives, socio-political themes and historical narratives represented at Pinta Miami position the fair as a key differentiator during Miami Art Week.

At the same time, the general public is increasingly seeking exposure to artistic expressions that are not always present in major international institutions but are essential to understanding global contemporary art today. In this sense, Pinta Miami serves as a space of dialogue and discovery—not only for seasoned collectors but also for new enthusiasts. It offers a unique platform to engage with the social, cultural and political realities shaping Latin America today.

Miami is a major international hub for Latin American culture; how does the city shape the energy and identity of Pinta each year? 

The unique identity and energy of Pinta Miami are deliberately shaped by our positioning within this major international hub for Latin American culture. We recognize that while Miami Art Week can be hectic and crowded, our choice to return to The Hangar in historic Coconut Grove for the fourth time provides a symbolic anchor that fundamentally defines us. This beautiful, leafy, and historic waterfront neighborhood allows us to assert that Latin American art is not a niche event, but rather a central and embedded cultural force, deeply rooted in the community, identity, and history of this city.

Pinta Miami offers a contrasting, more intimate and focused energy—a place to step away from the overwhelming buzz and engage deeply with the art. This dedicated setting facilitates the kind of nuanced interaction we value: from the Sculpture Garden to the interactive Performance Cycle, we cultivate an immersive experience focused on deep, focused dialogue.

As Pinta approaches its 20th anniversary, how do you see the fair evolving in the coming years? 

I see Pinta Miami evolving into the definitive, indispensable cultural hub for Ibero-American art globally. By implementing a layered curatorial strategy—coordinating expert teams for sections like RADAR and NEXT—we ensure every gallery meets high-quality presentations. The FORO program, which successfully moved over 200 specialists in 2024 to dialogue about vital regional topics, ensures Pinta’s impact transcends the market, deepening our connections with institutions and new collector markets worldwide. The future is about leveraging our large network to not just present art but also elevate the discourse around it and significantly expand the global institutional and collector reach for every artist and gallery within our fold.

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Formula 1 fans take note. As part of the auction house’s debut in Abu Dhabi, Sotheby’s RM has partnered with McLaren Racing to offer a trio of as-yet-unveiled and unraced competition cars in its inaugural Collectors’ Week sales. On Friday evening (Dec. 5), $150 million in luxury lots will go on the block across five auctions, featuring several standout collectibles: Jane Birkin’s Le Birkin Voyageur, a set of four Patek Philippe pocket watches expected to fetch more than $20 million, a teardrop-shaped orangy-pink diamond with a high estimate of $7 million and the McLarens, among other rarities. Another $100 million in fine art and luxury collectibles are scheduled to sell privately.

The three racecars, which will be sold in an auction of 32 exceptional automobiles expected to surpass a total value of $78 million, include a 2026 McLaren Formula 1 Team car (est. $10-20 million), a 2027 McLaren United AS racer (est. $6-8 million) and an Arrow McLaren IndyCar (est. $500,000-700,000). The first has yet to be unveiled to the public. The buyer will take delivery of the car, which will be driven by Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri during next year’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, in 2028. Until then, the buyer can take advantage of a 2025 show car offered on lease and a tour of the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The United AS racer, meanwhile, is McLaren’s first LMDh hypercar from its debut season in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the IndyCar will be driven by Pato O’Ward in the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in May 2026. Buyers of all three will enjoy special behind-the-scenes access with McLaren Racing and associated events.

But there’s more. The top lot in the sale, with a high estimate of $21 million, is a 1994 McLaren F1: chassis 014, one of just 64 road-spec F1s produced and, in this writer’s opinion, one of the greatest cars of all time. Initially painted a bright shade of Titanium Yellow and tagged with Michael Schumacher’s signature, it was owned by the Brunei Royal Family before being purchased by a repeat F1 owner and later a New York car collector, who had it refitted with an Iris White livery and the High-Downforce Kit and otherwise refurbished to the tune of $500,000. Following the repaint in 2007, the car was signed by ex-McLaren driver Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Other standout lots in the sale include a 2006 Pagani Zonda Riviera with a high estimate of $10.5 million, a 2025 Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 with an estimate in excess of $ million and several Ferraris in the $2.7-3.7 million range. To complement the live auction, RM Sotheby’s is presenting, for exhibition only, a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR racer (chassis 00010/55) on loan from the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart—an automobile in the family of 300 SLRs that includes the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, which made headlines in 2022 when it sold for €135,000,000, becoming the most valuable car ever sold at auction.

December wraps the year’s art fair calendar in characteristically spectacular fashion, with Miami Art Week dominating the month, and Art Basel—along with its unmistakable, celebrity-heavy energy—dominating Miami Art Week. The list of Miami Beach art fairs expands every year, although many of the so-called satellite fairs have been in Miami far longer than the mega-fair itself. The lone European fair on this list takes place mid-month, after which art insiders take a well-deserved break before 2026 arrives and the fair cycle begins again.

The contrast between Miami’s unabashed spectacle and the more subdued, strategically focused fairs held elsewhere during the year underscores the diverging priorities of the U.S. and international art markets—one powered by glitz, the other driven by precision and exclusivity. Don’t mistake the party atmosphere for unseriousness, however. “The fair continues to attract an exceptional volume and quality of private collectors and institutionally affiliated people,” Art Basel Miami Beach director Bridget Finn told Observer a few years back, and it’s no less true this year.

AfriKin Art 2025

November 30 – December 7

Miami’s only fair dedicated exclusively to contemporary African and African diaspora art by rising and mid-career artists, AfriKin showcases works by individual artists in presentations that weave narratives tied to each year’s central theme, creating an experience more akin to a cohesive group show.

NADA Miami 2025

December 2-6

This year’s NADA Miami will showcase a diverse selection of nearly 140 galleries, art spaces, and nonprofit organizations spanning 30 countries and 65 cities, including Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Lagos, Honolulu, Caracas and Pittsburgh. First-time exhibitors include Brigitte Mulholland (Paris), FOUNDRY SEOUL (Seoul), Post Times (New York), McLennon Pen Co. (Austin) and CASTLE (Los Angeles); as well as AKIINOUE (Tokyo) and Chilli (London) in NADA Projects.

Art Miami 2025

December 2-7

Miami’s longest-running contemporary and modern art fair (and the second most-attended fair globally), Art Miami takes place each year at One Herald Plaza on Biscayne Bay. The fair’s 35th anniversary edition lineup features more than 160 galleries from 24 countries.

CONTEXT Art Miami 2025

December 2-7

CONTEXT Art Miami, the edgier sibling of the long-established and larger Art Miami, has been carving out its own space in the art world since 2012. This fair has an unpretentious vibe and each year showcases new works specifically crafted for the CONTEXT, including curatorial projects, solo artist presentations and special exhibitions.

Fridge Art Fair 2025

December 2-7

Intentionally more casual and artist-focused, the multi-venue Fridge Art Fair has a welcoming, non-intimidating atmosphere in which affordable pieces are often presented by the creators themselves. Tickets are free, and the year’s theme—“Faith, Freedom and Careless Whispers: The George Michael Experience” for 2025”—is always a delight.

SCOPE Art Show 2025

December 2-7

This year, SCOPE Art Show is returning during Miami Art Week with not just visual art but also multi-disciplinary/experiential programming across design, music, technology, wellness and hospitality. Both a fair and an incubator for contemporary art, SCOPE is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a lineup of more than 80 international galleries and a program of immersive installations, panel discussions and artistic events.

PRIZM 2025

December 3-5

This year, PRIZM will be a little different. The 13th edition will offer a series of in-person experiences designed to promote connection, including a keynote panel conversation on the future of the arts ecosystem and cultural stewardship, an event honoring the legacies of HBCUs as incubators of artistic excellence, the Prizm Panel Series at Soho Pool House and a virtual edition of the fair for those who can’t make it to Miami.

Design Miami 2025

December 3-7

Following another successful Paris edition, Design Miami is gearing up for its 20th anniversary fair at its historic Miami venue directly across from the convention center. The 2025 theme “Make. Believe.” is a celebration of two decades of emphasizing “the ongoing evolution of collectible design, showcasing the greatest minds of design today, and unveiling the processes driving design forward,” curatorial director Glenn Adamson said in a statement.

Untitled Art Miami Beach 2025

December 3-7

Returning to its premier beachfront position, Untitled Art’s iconic white tent with a new lineup of guest curators: Petra Cortright, Allison Glenn and Jonny Tanna with Harlesden High Street. In its ongoing mission to further support artists, this year’s fair will debut a new sector—Artist Spotlight—dedicated to in-depth solo presentations.

Aqua Art Miami 2025

December 3-7

Each year, Aqua Art Miami manages to squeeze works brought by 40 or so international galleries into the rooms and courtyard of the classic South Beach hotel. The vibe? Relaxed. The artists? Young, emerging and mid-career. “This year, we’re deepening the experience with new curatorial pairings and daily programming that spotlight the artists shaping contemporary culture,” Cordelia de Freitas, the fair’s director, said in a statement.

Art Beat Miami 2025

December 3-7

Art Beat Miami, a multi-venue Miami art fair presented by Little Haiti Optimist Club, Welcome to Little Haiti and Chefs of the Caribbean, is dedicated to showcasing emerging and renowned artists from the Caribbean and African American Diaspora around the world. Part fair and part festival, it incorporates a program of performance, music, food and fashion.

INK MIAMI ART FAIR 2025

December 3-7

INK MIAMI ART FAIR, this year celebrating its 19th anniversary, is unique among the Miami satellite art fairs in that it primarily showcases works on paper. Located in South Beach in the open-air courtyard of the Suites of Dorchester in the historical Art Deco District, the fair offers free entry to the public every day, making it an accessible highlight of Miami Art Week.

Red Dot Miami & Spectrum Miami 2025

December 3-7

As the only two fairs held in one venue—the iconic Mana Wynwood—during Miami Art Week, Red Dot Miami and Spectrum Miami collectively show work by more than 1,000 artists to an audience of over 40,000 international visitors and high-net-worth collectors there to interact with the sister fairs’ specially curated programming. At Red Dot, look out for ArtisA Gallery’s presentation of artists shown earlier this year at Aruba Art Fair.

Feria Clandestina 2025

December 4-6

Feria Clandestina is Miami Art Week’s only community-incubator art fair—an initiative that brings together artists, galleries and independent projects to “create ecosystems that promote curatorial opportunities and cultural exchange.” The fourth edition of the fair, titled “HERE NOW | AQUÍ AHORA,” will show work by 90 local, national and international artists in 29 exhibitor spaces in the Gold Dust Motel, along with five special projects.

REVOLT Art Fair Miami 2025

December 4-6

Now in its second year, REVOLT Art Fair is coming to Ice Palace Studios in Miami with “Dual Currency: Defiance by Design,” which showcases the work of 50 Black artists as architects of cultural and economic value in both physical and digital displays. Fairgoers can look forward to immersive exhibitions, curator-led moments and a closing night celebration at REVOLT House.

Satellite Art Show 2025

December 4-7

Satellite Art Show, with its search-optimized name and history of causing mild controversy,  cheekily bills itself as “the antidote to Art Basel.” Unlike some previous editions that were mounted off the beaten track, this year’s fair will take place at the Geneva Hotel—next door to Aqua Art Fair, a block from Untitled and a mere ten minutes from Art Basel proper.

Pinta Miami 2025

December 4-7

One of the few international fairs dedicated to Ibero and Latin American art, PINTA, founded in 2007, will host its latest edition during Miami Art Week at The Hangar in Coconut Grove—a venue with historic significance, as it was the first continental naval air station in the U.S. and once served as the base of operations for Pan Am’s “flying boats.” This year, more than 40 galleries from around the globe will mount work in the fair’s three sections: Main Section, RADAR and NEXT.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2025

December 6-8

Miami Art Week big boy Art Basel Miami Beach will bring 283 galleries (including 49 first-time participants) from 43 countries to the Miami Beach Convention Center. This year’s edition highlights Latinx, Indigenous and diasporic practices while also re-examining Modernism through a trans-hemispheric lens, foregrounding “the multiplicity of American art—not as a single narrative but as a constellation of perspectives,” chief artistic officer and global director of fairs Vincenzo de Bellis, said in a statement.

Art Antwerp 2025

December 11-14

Art Antwerp, a contemporary art fair in Belgium organized by Art Brussels, is likely the only art fair around that describes itself as cheerful and convivial. That’s intentional, as “the success of Art Antwerp lies in the unique, intimate atmosphere of our boutique fair and the emphasis on creating experiences,” managing director Nele Verhaeren said in a statement. “Visitors come not only to discover art in a setting full of surprises, but also to absorb the distinctive artistic energy that defines Antwerp.” During the public days of the fair, Art Antwerp offers free guided tours open to all fairgoers with no registration required.

A small number of galleries closed this year—each for reasons so idiosyncratic that no narrative could be assembled from these developments one way or the other. I imagine that Tim Blum is comfortable in his retirement, having relinquished the throne as Los Angeles’s top dealer. Meanwhile, the young Angeleno Matthew Brown proved that savvy up-and-comers can still make a splash with a recent expansion to New York, where, this year, he stole living legend Carroll Dunham from Gladstone.

Hauser & Wirth had a good year, not that they’ve ever had a bad one. This spring, several of their artists opened exhibitions at three of New York’s top museums, including Amy Sherald at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Jack Whitten at the Museum of Modern Art and Rashid Johnson at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. That’s a rare accomplishment, even for a gallery with pockets as deep as Hauser’s—shoutout to Marc Payot. Next year, the gallery will open a space in Palo Alto, following Marc Glimcher and Pace in their quest to determine whether or not tech guys will ever collect anyone besides Alec Monopoly.

Issy Wood impressed a certain set by rebuffing Gagosian in that New Yorker profile, but absorbing young artists has become a trend for the blue chippers, in part because their lower price points represent the amount of money that collectors today want to spend. David Zwirner has recently absorbed Yu Nishimura, Sasha Gordon and Emma McIntyre, and the gallery’s space at 52 Walker feels like a farm team. In Mexico City, where young artists abound, kurimanzutto takes the opposite approach, distinguishing itself by staging museum-quality exhibitions with the biggest names possible, which can be confirmed by anyone who saw their Haegue Yang survey during ZONAMACO this year.

On this iteration of our Art Power Index are a number of auction-world personalities, and here again, we must talk about the New Yorker, because the auction world is a duopoly, and the story of Christie’s success is also that of Sotheby’s failure. Sam Knight’s recent profile of Patrick Drahi, who purchased the house in 2019, implies that the owner is less concerned with success than with lining his pockets and giving his children jobs. Hong Kong rainmaker Patti Wong left in 2022 after Drahi put his son Nathan in charge of the formerly successful office. Now, “literally half of the H.R. department’s job is trying to manage Nathan’s damage.” At least Guillaume Cerutti and Alexander Rotter have been having a good time—at the auction previews in the spring, Rotter could be seen palling around with his former coworker Loïc Gouzer, who brought his Fair Warning startup venture to Christie’s that season. The two were so ebullient you would have never suspected that, according to the 2025 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, public auction sales were down 19 percent, or $25.1 billion—the steepest fall since 2009.

Clare McAndrew, author of that report, appears on this power list because it remains authoritative despite recent forays into the space by outlets such as Artnet and Artsy. This is, perhaps, a testament to the Art Basel brand. Honcho Noah Horowitz and Chief Artistic Officer and Global Director of Art Basel Fairs Vincenzo de Bellis must be doing something right; everyone who’s anyone went to Art Basel Paris this year. On the other side of that particular duopoly sits Ari Emanuel, who took personal ownership of the Frieze fairs (via new venture MARI) from his agency Endeavor, which went private this year. Even when sales at the fairs are down—and they are down, representing just 31 percent of annual sales for galleries from a pre-pandemic high of 43 percent—the fairs themselves always seem to make money through their booth fees and ticket sales. Who doesn’t like it when the circus comes to town?

But all that power pales in comparison to the kind exercised by museums. This year saw the loss of Agnes Gund, the patron par excellence, and the continued rise of MoMA’s young board president, Sarah Arison, deemed “her generation’s Agnes Gund” by Town & Country. Max Hollein remains his generation’s Max Hollein, ubiquitous as New York gallery-opening scenester despite moonlighting as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year’s opening of that institution’s refreshed Rockefeller Wing shows its dedication to new ideas, and they’re already on to the next project: a new wing that promises 50 percent more gallery space for the museum’s 20th- and 21st-century collections. Across the country, construction has nearly been completed on Michael Govan’s brand-new LACMA, which was designed by Peter Zumthor and promises to reshape the social fabric of the city. If that isn’t power, what is?

Keep reading for more insight into the people whose actions, tastes and endorsements move the needle on valuation and the people who decide who gets in and what gets seen (and what gets left off the gallery wall). Each year, our Art Power Index spotlights the figures shaping how capital and vision move through today’s art world. It turns out that the reports of the art industry’s demise were premature, but it is changing, and our 2025 honorees are the ones reinventing its structures and steering its evolution into unexpected new territory.

Refik Anadol

• Dataland | Founder & Artistic Director

It’s hard to think about A.I. art without thinking about Refik Anadol—that’s how profoundly he’s shaped the field. From blockbuster installations like Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations at MoMA to his relentless pursuit of A.I. as a creative medium, Anadol has transformed how we experience data, memory and perception. His work, which merges machine intelligence, architecture, and new media art, is part of major institutional collections, including MoMA, Kunsthaus Zürich, Istanbul Modern and the Museum of the Future.

Now he’s pushing boundaries again with Dataland, the world’s first A.I. art museum, originally set to open at The Grand LA this year but now debuting in spring of 2026. “While Dataland will primarily focus on creating new, site-specific projects exclusive to the museum, we plan to also feature some key projects from our past to offer visitors a glimpse into the broader context of our work,” Anadol told Observer. The space will also support emerging artists and expand the place of digital art in mainstream culture. “Since beginning my journey, I’ve dreamed of moving digital art out of the margins and into the mainstream. It’s inspiring to witness this vision coming to life,” he added. A vocal advocate for ethical A.I., Anadol launched the “Make It Fair” campaign to promote transparency and accountability in creative technology—a mission that earned him recognition on the TIME100 A.I. Impact Awards list in 2025.

Sarah Arison

• YoungArts | Board Chair
• Arison Arts Foundation | President
• Museum of Modern Art | President, Board of Trustees

A quiet but mighty powerhouse of arts philanthropy, Sarah Arison has used her influence to subtly but decisively shape the contemporary art landscape. As president of the Arison Arts Foundation, a family legacy, and the youngest-ever president of MoMA‘s Board of Trustees, she is known for championing emerging U.S. artists across disciplines early in their careers through sustained patronage and partnership. Her leadership was on full display this year when she delivered remarks at MoMA’s annual fundraiser and co-chaired the 2025 MoMA PS1 Gala, events that underscored her status as one of the country’s most influential private grantmakers.

“Institutions, funders and collectors are looking more closely at how artists are uplifted at all stages of their careers and how communities of practice form around them,” Arison tells Observer. “Much of my work focuses on creating environments where emerging artists can take risks, engage in dialogue, and build networks that sustain them over time. Rather than focusing on visibility alone, we are working to build durable networks of care that allow artists to evolve and lead the conversations that shape the cultural landscape.”
 
Based in Miami, the Arison Arts Foundation awarded more than 100 grants last year, distributing nearly $30 million to artists and institutions. Arison also continues her family’s legacy as Chair of the Board of YoungArts, the multidisciplinary arts organization founded by her grandparents Lin and Ted Arison. At YoungArts, she has helped advance a model of lifelong support for literary, visual and performing arts that begins when artists are still in high school and continues throughout the full arc of their careers. This work sits alongside her leadership at MoMA and MoMA PS1, as well as support for numerous grassroots programs that provide fellowships, community-building, and relief for artists facing financial hardship. Arison has emerged as a pivotal force in reimagining how arts philanthropy operates, emphasizing cooperation over competition. “When we invest in the full arc of an artist’s journey, the entire cultural landscape benefits,” Arison says.

Vincenzo de Bellis

• Art Basel | Chief Artistic Officer & Global Director of Art Fairs

At the helm of Art Basel since 2022, Vincenzo de Bellis has redefined what it means to run a global art fair brand. As director overseeing all fairs and exhibition platforms, he has shaped the format, tone and exhibitor selection across Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong—while steering the brand into new territory with the launch of a Paris edition in 2022 and the upcoming inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, slated for early 2026. What distinguishes his approach is a commitment to rooting each fair in its local cultural and market ecosystem, creating distinct identities that feel both globally connected and regionally grounded. Art Basel Paris has quickly established itself as a must-attend European event, while Art Basel Qatar aims to tap into the Gulf’s accelerating creative and economic transformation.

Now deep in preparations for the Qatar debut, De Bellis is applying a proven balance of curatorial rigor and industry savvy, building strategic alliances with regional players such as Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+, while putting acclaimed Egyptian artist Wael Shawky in the driver’s seat as artistic director—a move that underscores the fair’s intent to connect institutional ambition with local voices. Beyond the fairs themselves, De Bellis has also strengthened Art Basel’s role as a thought leader within the art world, introducing the Art Basel Awards in 2025 to honor organizations and individuals driving innovation. Under his leadership, the brand has evolved from a marketplace into a global platform for dialogue, vision and cultural exchange.

Christine Berry & Martha Campbell

• Berry Campbell | Owners

Specializing in postwar American artists who were long overlooked or underrepresented, Christine Berry and Martha Campbell have built Berry Campbell gallery into one of the most influential forces behind recent market rediscoveries. “We were looking for postwar artists we could potentially represent, so we went to the Archives of American Art,” Campbell told Observer earlier this year. From there, they took a deeply hands-on approach, reaching out to the families and estates of forgotten artists, unearthing archives and cataloguing works that had slipped through the cracks of art history. Their training as art historians became the foundation for rebuilding these artists’ legacies, connecting the missing dots that institutions and markets had ignored for decades.

That persistence has paid off. The gallery’s exhibitions have ignited new visibility—and new valuations—for once-neglected painters. Bernice Bing, whose works sold for around $30,000 only a few years ago, reached $850,000 in 2024. Alice Baber, long undervalued at roughly $3,000, sold for a record $700,000 following her first major exhibition in more than 40 years. Lynne Drexler’s market followed a similar ascent. By championing these artists with scholarly rigor and curatorial conviction, Berry and Campbell have not only altered their markets but reframed the larger story of American modernism, ensuring that women and other marginalized voices occupy their rightful place in it. 

“As two women business owners for over a decade now, we have watched wealth change hands to where more women are making the buying decisions,” the duo tells Observer. “Naturally, as this happens, women are being more inclusive in buying women artists. It is exciting to witness (and be a part of) this evolution.”

Michael Bloomberg

• Bloomberg Philanthropies | Founder

Michael Bloomberg isn’t just a philanthropist—he’s the top philanthropist in the U.S., with a record of supporting art initiatives with a focus on urban renewal and access. (He reportedly gave $3.7 billion last year, putting him at the top of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest Philanthropy 50 report.) His foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, partners with more than 700 cultural organizations worldwide, and through his donations, the former mayor of New York City has built a legacy of supporting small, medium and large organizations and initiatives—particularly in urban environments. The annual $100,000 Asphalt Art Grants transform streets and public spaces with artworks designed not only to activate underutilized areas but also to enhance street safety. Then there are the $1 million Public Art Challenge grants, which fund projects that address civic challenges like health equity, climate resilience and urban revitalization through the installation of artworks.

“The arts have always been at the center of movements for change,” Bloomberg tells Observer. “Today, they can play a role in spurring progress in the fight against climate change. Artists are drawing attention to the problem in powerful ways that encourage people to take action.”

In addition to doubling down on public art as a lever for urban change in the U.S., Bloomberg has a reputation for directly and indirectly supporting culture around the world. He’s chairman of the Serpentine Board and opened the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE. This year, he made the largest private donation ever recorded to the London Museum—a £20 million contribution plus a donation of 14,000 Roman artifacts uncovered during the construction of the Bloomberg European headquarters in London. On the accessibility side, the Bloomberg Connects app offers free digital guides to hundreds of museums, galleries, sculpture parks, gardens and other cultural institutions around the world. “The more we do to support both arts and arts organizations, the more we can capitalize on their potential to drive progress,” Bloomberg says. Ultimately, the scale and scope of Bloomberg’s giving affords him significant influence over the institutions, artists and stories that will be funded and amplified.

Tim Blum

• BLUM | Founder

Tim Blum has spent decades redefining how Western audiences engage with Asian art—and now he’s redefining what it means to run a gallery. The veteran dealer, who introduced Japanese and Korean postwar masters to the U.S., stunned the art world this year by announcing the closure of his galleries in Los Angeles and Tokyo, as well as the shelving of plans for a New York outpost. “We’ll begin a new chapter: transitioning away from the traditional gallery format toward a more flexible model,” he explained. “Without a permanent public space or formal artist roster, this structure will allow us to engage with artists and ideas in new ways, through collaborations, special projects and longer-term visions still in development.” It was a decision years in the making, reflecting the mounting pressures of a gallery system stretched by nonstop programming, art-fair fatigue and the gravitational pull of the mega-galleries that dominate global attention and resources.

Blum’s exit from the brick-and-mortar model has become a lightning rod for broader conversations about sustainability, leadership and intentionality in the art world. His pivot toward a leaner, more fluid structure signals a move away from the volume-driven expectations that have defined the industry for decades. In doing so, he’s opened a pathway for a new kind of dealer—one focused less on scale and spectacle and more on depth, collaboration and long-term vision. Still, don’t expect him to vanish anytime soon. “Of course I’ll still be buying and selling art,” Blum said. “It’s part of my DNA.”

Bonnie Brennan

• Christie’s | CEO

Auction veteran Bonnie Brennan took the helm as CEO of Christie’s in early 2025, marking one of the year’s most closely watched leadership transitions in the art world. Formerly head of Americas—where she drove nearly half of the auction house’s global sales—Brennan now oversees an operation that brought in $2.1 billion in auction revenue in just the first half of 2025. Seven of the ten highest-priced artworks sold globally during that period went through Christie’s under her leadership, including Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922) and Canaletto’s Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day. Her ascent signals both continuity and evolution at a firm balancing tradition with transformation.

Brennan has made it clear she intends to broaden Christie’s reach, engaging younger and more diverse buyers while keeping a steady hand amid market headwinds. “We are deepening our connectivity in these growth markets—listening closely, partnering locally, and ensuring we are part of the cultural dialogue taking place across every continent,” Brennan tells Observer. “This widening landscape of creativity and collecting represents one of the most exciting opportunities in the art market today.” From exploring A.I. applications to rethinking the global sales calendar to committing to an ethos of sustainability, Brennan’s leadership reflects a pragmatic understanding of where the auction world is heading and a determination to keep Christie’s leading the charge. “We see ourselves as an important part of helping to ensure that growth in the art world happens with purpose, integrity and inclusion.”

Maria Brito

• Maria Brito LLC | CEO

New York art advisor Maria Brito has moved more than $150 million for A-list stars and financiers (the vast majority of her clients are U.S.-based). She publishes The Groove, a widely read weekly newsletter that reaches 32,000 engaged readers, and she regularly shares market tidbits, cultural commentary and art obsessions with her 142,000 Instagram followers. “Globalization has made the market faster, bigger and more connected, while younger collectors demand purpose and transparency,” Brito tells Observer. “My role is to bridge worlds, combining knowledge, data, relationships and intuition so collectors can navigate this landscape with clarity and confidence.”

Her analyses of the art market—whether through interviews, in The Groove or on social media—are generous, engaging and accessible. With headlines like “Do artists need galleries?,” “Can art still shock us?” and “Can you love the art but hate the artist?” Brito uses her platforms to curate far-ranging conversations on the state of the art sector today, turning her into an influential voice among the traditionally tight-lipped art advisory world. Power, she adds, has become more distributed and far less predictable. “The old hierarchies still stand, but influence now moves through new collectors, new media and access to quality works… It’s not about disruption for the sake of it. It’s about evolution: making the art world smarter, more inclusive, and more transparent without diluting its excellence. That’s the real opportunity.”

Read our full Q&A with Maria Brito

Matthew Brown

• Matthew Brown Gallery | Founder

Matthew Brown was just 23 when he opened his first gallery in Hollywood in 2019. Five years later, he has two spaces in Los Angeles and opened a location in New York in 2024, defying both the COVID slowdown and a recent trend of gallery closures. Brown learned the ropes working simultaneously for mega blue-chip powerhouse Gagosian and experimental gallery Hannah Hoffman (soon to be Hannah Donahue). He was then unofficially mentored by groundbreaking dealer/curator Jeffrey Deitch, who provided guidance as Brown worked to set up his own space and build his niche (L.A. artists who were not showing in L.A.). Brown’s roster has expanded to more than 20 artists, including painter Carroll Dunham, whose drawing retrospective will open at the Art Institute of Chicago in January 2026. Early next year, he’s moving the Los Angeles gallery to a new space that he’ll inaugurate with an exhibition of works by Mimi Lauter, who he says he’s “long admired.”

Brown’s fast rise in art world circles may come down to his willingness to approach anyone with an ask (he approached Deitch at a fair), but there’s no denying that he has reshaped market dynamics by connecting Gen Z and Millennial collectors with artists on an upward trajectory, nurturing both a younger generation of collectors and platforming emerging artists without succumbing to speculative demand. “The new generation of collectors is more fluid: they’re digitally native, more global and often less tied to one genre, medium or even art historical period,” he tells Observer. “Their approach is intuitive, more lateral.” His artists have been shown by LACMA, the FLAG Art Foundation and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Young he may be, but by all accounts, his approach is decidedly old-school: focus on the artist, and visibility and valuation will follow. 

Amy Cappellazzo

• Art Intelligence Global | Founding Partner

What Amy Cappellazzo touches tends to turn to gold. She rose through the ranks at Christie’s, transforming its postwar and contemporary art department into a market-defining powerhouse that reshaped valuations and sales across the industry. She then co-founded Art Agency, Partners, which Sotheby’s acquired for $85 million, and went on to serve as chair of Sotheby’s Fine Art division—overseeing strategy across Old Masters, Modern, Contemporary, Impressionist and Asian art. After years of rewriting the rule book at the auction house, she stepped down in 2021 to build something of her own.

That something became Art Intelligence Global (AIG), the firm she co-founded with Yuki Terase to bridge the U.S. and Asian markets through high-end art advisory and private sales. Headquartered in New York City and Hong Kong, AIG has quickly positioned itself as a next-generation player in an evolving art economy. This year, Cappellazzo brought in Matt Bangser as senior director—a move that signals her commitment to a holistic, ecosystem-wide strategy that connects artists, galleries, collectors and institutions. “Because he’s worked in galleries, at auction houses and directly with artists, he brings a range of experience that’s incredibly valuable—especially now,” Cappellazzo told ARTnews. It’s a statement that captures her ethos: art advisory not as a niche service but as a bespoke service that offers premium market intelligence and blurs the traditional boundaries between galleries, advisors and auction houses.

Guillaume Cerutti

• Pinault Collection | President
• Christie’s | Chairman of the Board

Guillaume Cerutti stepped down as CEO of Christie’s in 2025, handing the reins to Bonnie Brennan after a transformative tenure that redefined the auction house’s global footprint. Under his leadership, Christie’s delivered some of the most significant milestones in market history—from the record-breaking sale of Salvator Mundi (still the most expensive work of art ever sold) to the $1.6 billion auction of Paul Allen’s collection—and pushed the industry into the digital age through its pioneering collaboration with Beeple to sell the first purely digital NFT artwork offered by a major auction house. Cerutti proved that heritage and innovation could coexist, guiding Christie’s through the volatile years of online adoption and cementing its reputation as a leader in the next-gen art landscape.

Now chairman of the board for Christie’s and president of the Pinault Collection, Cerutti stands at the intersection of commerce, culture and policy. As such, his vision extends beyond the market: he recently proposed a €50 million European fund to enable joint acquisitions among museums that could foster cross-border partnerships and shared cultural stewardship. The initiative reflects a pragmatic solution to funding constraints and a bold reimagining of how institutions and private collections can work together—something he sees as increasingly necessary. “In a more fractured and brutal environment, the art world has a vital role to play: as a refuge, as a space for dialogue and as a provider of meaning,” he tells Observer. ”At the same time, other events, such as the theft at the Louvre, have reminded us of the vulnerability of these spaces. All players in the art world face this dual challenge: they are more relevant than ever, but also more exposed.” Collaboration, as modeled by Cerutti, could offer protection.

Elizabeth Diller, Charles Renfro & Benjamin Gilmartin

• Diller Scofidio + Renfro | Partners

The studio lost its beloved co-founder, Ricardo Scofidio, this year, but Elizabeth Diller, Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin remain firmly at the helm. DS+R has never been a conventional architecture firm—it’s the creative force behind some of the world’s most celebrated cultural landmarks, where architecture, art installation and performance converge. Co-founded by Diller in 1981, the studio has shaped the modern city’s cultural identity through projects like New York’s High Line—an eight-million-visitors-a-year phenomenon praised worldwide for its inventive reuse of industrial infrastructure and approach to urban rewilding. DS+R also designed The Shed, MoMA’s renovation and expansion, the $1 billion restoration of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, The Broad in Los Angeles and its extension, currently underway and slated for completion before the 2028 Olympics.

The studio’s acclaim and collection of awards stem from its ability to transform how the public engages with architecture. DS+R’s work consistently rethinks the civic role of buildings, emphasizing cultural purpose and spatial context within the city. Each project invites participation rather than passive observation, merging design with social experience. Continuing that legacy, Gilmartin assumed the presidency of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) this year, launching the initiative “See You IRL: Designing for Public Life,” a program exploring how shared physical spaces shape the social fabric of New York City and beyond. Renfro led DS+R’s first international projects, including The Tianjin Juilliard School in China and Zaryadye Park in Moscow. He also shaped much of the studio’s academic work, with projects at Rice, Columbia, Stanford and UC Berkeley. Beyond design, Charles has been recognized for his support of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists through BOFFO.

Felipe Dmab, Pedro Mendes & Matthew Wood

• Mendes Wood DM | Founding Partners

Pedro Mendes (who is from Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Matthew Wood (a New Hampshire native) were onto something when they established their first artist residency in rural Brazil and their gallery 15 years ago. The idea germinated from their time studying in Paris, seeing that Brazilian artists struggled to be included in top galleries and institutions. “There was never a business plan,” Mendes said in an interview. “It was 100 percent intuitive, it was instinctual.” Their initial address was an auspicious one, next door to Felipe Dmab’s early concept gallery, and so fate gave us the visionary trio known for moves like championing living Afro-Brazilian artists on the global art stage for the first time—including self-taught Sônia Gomes, who a year after joining the Mendes Wood DM roster was included in the 2015 Venice Biennale and today has works in major institutional collections. They capitalize on their cultural differences and diffuse connections when demonstrating that Brazilian art has the potential to reach international markets and institutions, but also to shape intellectual debates and conversations. 

The trio has been the driving force in many cutting-edge conversations taking place in the art world around decoloniality, trans-Atlantic connections, ecology and social justice. Mendes Wood DM is now a multi-city network of galleries with operations in São Paulo, Brussels, Paris and New York and regularly brings work by artists from its roster to the major fairs—including Art Basel Hong Kong—strengthening cross-continental sales of work by Brazilian artists like Solange Pessoa and Rubem Valentim.

Edward Dolman

• Dolman Partners | Co-Founder
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

Ed Dolman knows auctions. Rising from furniture porter to Christie’s CEO and chair, he spent more than a decade at the top, overseeing historic sales, including those leading to the restitution of Gustav Klimt paintings to Maria Altmann and her family. At Phillips, he turned a once-niche house into a billion-dollar contender, driving sales from $398 million in 2014 to $1 billion by 2023. During his 10-year tenure, he expanded the company’s global reach, establishing a Hong Kong office ahead of many Western rivals and betting early on the ultracontemporary market. Dolman’s willingness to embrace risk and innovation (for example, investing in the volatile segments of the art market) helped redefine Phillips’ appeal among younger, more adventurous collectors.

“Taste always changes and evolves, and we are now at a moment when young and new collectors are searching for direction,” Dolman tells Observer. “We have seen a move recently into ‘safer’ and ‘classic’ late 19th- and 20th-century art, but this will not last as the market recovers and the number of collectors grows.”

Late last year, Dolman stepped down as Phillips’ CEO. This year, he helped found and launch New Perspectives Art Partners, the high-end advisory venture poised to reshape the global art-advisory landscape amid generational transitions in collecting. “The art market is more complex and global than it has ever been,” Dolman says. “Private sales need to be able to connect buyers and sellers from completely different parts of the world. It’s a good time to seek independent advice if you’re buying or selling.” Dolman’s deep familiarity with the Middle East’s fast-rising art scene (he previously served as acting CEO of Qatar Museums and remains close to Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani) will position the auction veteran well in this next chapter.

Ari Emanuel

• MARI | Founder & Principal Investor

Ari Emanuel is never far from the spotlight thanks to a series of major industry moves. The Hollywood power broker made headlines last May with his personal acquisition of the Frieze art fair and media group from Endeavor—a $200 million deal that cements his influence in the arts and puts Frieze’s global fair portfolio (New York, Los Angeles, London and Seoul along with EXPO Chicago, The Armory Show, Frieze magazine and the No.9 Cork Street gallery in London) under the control of his new holding company, MARI. Rather than a shake-up, the move signals long-term stability: Frieze’s senior leadership remains in place, and Emanuel, who previously helped drive the brand’s expansion, appears intent on strategic growth rather than reinvention. To wit, the recent announcements of Frieze House Seoul (a No.9 Cork Street analog) and the fair’s Gulf play, Frieze Abu Dhabi.

For Emanuel, Frieze is both a business and a passion project. His background steering Endeavor/WME’s entertainment empire—including global event platforms like UFC and WWE—makes the acquisition part of a larger play in the live experience economy, where art fairs, fashion and entertainment increasingly intersect. “Frieze has always been a source of inspiration for me—both professionally and personally,” Emanuel said in a statement. While talk of art fair fatigue lingers, Frieze remains a global brand synonymous with prestige and cultural cachet. Under Emanuel’s watch, it’s poised not just to endure but to expand its reach, merging art-world sophistication with the scale and polish of a seasoned entertainment executive.

Katherine E. Fleming

• J. Paul Getty Trust | President & CEO

Katherine E. Fleming oversees one of the most powerful cultural endowments in the world—more than $9.45 billion—and leads a constellation of institutions that includes the Getty Foundation, Getty Research Institute, Getty Conservation Institute and its two museums. Last year, she told Observer that the organization was trying to “think really carefully and creatively about what it means to be wealthy” in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in L.A. That reflection became strikingly literal in January 2025, when the Palisades wildfires tested the Getty’s state-of-the-art fire protection systems—an elaborate defense network of concrete barriers, sealed air systems, water reserves and fire separations designed to protect both the Getty Center and the Getty Villa. “The wildfires really brought home to me, in super concrete terms, what it means to be a repository of global cultural heritage,” she tells Observer. “The art that we own, we own on behalf of humanity. Museums are like a cultural version of Norway’s seed bank. It is vital that we take that responsibility very seriously, even as we try to make our collections as accessible as possible.” 

Beyond preserving the institution’s own treasures, she also turned the crisis into an opportunity to lead by example. The Getty helped launch the $14.3 million L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund to support artists and cultural workers whose homes, studios or workplaces were damaged in the fires. “It made me think a lot about how important cultural institutions are for the resilience of humanity in the face of the multiple disasters that seem to surround us in the contemporary world,” she adds. “We play a vital role in connecting people to the past, to the future, and to one another, and in helping calm them and give them resilience during chaos.” Ultimately, Fleming created a roadmap of how institutions can be more than just fortresses of art and scholarship, serving also as responsive civic resources that use cultural wealth to support community resilience in moments of crisis.

Read Our Full Q&A With Katherine E. Fleming

Vanessa Fusco

• Christie’s | International Director, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Americas

As the story goes, Vanessa Fusco was on track for a PhD in art history before realizing she missed the pulse of the auction floor—so she returned to Christie’s, where she’s since become one of its sharpest operators. Now head of the department for Impressionist and Modern Art in the Americas, she advises clients on multimillion-dollar works by the greats of the 19th and 20th Centuries, handling masterpieces with the precision of someone who knows both art and market inside and out. As head of the department, she shapes how blue-chip lots are positioned, priced and ultimately placed in private collections. At the last marquee sales, she presented Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891)—a performance that reminded everyone why she’s one of the best in the business.

Her strategy blends connoisseurship with global reach. Peupliers was unveiled in Taipei, a calculated move that paid off: “Taipei, in particular, has really had strong interest in classic Impressionism,” Fusco told ARTnews. The work went on to sell for $43 million after fees, a new world record price for the series, surpassing estimates amid competitive regional bidding. Fusco was at the helm of running the inaugural 20th Century Evening sale, a format introduced in May 2021, which combines the best of impressionism, modern and postwar Art into one masterpiece sale. That auction included Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) (1932), which topped $100 million—the first painting to do so since 2019, and Fusco was on the telephone with the winning bidder. Ultimately, Fusco is orchestrating confidence in a market that still hinges on trust, taste and timing.

Larry Gagosian

• Gagosian | Founder

There’s no contemporary art world without Larry Gagosian, its billion-dollar kingmaker and overall heavy-lifter. While others set up mega-galleries, Gagosian built an empire. He continues to represent the most significant artists and estates, mounting impeccable museum-caliber exhibitions and curating punchy fair booths that set the bar for everyone else while sustaining audiences through his editorial venture Gagosian Quarterly. With such a legacy, no one would blame Gagosian for sitting back to enjoy the fruits of his labor. But in 2025, he delivered head-turning shows, featuring Cy Twombly, Picasso’s rarely seen works in partnership with the artist’s daughter, Paloma Picasso, as well as Willem de Kooning and Takashi Murakami, among others. He opened a new gallery in Seoul in 2024 with plans for expansion in West Hollywood.

Following the end of his Madison Avenue lease in 2026, the art world will hopefully get an answer to the now-perennial question: Who can replace Larry? Gagosian’s succession remains elusive—or close to the vest, your pick. His “council of the wise” (an advisory board peppered with cross-disciplinary luminaries, including Guggenheim chairman J. Tomilson Hill, financier Glenn Fuhrman, LVMH exec Delphine Arnault and filmmaker Sofia Coppola) has been mapping the gallery’s future and providing strategic guidance through leadership shake-ups that muddied earlier theories on possible heirs.

Lina Ghotmeh

• LG—A | Founder & Architect

Lina Ghotmeh is shaping some of the most high-profile art and architecture commissions of our time and changing how we engage with art in the process. In 2023, she designed London’s Serpentine Pavilion “À table,” a witty, design-forward structure that turned the act of breaking bread into an artistic and communal experience. Her international visibility has surged since then. She created the Bahrain Pavilion for the 2025 Osaka Expo and was tapped to lead three major cultural landmarks: the new Qatar Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Jadids’ Legacy Museum in Bukhara, Uzbekistan—housed in a restored 19th-century residence—and the sweeping redesign of the British Museum’s Western Range, which encompasses nearly a third of the London institution’s footprint. “It’s an invitation to reframe how we tell the story of humanity through art—decentering traditional hierarchies and embracing a more interconnected, equitable cultural landscape,” she tells Observer. “We are finally witnessing the rise of influential perspectives from historically underrepresented regions. This expansion of voices is not only reshaping who gets to speak but also how and where art is being shown.”

Projects like the AlUla Contemporary Arts Museum in Saudi Arabia “sit at the crossroads of this transformation—where local narratives meet global dialogues,” she says. Across continents, Ghotmeh’s projects share a distinctive ethos rooted in what she calls the “Archaeology of the Future”—an architectural philosophy that insists buildings must rise from the spirit of their place, history and environment rather than sit apart from them. This sensitivity to context infuses her work with cultural depth and visual clarity, producing spaces that both honor their surroundings and reimagine how art, architecture and heritage can exist in conversation. “I’m deeply interested in rethinking how we show art and in reaffirming its central role within society,” she adds. “I believe museums and cultural spaces should evolve into living environments.”

Marc Glimcher

• Pace Gallery | CEO

At the helm of Pace since 2011, Marc Glimcher has overseen significant evolutions and expansions, propelling the gallery into a global brand and powerhouse through a strategic blend of robust programming and market leadership. Pace opened a new location in Tokyo in 2024, consolidating its presence in the Asian market and bringing the total number of cities under the mega-gallery’s wing to eight. The gallery also opened a new space in Berlin in collaboration with Galerie Judin in 2025. All of this belies a long history: Arne Glimcher founded Pace in 1960; the gallery has built relationships with artists and estates as recognizable as those of Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Agnes Martin and Mark Rothko; and it launched one of the longest-standing gallery imprints.

The gallery has championed Abstract Expressionists and Light and Space movement artists, with a head-spinning roster of the most prominent modern and postwar artists and estates that withstand broader market downturns. Under Glimcher’s vision, Pace Gallery has adopted frontier and innovative projects, including Pace Live in 2019, placing its West 25th Street space as a multidisciplinary cultural hub and Pace Verso in 2021, delving into the world of NFTs. It’s this blend of steady and new that keeps Pace at the center as it proudly celebrates its 65th anniversary this year.

Brett Gorvy

• Lévy Gorvy Dayan | Co-Founder & Partner
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

In 2025, Brett Gorvy joined an elite group of seasoned industry experts to launch New Perspectives Art Partners, a new collaborative consultancy launched specifically to reshape the landscape of high-end art advisory. He brings extensive experience in auction house and gallery leadership to the table. Before stepping down as chairman and international head of Postwar and Contemporary Art at Christie’s to become a dealer, his department was the auction house’s highest-earning and, through it, he shaped the art market as well as art history by shifting the valuations of canonical contemporary works and artists (notable among them a Picasso for $179 million and a Modigliani for $170.4 million). His semi-recent venture, the blue-chip East 64th Street gallery Lévy Gorvy Dayan, of which he is a co-founder and partner, has mounted critically acclaimed exhibitions of artists including Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter. 

“In the last five years, there has been an explosion of interest internationally in young contemporary artists, especially female artists and artists of color,” Gorvy tells Observer. This market has become very challenging, especially with the difficulties in Asia. Asian collectors have been responsible for much of this boom. As advisers, there is a need for greater scrutiny of younger markets and a focus less on pure financial return than greater curatorial focus.”

Gorvy, an art world heavyweight (and Instagram whiz with 164,000 followers), is now focused on turning New Perspectives Art Partners into a top-tier advisory service for top-of-market collectors navigating the current market challenges. “We’re in a market that’s shifting in real time and it’s happening in complex, layered ways,” he told Observer, certain that the McKinsey-like dream team of which he is part will be able to reshape the landscape of high-end art advisory in 2026 and beyond. “We aim to act like a management consultancy coming in to assess a project,” added Gorvy, whose in-depth knowledge of modern, contemporary and U.S. markets will no doubt set new standards in advisory services.

Loïc Gouzer

• Fair Warning | Founder

Making his name at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Loïc Gouzer is the maverick who orchestrated the record-shattering sale of the Salvator Mundi in 2017. Considered by many the “Federer of the art market,” he’s now set on reinventing the auction model through his app-based venture Fair Warning, rebooted in 2024 after raising $5 million. It cuts out the traditional auction house, curating single-piece sales of mid-tier works by artists like Basquiat and Picasso for a members-only audience of digitally fluent collectors who bid via the app. It’s not about breaking records but about reshaping access, luring a younger, tech-native generation more comfortable wielding a digital paddle than a physical one.

“Algorithms now shape taste more than Gertrude Stein ever did,” Gouzer tells Observer. “Social media does to art what the food industry does to food: it sucks out the nutrients, flattens the flavor, standardizes the recipe, and sells it back as culture. Freeing oneself from this master will be the existential cause of artists and collectors alike.”

This experiment in one-off auctions builds on Gouzer’s earlier venture Particle, which offered fractional art ownership as part of a move to democratize blue-chip collecting. (Two years ago, Particle sold 500 shares of H.R. Giger’s sculpture of the famous Xenomorph featured in Alien.) Fair Warning has already surpassed $50 million in auction sales, with private transactions exceeding that total. Still, Gouzer insists it’s not about hype but integrity—proof that innovation in the art market doesn’t have to come at the expense of connoisseurship. Or, as he famously put it: “quality, quality, quality.”

Michael Govan

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) | CEO

Michael Govan has redefined Los Angeles as a global cultural capital and transformed LACMA into one of the world’s most forward-looking museums. Since taking the helm in 2006, he has overseen the acquisition of more than 35,000 artworks and artifacts, expanding the museum’s scope across continents and centuries while strengthening ties to Los Angeles’s own creative communities. Under his leadership, LACMA has deepened partnerships with organizations such as East West Bank and launched initiatives like rotating loans with the new Las Vegas Museum of Art, reinforcing its role as a connector between local and international audiences.

Now Govan is steering LACMA through its most ambitious transformation yet: the $725 million David Geffen Galleries refurbishment and expansion, set to debut next year. “We had a vision of creating something truly unique—rooted in our locality but with a global perspective. And we’re incredibly excited about what we’ve been able to achieve,” he told Observer this summer during a preview tour of the space. The reimagined galleries will abandon traditional divisions by geography or chronology, instead emphasizing cross-cultural exchange and dialogue—mirroring Los Angeles’s own mosaic identity. With its open, park-like design and new public gathering spaces, the project redefines what a 21st-century museum can be: accessible, interconnected and alive to the global conversations that art can spark.

Philip Hoffman

• The Fine Art Group | Founder & Chairman
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

Christie’s prodigy Philip Hoffman—CFO before he turned 30 and on the Global Management Board by 33—is CEO of The Fine Art Group and a founding member of the powerhouse collective New Perspectives Art Partners, launched this year. Renowned for turning art into a bona fide asset class, Hoffman has redefined high-end collecting and professionalized the advisory field with a financier’s precision. Since founding The Fine Art Group in 2001, he has built it into a global empire, launching eight art investment funds, advising on more than $20 billion annually and transacting over $1.4 billion in artworks and jewelry. 

“One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is how proactive collectors have become,” Hoffman tells us. (It is a topic about which he regularly shares insights with Observer.) “They’re more informed, more mobile, and far more attuned to the financial side of collecting than ever before.”

Representing 350 family offices across 28 countries, Hoffman has strategically expanded his global reach through partnerships, including a 2023 collaboration with Patti Wong & Associates in Asia—and now aims to amplify that model through New Perspectives Art Partners. The venture, he told Observer, “could pick up the phone to probably 1,000 or 2,000 of the world’s top clients,” emphasizing the scale of his infrastructure. “We’ve got warehouses and operations in every country.” Few can make that claim—and even fewer with such authority.

Max Hollein

• Metropolitan Museum of Art | Director & CEO

Max Hollein is steering the Metropolitan Museum of Art through one of the most ambitious periods of change in its history. Since becoming director and CEO in 2023, his unified leadership has allowed him to guide the Met’s evolution with clarity and purpose—addressing head-on the complex issues of provenance, deaccessioning, cultural heritage and institutional inclusivity. Under his watch, the museum has strengthened its provenance research capacity with the appointment of Lucian Simmons and a dedicated team, signaling a deeper institutional commitment to transparency and accountability in the stewardship of its global collections.

Equally transformative is Hollein’s effort to reframe how the Met presents non-Western art. The reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing earlier this year marks a major step in that direction, with renovated galleries that reflect new scholarship on the arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania—bringing forward fresh curatorial perspectives and cross-cultural connections. “Together with our collaborative and community-based approach to curating these collections, the transformation of these galleries allows us to further advance the appreciation and contextualization of many of the world’s most significant cultures,” he told Observer. More rethinking is underway: a 15,000-square-foot suite dedicated to ancient art from Cyprus and West Asia will open in 2027, aiming to transcend outdated East-West divides, while the long-awaited Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art—slated for completion in 2030—will further redefine how the Met engages with the art of our own time.

Noah Horowitz

• Art Basel | CEO

Art Basel isn’t just about fairs anymore. Since taking over as CEO in 2022, Noah Horowitz has transformed the organization into a multifaceted global culture brand—one that extends far beyond the convention halls. Under his leadership, Art Basel has strengthened its international footprint, reinforcing its Hong Kong edition with a three-year partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board and increasing first-time exhibitors by 37 percent in 2024—a growth trend that continued this year. In Europe, he solidified the brand’s presence, renaming Paris+ to Art Basel Paris and aligning it with Basel’s other flagship cities, while anticipation builds for the debut of Art Basel Qatar in 2026, set to redefine the fair model for the Gulf region.

But Horowitz’s ambitions stretch further. This year, he launched the Art Basel Awards to celebrate and support the wider art ecosystem, signaling a shift from pure market focus to cultural leadership. He’s also ventured into brand collaborations and partnerships—including one with Hugo Boss for the awards—and expanded into the lifestyle space with last year’s launch of the Art Basel Shop concept store. Alongside these initiatives, Art Basel continues to set the tone for global art-market analysis through its annual Art Market Report. The result is a newly energized, forward-facing Art Basel that’s reshaping the art world instead of responding to it.

Steve Ivy

• Heritage Auctions | Co-Founder & CEO

While other auction houses are grappling with double-digit declines in sales volume, Heritage Auctions continues to defy gravity. The firm reported $962 million in total sales through June 2025—its highest midyear figure ever—surpassing last year’s then-record $924 million. It ultimately closed 2024 at $1.86 billion in total sales. Now the world’s third-largest auction house, Heritage boasts nearly two million registered bidders across categories that span fine art, numismatics, jewelry, design, science and pop culture. Under CEO Steve Ivy, Heritage has broadened its reach by expanding into unconventional collectible markets and capturing the attention of first-time and younger buyers. The company has redefined the boundaries of art sales to include comic books, film storyboards, sports memorabilia and other cultural artifacts once considered peripheral to the fine art market. 

Behind this growth lies a radically transparent consignment and bidding model across its 50 departments—an approach that contrasts sharply with the opacity of its older rivals.
“Gen-Next and Millennial collectors have replaced their Baby Boomer parents as the most active participants in the auction market, and they are not as interested in $10 million and above contemporary artworks,” Ivy tells Observer. “They have a much stronger preference for transparency and lack of friction in their auction buying. Additionally, they have been turning to collectibles, and this has benefited Heritage tremendously. We were the first auction house to invest heavily in these sectors beginning in the early 2000s.” It’s a pragmatic formula built around steady innovation, disciplined risk and an eye for where new collectors actually live.

Megan Fox Kelly

• Megan Fox Kelly Art Advisory | Founder & Principal

The art advisory field has evolved dramatically since she began, but Megan Fox Kelly remains at the top of it. Through her namesake firm, she manages more than $3.5 billion in art assets, guiding ultra-high-net-worth collectors and institutions through every stage of building, managing and preserving major collections. Her clientele reads like a who’s who of contemporary collecting, from the estate of Faith Ringgold and the Robert Indiana Estate (Star of Hope Foundation) to Michael Crichton and the Robert A. and Beatrice C. Mayer Collection, to the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the estate of Robert De Niro Sr. Yet her work extends beyond private counsel. “This is about professionalizing advisory practice beyond just transactional brokerage, and building long-range strategies that sustain value for collectors and, for artist estates, build scholarship and access,” Kelly tells Observer. “If you’re managing a specific collection or an artist estate, you need bespoke analysis—what’s happening with pricing in this particular segment, what are the trends that matter for these works?” 

As a contributor to Observer, Kelly writes about collection legacies, art fair strategies, and market forecasting. As host of the Reading the Art World podcast, she helps demystify the business for a wider audience. A former president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, Kelly is a regular presence at TEFAF Maastricht, The Art Business Conference and The Armory Show, where her perspective carries the authority of both experience and discretion. Behind the NDAs and closed doors, she is a strategist; onstage and in print, she’s a translator of market complexity. Her advice to her colleagues remains succinct and timeless: “What it takes to make this real is collaboration. Financial advisors, attorneys, and art market professionals actually working together instead of in silos. That’s how we better serve both collectors and estates.”

Read our Full Q&A with Megan Fox Kelly

Tina Kim

• Tina Kim Gallery | Founder & Owner

Tina Kim keeps a foot on both shores of the Pacific. Born in South Korea and raised in California, she was destined to build bridges long before the “Korean wave” went global. After getting her start organizing exhibitions for the influential Kukje Gallery in Seoul, founded by her mother, she established her eponymous gallery in New York City in 2001. “I’ve always seen my work as a cultural bridge—initially bringing Korean art to a wider audience, and now expanding that to connect more diverse voices,” Kim tells Observer. “The art world today feels less centralized and more interconnected, and that’s exactly the kind of landscape I want to help build.”

Through her New York program, Kim has been instrumental in bringing Korean and Asian diasporic artists to international prominence. She has championed figures like Park Seo-Bo, Ha Chong-Hyun, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Pacita Abad and Lee ShinJa, placing their work within major institutional collections and critical discourse, while amplifying the global visibility of a new generation, including Mire Lee and Maia Ruth Lee. Kim is widely credited with introducing Dansaekhwa—the influential postwar Korean monochrome movement—to a global audience, organizing a landmark collateral exhibition at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and this year, publishing a major new volume of artist letters translated from Korean, thereby contributing critical primary documents to the study of modern Korean art.

As a member of Frieze Seoul’s selection committee, Kim has helped shape the fair’s growth and visibility within the region from inception. With a surging Asian market and growing U.S. demand, Kim remains at the forefront. “Seoul will only continue to grow as a cultural capital in Asia—next year will be particularly exciting with the Gwangju and Busan Biennales coinciding with Frieze Seoul,” Kim says. “What it will take now is genuine exchange: artists, curators and audiences engaging directly, across regions. The future of the art world will depend on connection, not hierarchy.”

José Kuri & Mónica Manzutto

• kurimanzutto | Founders

Last year, the husband-and-wife duo Mónica Manzutto and José Kuri celebrated their 25th anniversary at the helm of kurimanzutto, the once itinerant Mexico City gallery. In 2022, the pair put down roots in New York with a permanent gallery space in Chelsea. While CDMX Art Week is now an established date in the global art market calendar for collectors and curators alike, this wasn’t always the case; Manzutto and Kuri have done a lot to elevate the visibility and valuation of contemporary Mexican and Latin American art in the U.S. by giving these artists a platform domestically and abroad. “It was a desert. You could count on one hand collectors in the city,” said Kuri of the Mexico City art market during the 1990s in a recent interview. Today, they no longer need to individually call collectors after each show; instead, collectors rush to Mexico City, with demand and pricing momentum projected to steady levels into 2026. “The most transformative shift in the art world’s power dynamics has been the emergence of multiple narratives,” the duo tells Observer, adding that this has informed their strategy to “insist, insist, insist.”

Manzutto and Kuri can arguably boast of having successfully skyrocketed contemporary Mexican art to the global art scene and made Mexico City a hub in global conversations. They’ve propelled prominent artists like Gabriel Orozco and Abraham Cruzvillegas, securing major institutional exhibitions and the representation of estates like that of John Giorno, catalyzing collector demand by building international relationships with museums, curators and collectors, making Mexican artists accessible to global markets and boosting their liquidity and prestige. (Sotheby’s, for instance, recently reported that sales of works by Latin American artists have climbed more than 50 percent above pre-pandemic levels.) Concurrently, there’s been a notable accumulation of wealth in the Latin American region and within the Latino diaspora, and Mexico City has become an arts destination in its own right. Looking ahead, they are most looking forward to “privileging knowledge and critical thinking over influencers and oversimplifiers of the complexities of art and its ecosystems.”

Philomene Magers & Monika Sprüth

• Sprüth Magers | Founders

One of the few German galleries to establish a truly global presence, Sprüth Magers has infrastructure spanning Berlin, London, Los Angeles and New York. In March, Philomene Magers told Observer she sees its priorities “in a much wider global system.” While the gallery represents a long list of artists globally, it remains at least partially focused on groundbreaking German artists like Anne Imhof—who won a Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice Biennale and more recently brought DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE to the Park Avenue Armory—and Andreas Gursky, who brought “New Works” to Gagosian Paris, had a solo show in the gallery’s New York space earlier this year, and just opened a show at White Cube Mason’s Yard in London. The band/art project Kraftwerk also has a long-standing, albeit not-quite-representational, relationship with Sprüth Magers. “It shows that iconic and important figures continue to emerge from this cultural background,” said Magers. It also shows that the gallery has been savvy and laser-focused on positioning German contemporary art, with a high level of curatorial commitment.

The “re-centering of artists,” Monika Sprüth tells Observer, has been the most transformative shift in the art world’s power dynamics over the last year. “What emerges is not merely a new market logic, but a new cultural syntax. The next chapter of the art world won’t be defined by exclusivity. I see this moment as an invitation to exchange between cultures, technologies, and generations of artists and collectors alike.”

During their four-plus decades in the business, the pair has developed a sharp knack for identifying talent, including the likes of Barbara Kruger, George Condo (who recently left Hauser & Wirth for joint representation by Sprüth Magers and Skarstedt) and Jenny Holzer, who are among a roster of more than 70 artists and estates—and staying ahead of the curve despite pressures at home, with Berlin’s place as a major artist hub waning in recent years. Magers summarized their quest for talent, an ethos that transcends short-term trends: “To reimagine what the art world could become may require new kinds of alliances between galleries, collectors and institutions that are all defined together. We should always be open to operating beyond the structures that have historically been in place.”

Clare McAndrew

• Arts Economics | Founder & Cultural Economist

Dr. Clare McAndrew is the economist behind the data that defines the art world. As founder of Arts Economics and author of the annual Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report (as well as several others on art and collectibles), she produces the most authoritative snapshot of the global art economy—September Vogue with charts instead of couture. When the yearly report drops in March, dealers, collectors, institutions and journalists alike turn to its findings to gauge the market’s health, whether it’s rebounding, contracting or simply shifting shape. Its headline figures—sales volumes, sector shares, regional trends—are matched by nuanced analysis of global economic forces, auction performance and dealer sentiment, offering an unparalleled outlook for the year ahead, along with some much-needed clarity. “As most of what the mainstream media reports on is the multi-million-dollar sums paid for this very small number of artists’ works, new buyers are led to believe that the art market is out of their reach, and that you can only get a quality work of art if you have a budget of over $1 million or so, when in fact there are so many other less publicized artists and works available at much lower prices,” she tells Observer.

McAndrew has managed what once seemed impossible: to quantify the notoriously opaque art market. By applying rigorous economic methods, she has developed a research framework that combines surveys, data modeling, and a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis to produce consistent and comparable insights across regions and sectors. The result is a report that helps the industry reflect on the past year while strategizing for the next, exposing how sales respond to shocks, trends and evolving collector behavior.

In 2024, she expanded her scope with the first-ever Japan Art Market Report—a detailed national study continuing her focus on regional “spin-offs” as emerging markets and shifting collector bases demand sharper, more localized intelligence. She also points to ongoing changes in what’s being sold in the art market, including an expanding range of collectibles and luxury products being sold by dealers and at auction houses and new digital mediums and channels for accessing these works. “The traditional mediums still dominate by value for now, but that could change in the future,” McAndrew says, adding that “how we account for and measure these sales will become increasingly important in understanding the activity in the sector as a whole, especially when we’re trying to assess its economic and social impact.” 

Julie Mehretu

• Artist | Marian Goodman Gallery

Can a major contemporary artist also become a meaningful patron? Julie Mehretu just proved it. When the Whitney Museum raised its admission price from $25 to $30 in 2023—another sign of the art world’s rising inaccessibility—Mehretu stepped in with a $2.25 million gift to fund the institution’s “Free 25 and Under” program. “If you’re waiting tables in New York like I used to, you can’t afford to go to a museum all the time,” she said. “But young artists need access to art.” Her act wasn’t about spectacle—it was about restoring one of the core promises of public institutions: access and equity. It was also a reminder that philanthropy doesn’t have to mean billion-dollar endowments; timing, intention and empathy can be just as transformative.

Mehretu’s gesture comes as her own career reaches new heights. Her acclaimed retrospective “Ensemble” at Palazzo Grassi coincided with the 2024 Venice Biennale, spanning 25 years of work, while this year’s “KAIROS / Hauntological Variations” in Germany marks her largest European survey yet, featuring more than 100 pieces. Her auction market remains robust, but her growing role as a philanthropist might become an equally enduring legacy—showing that influence in art isn’t just about the work you make, but the access you help others gain.

Marc Payot

• Hauser & Wirth | President

This year, Marc Payot celebrated a quarter century with Hauser & Wirth, and what a year it’s been. A remarkable number of the gallery’s artists and estates headlined exhibitions at New York’s top institutions: Amy Sherald at the Whitney, Flora Yukhnovich at the Frick, Jack Whitten at MoMA, Lorna Simpson at the Met and Rashid Johnson at the Guggenheim. Numerous others—Jenny Holzer, Firelei Báez, Glenn Ligon and Annie Leibovitz, among them—commanded major museum shows across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The gallery, now spanning 18 locations across the United States, Europe, Hong Kong and the U.K., published 17 titles under its Hauser & Wirth Publishers imprint, a testament to the scope of its cultural reach. Next year, it will add new physical spaces in London and Palo Alto, further expanding its presence.

The empire’s builders, Manuela and Iwan Wirth—who are now busy redefining the model of a cultural enterprise that fuses art, publishing, real estate and hospitality—have left the gallery in formidable hands. Under Payot’s leadership, 2025 was marked not only by institutional success but also by growing engagement and notable collaborations. To wit: Hauser & Wirth launched its “In the Studio” series of compact, illustrated books offering deep dives into artists’ practices; forged collaborations with arts organizations, including London’s Royal Drawing School and Whitechapel Gallery; and partnered with The New Art School Modality to provide free hybrid art courses. Then there’s the Collective Impact initiative—a project in which Hauser & Wirth joins forces with smaller, younger galleries to represent artists in an approach defined by parity, transparency and mutuality. “It’s clear to us that ‘success’ is not a zero-sum game in a delicate ecosystem like the art world,” Payot tells Observer. “We’ve been putting a lot of energy over the last few years into collaborations with our colleagues who operate at different scales, so that we can contribute in concrete, measurable ways to the health of the wider field.”

Emmanuel Perrotin

• Perrotin | Founder

Emmanuel Perrotin’s eponymous mega-gallery continues to chase global domination by expanding into prime global markets, but with a lean and measured approach to growth. Perrotin represents approximately 70 artists and collaborates with 30 others, including emerging and established mid-career artists, as well as estates. Currently, the gallery has a presence in nine cities worldwide, with bookstores in Paris, London, New York and a pop-up at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In 2025, Perrotin opened new galleries in London and Dubai and relocated its Hong Kong outpost to a different part of the city. Earlier this year, after two years of negotiations, Perrotin sold a majority stake in the gallery (51 percent) to private equity firm Colony Investment Management in a move he calls “a monumental decision for us and the first of this kind in the contemporary art world.” In doing so, he amplified the financialization of contemporary art, ushering in increased capital flows, accelerating global scaling and setting new market expectations in the U.S. and beyond.

At the same time, Perrotin hasn’t shied away from expansion or experimentation. “When I started my gallery in Paris in 1990, I had a mission to make more people interested in contemporary art,” he tells Observer. “To do this, I had to find links with other disciplines—I was already connected to people who were in fashion and music, so I started these collaborations early on.” Joining its existing locations in Paris, New York City, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo are new spaces in Los Angeles (opened in 2024) and, in 2025, Paris, London and Dubai, where the gallerist recommitted to the Emirati city and its regional art scene with a primary-market venue. Now with private equity support, Perrotin told Bloomberg he would consider opening galleries in cities like Zurich, Bangkok or Istanbul. Or, he added, buying rivals—because consolidation among art galleries may be the future of the industry.

Magnus Renfrew

• ART SG & Tokyo Gendai | Co-Founder
• ARTHQ Group | Managing Director

Magnus Renfrew wants the art world to look east—and he’s giving it every reason to. As co-founder of ART SG and Tokyo Gendai, Renfrew has spent the past two years strengthening the art fair portfolio that he leads. A master of regional infrastructure building, he’s creating new platforms for galleries and collectors while also advising private clients, artists’ estates, institutions and governments through his consultancy ARTHQ, shaping how the region’s art economies connect and grow. Positioned as the leading art fair in Japan, Tokyo Gendai has already drawn global attention in one of the world’s most dynamic emerging markets. The rise of ART SG reflects the shift from the Asia Pacific to the Indo Pacific. “I’m looking at how I can engage this new demographic of people who are proud of their cultural roots, particularly from Asia and Southeast Asia, yet open to artistic expressions from other regions,” Renfrew tells Observer of his current priorities. 

Renfrew’s confidence is earned—he was the founding director of Art Hong Kong, which later became Art Basel Hong Kong, and his leadership helped put Asia-Pacific firmly on the international art map. He’s particularly excited, he says, about deepening the infrastructure for art in Southeast Asia. “Technology, globalization and demographic change are all accelerating a decentralization of the art world… This is enormously exciting. Technology has democratized access to information, allowing collectors to discover artists wherever they may be. Globalization has brought new perspectives and cultural narratives to the fore. The younger generation of collectors is approaching collecting with a new sense of purpose and curiosity.” And his fairs will be there to answer their call.

Alex Rotter

• Christie’s | Global President

Alex Rotter was appointed global president of Christie’s in May 2025—a natural progression for an executive who has spent the past decade redefining how the auction world operates. In his new role, he’s charged with shaping strategy for both auctions and private sales in concert with regional presidents and global chairs, all while continuing to serve as global chair of 20th- and 21st-century art. Few understand the nuances of market psychology and collector behavior quite like Rotter, whose tenure has been marked by bold structural innovations and a willingness to rewrite the rulebook when convention no longer serves.

His decision in 2020 to collapse Christie’s traditional art categories—merging Impressionist, Modern, Postwar and Contemporary art under a single “20/21” banner—was initially radical but ultimately visionary. It acknowledged a collector base less bound by chronology and more attuned to cross-era dialogues, streamlining consignment strategies and strengthening Christie’s market dominance. When the pandemic upended live auctions, Rotter adapted again, introducing the relay auction: a hybrid, live-streamed event that seamlessly passed from city to city, transforming sales into global spectacles. He remains candid about market turbulence yet unflappable in the face of it—and consequently known for turning headwinds into opportunities.

Mary Rozell

• UBS | Global Head, UBS Art Collection

Mary Rozell oversees one of the most influential corporate art collections in existence, comprising 30,000 works spanning canvas, paper, photography, sculpture, video and installation, amassed over decades of collecting. What began as a scattering of individual acquisitions coalesced in the 1960s into a distinctly contemporary collection that has since grown into a global cultural asset. Only works by living artists and those acquired directly from galleries make the cut, and today pieces by Lucian Freud, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Philip Guston and Cy Twombly hang across UBS’s 700 offices worldwide. They serve not just as conversation starters but as quiet assertions of taste and intellect, transforming corporate hallways into a museum-grade experience for employees and visitors alike.

When Rozell, an art lawyer and former director at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, stepped into the role, her mandate was clear: unify the disparate collections under a single, forward-looking vision. She approached the task with both precision and openness, expanding the collection’s diversity while maintaining its exacting standards. “Generally we’re not buying an artist at their first show—it’s the second or third, when they have some traction but before they get too much recognition,” Rozell told Observer of her acquisition strategy. Among her most meaningful contributions has been lifting the velvet rope around a once-insular collection. “I feel like some of our pieces are so important that we have a responsibility to share them with the greater public,” she said—a sentiment that has helped redefine UBS’s art holdings as a cultural resource.

Antwaun Sargent

• Gagosian | Director

Curator and writer Antwaun Sargent has been dubbed the “Art Star Maker” for his ability to not only celebrate Black creativity in art, fashion and design but also to leverage people and platforms to bring it market and institutional attention. “I still think the best way to encourage an art ecosystem I believe in is to create it,” Sargent tells Observer. Since his appointment to director at Gagosian in 2021, the 30-something has rapidly become a high-profile tastemaker, but he was shaping discourse long before joining the mega-gallery, with bylines in the New York Times, the New Yorker and scores of art publications, where he questioned the relationship between art institutions and Black artists. His book credits include The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, which he wrote, and Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists, which he edited. 

Both his curation and his commentary have been seminal in reshaping conversations, collector taste and boosting the visibility of historically underrepresented Black contemporary artists. His debut show with Gagosian, “Social Works,” explored the relationship between the physical spaces we engage with and Black social practice. He was behind Virgil Abloh’s “Figures of Speech” at the Brooklyn Museum and “Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick,” the institution’s first solo show dedicated to a Black artist. These are just a few of the 30-plus critically acclaimed and commercially successful shows he’s curated, and yet his approach is deceptively simple: “My only strategy is to believe in artists, which is to say I do whatever possible to make their visions a reality.” Lauren Halsey, Rick Lowe, Tyler Mitchell, Cy Gavin and Derrick Adams are among those artists—they make great work, Sargent asserts, and his job is to support them. “The evolution of the art world and its centers of power have been greatly exaggerated,” he adds. “The only thing I’m interested in is putting more power in the hands of artists.”

Read Our Full Q&A With Antwaun Sargent

Muys Snijders

• Private Client Select | SVP, Head of Art Services

With over 25 years in the international art world, Muys Snijders is a leading expert in fine art insurance. As head of art services at Private Client Select, she oversees risk management for a portfolio insuring over $50 billion in fine art and collectibles across 50,000 policies. In an era of intensifying climate threats, Snijders is redefining how the industry protects cultural patrimony. “Many new technologies have been introduced in recent years to support mitigation efforts,” Snijders told The Art Newspaper, citing innovations like automatic fire suppression and hypoxic storage now being implemented for collections in wildfire zones. Over the years, Snijders and her team have provided bespoke coverage to some 60 percent of the top 200 ARTnews Collectors, conducting site visits worldwide to ensure proactive protection. 

At this year’s Aspen Art Fair, Snijders moderated “A Collector’s Point of View: Curated Approaches in a Contemporary World,” with collectors including Nancy Magoon, Sharon Hoffman and Christine Mack. Snijders is also steering Private Client Select toward a new era of corporate collecting, championing acquisitions by diverse artists and launching commissions focused on sustainability. The firm’s new managing general underwriter (MGU) structure, she says, reflects a changing insurance landscape—one where agility and tailored solutions are paramount.

Snijders serves on the Guggenheim‘s Young Collectors Council Acquisition Committee, ICA Miami‘s International Council, and the Aspen Art Museum‘s Director’s Circle, among other board and advisory roles. Before joining Private Client Select (formerly AIG Private Client Group), Muys launched her own art consultancy firm and served as the managing director of Christie’s Americas. With natural catastrophes mounting, her steady leadership is preserving art for generations to come.

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

• Qatar Museums | Chairperson

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has become the current that moves the Gulf’s entire cultural tide. As chairperson of Qatar Museums, she has not only cemented Qatar’s position on the global art map but ensured it will stay there for decades to come. With access to both immense family wealth and a sharp curatorial instinct, she recently helped broker the landmark Art Basel Qatar, set to debut in February 2026 through a partnership between Art Basel, Qatar Sports Investments and QC+. She also championed the launch of the new Qatar Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which debuted at this year’s architecture edition—a clear signal that her ambitions extend well beyond Doha.

This outward expansion follows years of building a formidable cultural foundation at home—consolidating acquisitions, infrastructure and institutional strategy while elevating Qatar’s artistic profile across the region. Her vision has translated into major public art initiatives, including Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East, and into making Qatar a first-choice destination for artists, curators and global institutions alike. Under her leadership, dynamic platforms such as Mathaf (Arab Museum of Modern Art), the Lusail Museum, the Art Mill Museum (opening in 2030) and the Fire Station have flourished, alongside high-profile exhibitions such as “LATINOAMERICANO | Modern and Contemporary Art from the Malba and Eduardo F. Costantini Collections” and “Seeing Is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gérôme.”

Yü‑Ge Wang

• Christie’s | Associate Director, Senior Client Advisor & Auctioneer

After joining Christie’s more than a decade ago, Yü-Ge Wang quickly rose through the ranks to become associate director and senior client adviser, specializing in Asian collectors. She was the lead auctioneer at Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale last May, commanding $96.5 million with a 92 percent sell-through by lot and 97 percent by value—an impressive feat in a tightening market. Under her gavel, visibility and valuations surged for women artists and contemporary stars, like Carmen Herrera, Cecily Brown and Elizabeth Peyton. She hammered Miss January by Marlene Dumas for $13.6 million, setting a record for a living woman artist. “Innovation isn’t just about digital tools,” she tells Observer. “It’s about who gets to be part of the conversation, whose stories we tell, and how we authentically interact with a much more diverse and global community, so people feel heard rather than excluded.” 

Having worked across China, Germany and England, Wang bridges languages, markets and cultures with rare fluency, and her star is on the rise. “Collecting motivations and strategies are changing and creating meaningful dialogue is more important than ever,” she says. “As an auctioneer, I learned to create this dialogue also on stage by using my language skills to connect with bidders from different countries and my body language to engage with the audience in the room or online.” She frequently appears on panels exploring how media and photography can ignite cross-cultural dialogue, while using that same instinct for connection to drive sales with confidence, charisma and sharp market intuition. For Wang, learning to engage with other cultures isn’t just about boosting bottom lines but also a sign of respect—one that “helps colleagues from diverse backgrounds feel seen, valued and included, as well as being essential for long-term relevance.”

Martin Wilson

• Phillips | CEO

Art lawyer Martin Wilson rose to CEO of Phillips in early 2025, stepping into the role after Ed Dolman left to launch New Perspectives Art Partners. A seasoned art and auction veteran, Wilson was brought in during a turbulent market moment—an era of softening demand and growing regulatory scrutiny. Brought in as a “safe pair of hands,” he drew on his deep legal and compliance expertise (and the authority of being the author of Art Law and the Business of Art) to stabilize operations amid a 17.5 percent sales decline. His steady leadership has been defined by pragmatism and a measured confidence that Phillips will adapt rather than contract. “We’re seeing a real ‘taste transfer’ happening alongside the ‘great wealth transfer,’” Wilson tells Observer. “The challenge for the market is to anticipate and understand the expectations of these new collectors, both in terms of their taste but also how they prefer to engage with the art market.”

It is at inflection points like this, he says, that opportunities for innovation present themselves, and he’s already steering Phillips toward the future. He has appointed new heads for modern and contemporary art and private sales, while introducing a flexible premium structure designed to counter early bid hesitancy and soothe wary consignors. The new pre-auction bidding model allows early participants to benefit from reduced premiums while generating more authentic competition in the room. “We have a history of delivering positive results for our clients, as evidenced by our 90 percent sell-through rate this spring,” Wilson said this year. “Our aim now is to build on that by encouraging early engagement to generate spirited bidding and provide greater certainty for sellers.”

Read our Full Q&A With Martin Wilson

Andrew Wolff

• Beowolff Capital | CEO

Andrew Wolff stormed into the online art market in 2025 with a pair of headline-making plays: acquiring a controlling stake in Artsy and launching a €65 million delisting and takeover of Artnet, in moves that were less about buying legacy names than about combining market intelligence and reach. It’s not about the multi-brand cachet, but about building a vertically integrated digital empire, merging reach, data and market intelligence to rewire how art is discovered, priced and sold. “I think the world is moving from static forms of power to a more fluid model of networked authority and strength—one in which power and influence are built on the foundations of interconnected communities,” Wolff tells Observer. “Old-school power structures build walls to protect themselves. But our younger generations are skeptical of centralized gatekeepers; they want access, participation, transparency, consistency, objectivity.” 

His aim is to provide it with innovation, using analytics and A.I. to unlock the latent power of two of the art world’s most influential tech platforms. “We embrace A.I. not to reduce the role of human expertise in the art market, but to amplify it,” he says. “Not to steal the voices of artists, but to allow them to expand their reach. After all, in a world where machines can do more and more, the ability to create and feel the power of art is an increasingly critical part of what makes us human.” For now, Artsy and Artnet remain separate, ostensibly rivals, but his long game likely involves strategic complementarity: Artsy’s dominance in the primary market paired with Artnet’s unrivaled secondary market data. If and when those worlds merge, Wolff will control an ecosystem linking 67 million annual users to the world’s largest online marketplace for fine art—a rare position from which to shape the digital future of collecting.

Read Our Full Q&A With Andrew Wolff

Patti Wong

• Patti Wong & Associates | Co-Founder
• New Perspectives Art Partners | Founder

As one half of Patti Wong & Associates with Daryl Wickstrom, Patti Wong commands an unrivaled network across Asia, where the art market continues its ascent, powered by new institutions such as M+, where she now serves on the board. That appointment, along with her role as a founding partner of New Perspectives Art Partners alongside Brett Gorvy, Philip Hoffman and Ed and Alex Dolman, underscores her status as one of the region’s most influential cultural figures. 

“We foresee opportunities to build comprehensive advisory relationships with collectors and institutions in these regions, working with clients on long-term goals, legacy planning and collection dispersals that go beyond major collection sales at public auction—helping collections evolve in a way that can be passed down through generations or even transitioned into institutions,” Wong tells Observer. “It is about looking beyond the transaction and focusing on the bigger picture of what art legacy means and how art endures.”

From the outset of her career, Wong aimed to make Hong Kong a market force equal to New York and London—and she did. Over three decades at Sotheby’s, she transformed the city into a global art capital, introducing Asian collectors to Western postwar and contemporary art, elevating the international valuations of Asian artists, and overseeing record-breaking sales that established Hong Kong’s auctions as unmissable events on the global calendar. “We have always believed that understanding how different cultures collect, what motivates them and how they engage with art is key,” Wong says.

Following her 2023 collaboration with The Fine Art Group and her departure as International Chairman and Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Wong’s independent firm has quickly become a powerhouse in its own right. It has, she says, “generated a total transaction value for our clients in excess of $1 billion”—evidence that the Asian market remains active and resilient, even if it’s no longer operating at the inflated pace of its most frenzied years.

Jeffrey Yin

• Artsy | CEO

Jeffrey Yin runs the world’s largest online marketplace for fine art—a platform whose scale and sophistication have redefined how art is bought and sold. Artsy connects more than one million available works to millions of collectors globally through partnerships with over 3,000 galleries and auction houses. It combines editorial authority, curatorial intelligence and data science to power a marketplace that has become indispensable to the art world’s digital ecosystem. For example, Yin tells Observer that a collector might discover a work through Artsy’s personalized recommendations, save the work, receive an offer directly from the gallery, and finalize the purchase online—all within a few days. “The average distance between buyer and seller on Artsy—about 2,500 miles—says a lot about how technology is expanding reach and redistributing opportunity across the art ecosystem,” he says.

Under Yin’s leadership, Artsy has seen record momentum: first-time buyers are on the rise, and 2024 sales climbed 15 percent year over year—the platform’s strongest growth since 2021. The number of artists with commercial activity on the platform has grown by 20 percent since 2020, and galleries are now selling works by 40 percent more artists. The Artsy mobile app, now a fixture among younger collectors, continues to expand the company’s reach, while its inaugural 2025 Art Market Trends report and new collector follow-up tools mark a push toward data-driven personalization and higher conversion. The biggest opportunity, he says, will involve not just guiding the next generation of collectors but also sustaining their engagement over time. “The foundation of transparency and global access is now in place; the next step is helping collectors navigate the overwhelming volume of art online in a personal, meaningful way,” he says. “Our goal isn’t to automate or remove the human experience from collecting, but to meet people where they are.”

Read our Full Q&A With Jeffrey Yin

David Zwirner

• David Zwirner | Founder

Mega-dealer David Zwirner knows how to weather art market headwinds. He cancelled a massive expansion project in 2023—a swanky Renzo Piano-designed, 50,000-square-foot building on West 21st Street in Chelsea—only to rebound with an office on West 20th Street and an 18,000-square-foot gallery designed by Annabelle Selldorf on West 19th Street, which opened last May with a major solo show of work by Michael Armitage. Zwirner has demonstrated similar agility in his art-tech ventures, including the digital marketplace Platform, which he has reshuffled whenever needed to stay ahead of key blue-chip competitors, all of which have been in expansion mode in recent years. 

Zwirner’s fire-tested commercial operation remains as relevant as ever. His global network of galleries in New York, L.A., London, Hong Kong and Paris shapes consumer taste through bespoke programming and market experimentation. A prominent roster of estates, emerging artists and new talents drives high-end primary market sales. Most recently, he poached artist Yoshitomo Nara from Pace—the artist joins a robust roster that includes the estates of Donald Judd, Diane Arbus and Paul Klee and contemporary talents Gerhard Richter, Yayoi Kusama and Félix González‑Torres, among others. Likewise, he poached Alex Marshall (now a senior director) from Christie’s after elevating Ebony L. Haynes to global head of curatorial projects. State-of-the-art content production via David Zwirner Books, a line of prints and editions, and the podcast Dialogues diversifies Zwirner’s influence at a time when galleries everywhere are seeking to hook the attention of the growing (and much coveted) market of young collectors.

The big November art fair news actually broke in July, when the Art Dealers Association of America announced that it was canceling the 2025 edition of its annual fair, known simply as The Art Show, leaving Henry Street Settlement briefly in the lurch until Independent Art Fair swooped in. Traditionally, November is one of the quieter stretches on the global art fair calendar, largely because its lineup is so geographically dispersed, with events spread across Europe, Asia and beyond. Still, the month offers gems closer to home—Salon Art + Design returns to New York this month, while Umbrella Art Fair lands in D.C.—and further afield, as NOMAD makes its Abu Dhabi debut to coincide with Abu Dhabi Art—which will officially rebrand as Frieze Abu Dhabi in 2026. So while November may appear deceptively calm, the die-hard globetrotters who insist on catching every fair before descending on Miami in December will find plenty to keep their calendars—and passports—busy. Whether you’re staying close to home to rest up for the sensory overload of Magic City’s art week or plotting a month-long cultural circuit abroad, Observer’s guide to November’s art fairs will help you craft the ideal itinerary.

Artissima 2025

October 31 – November 2

Founded in 1994, Artissima at the Oval Lingotto in Turin is probably Italy’s most prominent contemporary art fair, and it has a well-deserved reputation for combining a robust commercial platform with experimentation and a focus on curators. The fair’s theme for 2025, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, was inspired by the visionary thinking of Buckminster Fuller. Directed by Luigi Fassi, the 32nd edition of the fair brings together 176 galleries from Italy and abroad, including 63 monographic presentations, in four main sections—Main, New Entries, Monologue/Dialogue and Art Spaces & Editions—together with the curated sections Present Future, Back to the Future and Disegni. “We’re based in northern Italy, but we bring together the entire Italian art scene—from the very south to Turin—and connect it to the broader international landscape. When I think about Artissima’s local audience, I’m really thinking about Italy as a whole,” the fair’s director, Luigi Fassi, told Observer. “Of course, we emphasize our connection with the Turin system, but our audience is national and the fair serves as a platform for all participating galleries, each with their own goals and expectations.”

ART COLOGNE 2025

November 6-9

ART COLOGNE bills itself as both the first art fair in the world and the “most important industry meeting point for galleries and institutions in Germany.” It was founded by gallerists Hein Stünke and Rudolf Zwirner way back in 1967 (then called Kunstmarkt Köln) to introduce young German artists to an international audience. In 2023, the fair attracted around 45,000 visitors, there to see work brought by 170 exhibitors from around the world. The 58th edition of ART COLOGNE will see 167 galleries mounting booths across the Contemporary Art, Modern Art, and Neumarkt sectors. “I think 167 participants is a good size,” said artistic director Daniel Hug. “That’s also how big the fair was in 1968, when ART COLOGNE was viewed as the most important art fair in the world.” At the fair for the first time are The Pill from Istanbul, with works by Nil Yalter and Özlem Altin, Italy’s gallery zaza’, presenting works by Emanuele Marcuccio and Lydia Ourahmane, and The Stable from S-chanf in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, with works by Patrick Salutt and Yves Scherer, among others.

ART X Lagos 2025

November 6-9

Since its launch in 2016, ART X Lagos has become one of the leading international art fairs in West Africa, creating a platform to showcase and uplift the contemporary culture of Africa. Under the leadership of founding director Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, ART X Lagos will return to the Federal Palace of Victoria Island in Lagos with a dynamic, multidisciplinary program. Alongside artist and gallery exhibitions, supporting programming will include ART X Live!, presenting both artistic and musical performances, ART X Cinema, dedicated to artistic independent African filmmaking, and ART X Talks, a series of conversations and panels featuring some of the most forward-thinking African and diasporic talents.

The Other Art Fair Brooklyn 2025

November 6-9

The Other Art Fair Brooklyn returns for yet another edition this month, 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 fair’s lineup leans heavily into experiences; we’re looking forward to sets by DJ Crystal Queer and the Blind Date with an Artwork section (wrapped pieces for $200 or less). As always, the fair’s late-night events bring a lively edge, with music, custom portrait sessions and more.

Affordable Art Fair Sydney 2025

November 6-9

If you’re a novice collector and want to ease in, there’s no better fair than Affordable Art Fair. Launched in 1999 in London’s Battersea Park by Will Ramsay, this art fair takes its mission of democratizing the art market seriously by making contemporary art accessible and affordable to a wider audience through lower prices and installment-based payment plans. While the Affordable Art Fair fairs (held in numerous locations in the U.S., Australia, Asia and Europe) don’t typically feature “celebrity” artists, they do limit what’s on the walls to AUD$10,000 or less. This year, Affordable Art Fair Sydney will be staged in its new home in the iconic arts precinct at Carriageworks with sixty-seven galleries, primarily from Australia, but Peru, Shanghai and South Korea are also represented.

Salon Art + Design 2025

November 6-10

Salon Art + Design is returning to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City for its 14th edition. When asked what we can expect this year, executive director Nicky Dessources told Observer, “This year’s edition of Salon Art + Design feels especially exciting as we welcome back some of the fair’s most beloved galleries and celebrate them alongside inspiring new exhibitors from around the country and the world. Even as the cultural landscape evolves, the spirit that defines Salon—one of discovery, creativity and community—remains ever-present. It’s what makes Salon such a singular and enduring gathering place for art and design.” This fair is rightly lauded for both its vibe and the highly curated boutique selection of fine art, designer furniture and fine glass and ceramics that is anything but fussy.

Paris Photo 2025

November 13-16

The Grand Palais, which proved such a magnificent venue for Art Basel Paris, will also host Paris Photo, which is bringing 222 exhibitors (179 galleries and 43 publishers from 33 countries) to Paris for its 28th edition. “Bolder, more diverse and more international, this edition brings together galleries and artists from every continent, confirming Paris’s central role as a place for showcasing, reflecting on and promoting the medium,” Florence Bourgeois, director of Paris Photo, said in a statement. This edition welcomes major new galleries as well as returning ones, including Eva Presenhuber (Zurich, Vienna, New York), Peter Kilchmann (Zurich), Richard Saltoun (London), Rose Gallery (Los Angeles), Papillon (Paris) and Poggi (Paris). These will be joined by Vadehra Art (New Delhi), Ayyam Gallery (Dubai) and Hafez Gallery (Jeddah). For the third year, Nina Roehrs is curating the Digital sector, which will host galleries including Heft (New York), Nagel Draxler (Berlin, Cologne, Meseberg) and Office Impart (Berlin).

Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2025

November 13-16

This year, ​​Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair marks its 10th anniversary with a special celebratory edition. Each year, the fair draws 15,000 visitors to the historic Royal Arsenal in East London for four days of contemporary printmaking, presented by leading galleries. Known for its welcoming atmosphere, the fair offers hundreds of original artworks priced from under £100 to over £50,000. In addition to the art, there are free tours and talks for all ticket holders, as well as live music and late-night openings. Alongside the gallery presentations, as in previous years,  ​​Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair will allot 50 percent of the fair’s floor space to a Curated Hang exhibition of works by over 400 emerging and independent artists carefully selected by an expert panel.

West Bund Art & Design 2025

November 13-16

West Bund Art & Design, established in 2014 in Shanghai’s revitalized West Bund waterfront district, has grown into one of Asia’s most thoughtfully positioned international combo fairs. Founded by the Chinese painter Zhou Tiehai—who remains actively involved—the fair was conceived to gather a thoughtfully curated roster of galleries from China and abroad, recognizing art and design side by side, rather than as separate silos. What sets West Bund apart is its setting: a former industrial zone along the Huangpu River that has become a cultural corridor, lending the fair an atmospheric blend of raw infrastructure and sleek presentation. Over the years, the fair has become a strategic entry point for Western galleries to engage the mainland Chinese market, and recent editions have attracted galleries from more than 20 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. In 2025, more than 100 galleries will mount booths.

Art Collaboration Kyoto 2025

November 14-16

Art Collaboration Kyoto is a “culture-forward” contemporary art fair focused on building relationships. In fact, there’s an entire section of the fair in which Japanese galleries are paired with international counterparts in shared booths, putting regional nuance and global dialogue on equal footing. This collaborative spirit spills out across Kyoto, with site-specific exhibitions unfolding in historic temples and venues rarely accessible to contemporary programming. Sadie Coles HQ brings Isabella Ducrot to Kouseiin Temple, while Kiang Malingue—debuting at the fair—presents Carrie Yamaoka at Manshu-in. Over at Ryosokuin Temple, David Kordansky Gallery co-organizes a new show of works by Shio Kusaka and Jonas Wood. With the first official Kyoto Art Month backing a constellation of parallel events—including CURATION⇄FAIR Kyoto and Art Rhizome KYOTO—the fair leans into its civic ambitions.

Abu Dhabi Art Fair 2025

November 18-21

For months, whispers swirled that Art Basel was courting Abu Dhabi Art Fair, but when push came to shove, it was Frieze that acquired Abu Dhabi Art Fair as part of a new partnership between the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and the fair behemoth. This year, the fair will mount its 17th edition as planned with more than 140 participating galleries. The Frieze Abu Dhabi vision will be fully realized with next year’s edition in November 2026 at Manarat Al Saadiyat.

NOMAD Abu Dhabi 2025

November 20-22

NOMAD is staging its inaugural Gulf edition in Abu Dhabi’s long-shuttered Terminal 1—a cinematic relic of late 1970s Arabian modernism designed by Paul Andreu. After years off-limits to the public, the building will be reanimated through a collaboration with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, positioning the fair as the latest cultural gesture toward cultural momentum and regional reinvention. Timed to coincide with Abu Dhabi Art, NOMAD’s arrival reinforces the UAE’s growing taste for the spectacular. This year, complimentary admission will be extended to registered guests during the public viewing days after the November 19 invite-only VIP preview.

Umbrella Art Fair 2025

November 21-23

The 5th edition of Umbrella Art Fair (“a declaration of artistic independence, a rebellion against the mundane and a celebration of the daring”) will bring over 100 local and international artists, curators and creators to D.C. for an energetic three-day event. Spanning 35,000 square feet of space at International Square, this fair offers a rich mix of local and international gallery booths, exhibitions, panel discussions, workshops and live performances. Umbrella Art Fair is refreshingly commission-free, ensuring that 100 percent of sales benefit participating artists, many of whom are women and artists of color. This year’s roster features more than 100 artists, including Autumn Spears, Rose Jaffe, Alex Solis, Tracie Ching, Jessie and Katey and Tom Kim (aka Death by Narwhals). New this year, food vendors and the restaurant and bar from buzzy food market The Square will be open for the duration of the fair. Note that while admission is free, tickets are required.

Tokyo International Art Fair 2025

November 28-29

Tokyo International Art Fair (TIAF) will stage its 8th edition this month, and it’s one to watch. Going up at Belle Salle Roppongi in the heart of Roppongi—an area synonymous with Tokyo’s vibrant art scene and home to the Mori Art Museum—the fair strikes a balance between commercial energy and cultural gravitas. The fair will bring together more than 100 artists from over 40 countries under one roof, and the format is straightforward but effective: a VIP preview on the opening evening followed by a free public day on Saturday, offering both accessibility and exclusivity. Though still young compared to established global fairs, its steady growth and strategic location reflect an ambition to carve out a lasting place in Tokyo’s and Asia’s evolving art fair landscape.

Even more November art fairs in 2025

As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the November art fair calendar in 2025—there are always plenty of smaller, lesser-known and niche art fairs happening (or opening for the first time) around the world. Here’s a quick roundup of several more fall art fairs you might want to check out this month.

The Others 2025 (Turin)

October 30 – November 2

Flashback Art Fair 2025 (Turin)

October 30 – November 2

PAN Amsterdam 2025

November 2-9

Discovery Art Fair 2025 (Frankfurt)

November 6-9

Art Fair East 2025

November 6-9

The Superfair Washington D.C. 2025

November 7-9

Antica Namur Fine Art Fair 2025 (Belgium)

November 8-16

Art021 Shanghai 2025

November 13-16

Paper Positions Vienna 2025

November 13-16

Mira Art Fair 2025 (France)

November 13-16

Affordable Art Fair Singapore 2025

November 13-16

Affordable Art Fair Hamburg 2025

November 13-16

Art & Antique Vienna 2025

November 13-17

Art Expo Algarve 2025 (Portugal)

November 14-16

art3F Mulhouse 2025 (France)

November 14-16

ST-ART Strasbourg 2025

November 14-16

Arte Padova 2025 (Italy)

November 14-17

Manchester Art Fair 2025

November 20-23

INC Art Fair 2025 (Bodensee)

November 21-23

Arte in Nuvola 2025 (Rome)

November 21-23

art3F Bruxelles 2025 (Belgium)

November 21-23

art3F Marseille 2025

November 28-30

There’s a new garage-fronted gallery in East Williamsburg—one that aims to be more than just an exhibition venue. While Gallery ATARAH is as much a practical endeavor as it is a passion project, founder Atarah Atkinson says she’s drawn to the ethos of early art galleries, where the focus was on creators and their creations rather than the maneuverings of an extractive art market. And so, as legacy dealers reckon with the transactional world they helped create, Atkinson is embracing the gallery-as-salon concept: an exhibition space that doubles as a communal hub, where on any given day she might host portfolio reviews, after-school workshops, mentorship meetups or community happenings.

“Gallery ATARAH represents a chance to establish a curatorial vision that is entirely my own—a creative home where I can channel my passion for connection into celebrating authentic artistic expression,” she tells Observer. To that end, the light-filled 700-square-foot space will also function as her personal studio. She has experience developing hybrid spaces, having co-founded The Atrium, a 2,500-square-foot creative production studio, in 2017. It, too, played host to a range of gatherings, from community events and movie nights to industry networking sessions.

The first exhibition in the new space, “Bright Ruin,” presents 35 new mixed-media works and sculptural installations by Atkinson that explore themes of decay and renewal, beauty and destruction and the cyclical nature of death and rebirth as it relates to the self. She curated the show—her first foray into curation, and putting together “Bright Ruin” was not only a curatorial challenge but also a level-setting exercise. “Leading with my own work was a deliberate choice,” she says. “This is my creative home, and I wanted to establish its foundational energy by modeling the level of care and attention artists can expect when collaborating with me.”

We caught up with Atkinson not long after the opening of the gallery’s inaugural exhibition to learn more about her motivations, what it means to have an intentionally porous gallery and how she plans to measure success.

What inspired you to found Gallery ATARAH? Does what you’re creating now build on your earlier work with The Atrium? 

Gallery ATARAH definitely builds on The Atrium in some foundational ways. Both ventures grew from a shared impulse: to elevate not only ourselves but our peers—to create infrastructure and resources where artistic communities could thrive. I co-founded The Atrium studio with close friend and fellow photographer Alicia Henderson when we were both finding our footing in New York. We identified a significant gap in Brooklyn for affordable, professional studio spaces that were clean, organized and genuinely client-worthy—something emerging creatives could sustain financially while building their practices. Like Gallery ATARAH, The Atrium was always about more than just the physical space; we invested in cultivating creative community. The Atrium hosted community gatherings, movie nights and organized industry networking. That experience only strengthened my understanding of what’s possible when you build spaces where artists can genuinely support one another.

Having my own gallery has been a goal since studying at the Brooks Institute, but the driving force was always about creating a platform where voices, mine and my peers’, could truly resonate without compromise or external pressure to conform. I’m drawn to the ethos of early galleries, where the focus centered on the work and the makers rather than celebrity or the market. Gallery ATARAH represents a chance to establish a curatorial vision that is entirely my own—a creative home where I can channel my passion for connection into celebrating authentic artistic expression. Where The Atrium was beautifully collaborative, this gallery allows me to expand my own creative practice while bringing other artists into a space designed for mutual growth.

Your inaugural show “Bright Ruin” features your own work—how do you see the gallery’s programming evolving as you bring in other artists? 

Leading with my own work was a deliberate choice. This is my creative home, and I wanted to establish its foundational energy by modeling the level of care and attention artists can expect when collaborating with me. When artists work with Gallery ATARAH, they’re not simply engaging with a curator or business owner–they’re connecting with a fellow artist who understands the language of this life, the realities of the commitment and the nature of the work itself. “Bright Ruin” also sets a precedent for what I seek from the artists I represent, not in a stylistic sense but in the thematic undercurrents of their work. I’m interested in creatives, whether self-taught or early in their careers, who are committed to producing authentic works that delve into their unique personal experiences.

As I bring in artists with aligned values and dedication to their craft, I am excited for our programming to evolve and create layered conversations, both literally on the walls and among the people in the space. I’m particularly interested in positioning contemporary work alongside vintage and antique pieces to explore how meaningful art transcends its moment of creation. I want to encourage today’s creatives to consider their work’s longevity. I believe that when something speaks through truth, it never loses its voice, and I am drawn to art whose impact transcends time and outlasts trends. This approach naturally fosters dialogue between different practices and perspectives.

Showing multiple artists together, as we’ll do regularly at the salon nights, creates opportunities for peer connection, for learning about varied processes and for voices to be heard collectively rather than in isolation. It also offers an open invitation for diverse audiences to engage, connect and feel through the work we present together. I am also excited to eventually develop partnerships with other local Brooklyn spaces so that we can cross-promote complementary resources, events and programming.

Will the gallery have an open submission process, or will you curate primarily through relationships and networks? 

Both, absolutely. Multiple entry points allow for more dynamic programming. Much of our initial programming features creative peers I’ve admired and collaborated with throughout my career and I’m drawing on relationships cultivated over 11+ years working as a freelance photographer in New York. For example, our winter solo exhibition features my friend and local artist Clara Rae, who will present her mixed-media practice spanning ceramics, textiles and painting.

That said, our website features a comprehensive open submission portal outlining various opportunities—salon nights, exhibitions, workshops, artist talks—and I actively encourage artists to indicate interest in multiple formats. It matters to me that submission carries no financial barrier. I’ve long viewed submission fees to art shows as problematic within the art industry. When artists apply to work with us, I commit to responding with equal care and I personally review every submission because I understand intimately how vulnerable it feels to put forth work for consideration.

I also welcome informal artist meetings—if an artist is curious about showing with us, I encourage them to reach out to arrange coffee at the gallery. We can discuss their practice, explore ideas and talk shop without any application pressure. Given that I’m drawn to personal, emotionally resonant work, I recognize that some artists need time and trust before opening up about their process. Establishing that foundation of safety matters deeply to me.

You’ve mentioned salon nights. Can you tell us more about what formats you’re most excited to pilot first? 

I’m genuinely excited about all our winter programming coming together. We have some wonderful events planned that each serve different purposes in building community and supporting artists, including workshops led by various creatives across different disciplines and artist talks that give space to hear directly from makers about their processes and experiences.

I’m particularly excited about a floral workshop we have in the works for October. I think community workshops and hands-on experiences let people create something of their own, connect with themselves through making and learn new skills in a supportive setting.

Even with all these different things in motion, my primary focus is getting our first salon night off the ground; I’m hoping to hold it in November. These gatherings will provide lower-pressure opportunities for multiple artists to show work simultaneously in an intimate setting, sparking creative dialogue and peer connection without the demands of a full solo exhibition.

I believe there is something powerful about the kind of open dialogue where artists can share their journeys and audiences can ask questions in a welcoming environment. What excites me most about all these different formats is the variety of conversations they’ll generate—from the hands-on making in workshops to the reflective discussions in artist talks to the visual dialogue on the walls during salon nights. Each format welcomes different people into the creative conversation in its own way.

So many galleries operate as exclusive spaces. What does it mean for you to create a gallery that is intentionally porous and accessible? 

For me, it means returning to what galleries were originally created for: prioritizing longevity and community building over immediate commercial success. Early galleries were hubs of creative conversation where artists could connect with other artists, not just sell work. As a new gallerist, I’m in this to build a sustainable model that places artists’ voices and visitor engagement at the forefront.

I want to move away from the white walls and hushed-tones approach. Galleries shouldn’t feel like spaces where you need to be silent or make yourself as small as possible. I don’t want visitors feeling like they’re an inconvenience because they’re filling the space with their energy. I want conversation in this space. When people walk in off the street, I invite them to talk with me about what they’re experiencing and how they’re feeling about the art.

When I meet with artists seeking representation, I’m more concerned with asking, “What does your work mean to you? Why are you making it? How does it impact your life?” rather than getting caught up in, “How can we market this?” While I absolutely want collectors to visit and acquire work, I’m building on the philosophy that if you create something meaningful, they will come. Authentic work speaks powerfully when given space to resonate on its own terms. By cultivating an intentionally open, welcoming and accessible environment, the focus remains on the work itself—and in that environment, both artists and audiences can build lasting connections.

How will you measure success—sales, attendance, or something less tangible? 

I suppose metrics for success will be less tangible. For me, the real measure is whether participating artists feel they’re gaining something meaningful—whether that’s through artistic inspiration or collector interest. If artists engaging with the gallery feel successful on an individual level—that participating in Gallery ATARAH’s programming through an exhibition, artist talk, workshop, or salon night was a positive experience that opened new doors, introduced new ways of thinking, sparked new questions, or inspired new work—then that’s success to me.

Additionally, I truly care about how much the artwork moves people in the community and how deeply it is engaged with. I think about a woman who recently walked in off the street. After experiencing the “Bright Ruin” exhibition, she told me how serendipitous and uplifting it felt to discover the gallery, how much the work resonated with her in that exact moment when she needed it. She felt seen. That, to me, is also success. When people experience the work and carry it with them—when it moves them in a way that stays with them personally—that’s success. And if they then share how the work made them think or feel, that impact ripples outward.

Obviously, financial viability matters—Williamsburg rent being what it is—and business success means maintaining operations, supporting a robust artist roster and hosting well-attended exhibitions where genuine engagement happens. But Gallery ATARAH’s ability to inspire connection remains the primary success metric.

How do you plan to sustain the balance between your own artistic practice and the demands of being a gallerist? Or do you see them as being complementary? 

I absolutely see them as complementary. I feel as though this space might hold more value for me than it might for a typical gallery owner because it is also the home of my personal practice. That investment keeps the gallery pointed toward its true north and the best way I can uphold Gallery ATARAH’s mission of fostering connection is by activating it through my own work—serving as a strong curatorial compass grounded in my creative practice.

Being an artist first gives me insight into what other artists are navigating professionally and what they need. I understand the business development challenges because I am working through them myself. I can support others in raising themselves up as business people because I am engaged in that same process. I speak their language—the language of the reality of being self-funded, the sacrifices, commitment and all of the hard work that goes along with being an artist. Rather than being just a curator or gallery owner, artists are connecting with someone who truly understands their journey because I’m walking the same path. This is my creative home, and I’m extending an invitation to others to participate in building it with me.

More Arts interviews

• Taymour Grahne’s Trajectory Shows How a New Generation of Dealers Is Thinking Globally

• Five Decades On, Hal Bromm Reflects On His Gallery’s History and His Own Legacy

• Roshini Vadehra Charts India’s Growing Role in the Global Art Market

• ‘Made in LA’ Captures the Creative Resilience of the Los Angeles Art Scene in a Charged Moment

• Curator Karen Comer Lowe’s Five Artists to Watch

I planned to kick this off with a fun anecdote about my daughter asking whether I knew there was a guy trapped inside the Bean, which led to a deep dive into the Man in Bean movement (Sarah Cascone’s wild dissection is the place to start). Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate is, after all, the kind of artwork people love to hate while still lining up to slap their greasy palms on it to get the same warped selfie everyone takes. But while I usually enjoy a good dunk on that sort of thing, it would tone-deaf given what’s happening in Chicago right now—from ICE patrols to the arrival of National Guard troops.

The idea that Trump could deploy those troops in Chicago—invoking the Insurrection Act in the process—is frankly dystopian and doesn’t track with my experience of the city at all. Does Chicago have crime? Yes, Chicago has crime. So does every city. More people, more problems. Is Chicago, as the president has claimed, the “world’s most dangerous city”? Please. Not even close. It’s just a city—and from everything I saw during a trip that took me from the Loop to Streeterville, from East Village to Washington Park and the Fulton Market District—it’s a surprisingly relaxed one. I only saw a sliver, but to echo the words of U.S. District Judge April Perry, I saw nothing resembling a “danger of rebellion.”

What I do see while I’m here for Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW) is beautiful in the way most urban places are beautiful—full of hard edges paired with softness and united by the widely held conviction that art is the solution to a range of challenges. Chicago’s artists—and their champions, from patrons to gallerists to curators—are as open as they are unfiltered. When I ask Scott Speh, founder of Western Exhibitions, what makes the Chicago art scene different from, say, New York or L.A., he’s quick to tell me how much he hates that question, then launches into a perfectly clear-eyed answer: “I think everywhere, people want to put on good shows. It doesn’t matter what city they’re in, they want to put forward interesting artists.”

That’s what he’s been doing for 21 years (“Chicago would be a far less interesting art city if Scott wasn’t doing what he was doing,” artist Stan Shellabarger told the Chicago Reader in 2024), and he’s in good company. Speh might resist boiling it all down, but if I had to try, I’d say Chicago’s is a scene grounded in and by the people who are in the thick of it. “In Chicago, there’s a really good ecosystem because it’s not too small and it’s not too big either,” Sibylle Friche, Document gallery partner, tells me. “You don’t get bored—there’s always enough going on.”

Enough, and then some—as is the case with Chicago Exhibition Weekend, now in its third year. Around 50 galleries and creative spaces citywide mounted shows and everything from panel discussions and artist meet-and-greets to collector tours and an art-and-tennis mixer. The whole thing is the brainchild of Abby Pucker, Gertie founder and Pritzker family scion—yes, that Pritzker family. But despite her association with big bucks and big names (Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is a cousin), Pucker is—as I find out in conversation after conversation, including with the woman herself—simultaneously down-to-earth and committed to lifting others up.

I’m here for CXW, of course, but also to figure out what makes Chicago’s art world tick. Pucker deserves serious credit for rallying next-gen patrons and collectors through Gertie’s EarlyWork program of curated cultural events. Still, she’s one voice in a glorious chorus of artists, curators and civic-minded supporters—all of whom are ready to invite outsiders like me in.

Day 0

It’s around lunchtime when I touch down at O’Hare, but I’m thrilled to find my room at Chicago Athletic Association already ready when I arrive after an uneventful ride on the Blue Line. I can see Cloud Gate from here, or at least glints of it between the leaves of Millennium Park’s many trees, which means I’m also near Jaume Plensa’s ever-smiling crowd-pleaser, Crown Fountain. It’s hours before I need to be anywhere, and my home base is steps from the Art Institute of Chicago (the second-largest art museum in the United States, after New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art), which is the perfect way to start a city fling with art.

In the elevator, someone cheerfully asks if I’m headed out to see the Bean. “Sure am,” I answer—and I’m that suggestible because suddenly I feel compelled to make that my first stop. Close up, it’s filthy, covered in smeary handprints and streaks, but from a distance, framed by the city skyline, there’s a drama to it I wasn’t expecting. I take selfies from afar but resist the urge to touch it. I left my sanitizer back in the room—rookie mistake.

On a normal trip, I’d budget at least five hours for the Art Institute, but this isn’t a normal trip, so I focus on the heavy hitters: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Van Gogh’s The Bedroom. Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Grant Wood’s American Gothic. My all-time favorite Cézanne, Basket of Apples. I’m waylaid early on by the Elizabeth Catlett show, “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,” a fantastic career survey on view through early next year and worth the flight. In Gallery 262, everyone is clustered around Nighthawks, which is among the least interesting paintings there—though it’s definitely bigger than you’d expect. Far more captivating are Peter Blume’s weirdly brilliant The Rock (commissioned for Fallingwater but rejected for being too big) and Kay Sage’s deliciously desolate In the Third Sleep. There’s even an early cubist-expressionist Pollock, which feels like spotting a celebrity before their glow-up.

And so it goes. The Art Institute of Chicago is home to paintings we’ve all seen a hundred times on mugs, tote bags and in movies—you can have your Ferris Bueller moment in front of the Seurat—but it’s the lesser-known gems that really sparkle. There’s a stellar selection of Georgia O’Keeffe’s works (Ballet Skirt or Electric Light is a standout) and Alma Thomas’ Starry Night with the Astronauts. Other highlights: William Zorach’s Summer, Marsden Hartley’s Movement, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones’ Shop Girls and Mary Cassatt’s The Child’s Bath.

Time-bound as I am, I feel like I’m jogging through the galleries. (Fun fact: Large as the museum is, less than 20 percent of the collection is on display at any given time.) I pause for a late lunch at the café—great food—and sit in the garden for a charming little reset before diving back in. Monet’s stacks of wheat remind me what repetition can achieve. There are Van Goghs here you haven’t seen on a million mugs, but don’t skip the Pissarros. I breeze through the Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Egyptian galleries but somehow miss the entire Asian art collection. I cap off my visit at Marc Chagall’s America Windows and leave feeling artistically overfed yet hungry for more.

After a stop back at the hotel, where I freshen up and check out Andi Crist’s Precautionary Measures, a site-specific installation that transforms symbols of caution and containment into a new visual language (then installed at Chicago Athletic Association), I hop on the train toward 400 N. Peoria. It’s the hub of CXW and the site of “Over My Head: Encounters with Conceptual Art in a Flyover City, 1984–2015,” a special exhibition curated by Gareth Kaye and Iris Colburn and presented by Abby Pucker’s Gertie.

The weather is perfection—so close to ideal it’s practically invisible. But I’m off to an inauspicious start. My GPS goes haywire, and I’m spinning around River North in a mild panic, trying to figure out where the hell I am. And once I do, I’m unfashionably early—as in, they’re-still-setting-up-the-bar early. But someone lets me in, and the bartenders take pity on me, which is how I score a private preview of the show. I spend an embarrassingly long time standing in the room where Jordan Wolfson’s hypnotic Perfect Lover (2007), one of my favorite works, is playing on a loop.

As the gallery fills, I’m still feeling untethered. I spot Tony Karman. I eavesdrop on conversations, playing a game of Artist, Collector or Scenester? I linger by Wendy Jacob’s Untitled (1988), watching it breathe, then lose myself in Rashid Johnson’s Remembering D.B. Cooper (2013), until Ellen Kaulig, chief of staff at the Chicago Reader, saves me from myself by introducing me to Pucker. In a relatively quiet spot under the stairs, she tells me how Chicago Exhibition Weekend evolved over three years and where the idea for “Over My Head” came from.

“It’s a bit of a double entendre—being a flyover city, right? People don’t often attribute movements like conceptual art to Chicago, but it is an amazing nerve center of that,” she says, calling the planning phase a whirlwind. “We talked to these absolute icons. People like Karsten Lund, Helyn Goldenberg, Laura Paulson, John Corbett and Jim Dempsey… just people who have been integral to this area for so many years.” Chicago’s art elite were, she said, excited to share, and the resulting show collected work from Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Dara Birnbaum, Rosemarie Trockel, Martin Puryear, Tony Lewis and others.

“They don’t think so highly of themselves that they’re detached from reality,” she adds. “They’re around. I think sometimes that might work to our detriment, because it’s hard to brand something as cool when it’s so inviting—but it’s fucking cool to be invited.”

That word—invited—comes up again when I talk to Chanelle Lacy, Gertie’s director of art initiatives, about the crossover between CXW and EarlyWork: “We want to lower barriers to entry. We try to demystify things because once you actually get into it, it’s not that scary. The art world looks a little intimidating from the outside. We want to expose people to the finer side of things and be a lifeline. And everything is very serious—it’s about making it more approachable, so people feel invited into the experience.”

The exhibition dinner is where I meet Friche, along with Carla Acevedo-Yates (if the name’s familiar, it’s because she’s on the documenta 16 curatorial team), several dealers and a cadre of arts-friendly businesspeople and politicians. I stay and schmooze for as long as I can before exhaustion sets in.

Day 1

I’d planned to follow one of the curated routes that the CXW team had Chicago artists, gallerists and creatives put together, but last night Friche hand-drew me a one-of-a-kind mapped itinerary—and how could I possibly say no to that? But Chicago’s art museums don’t open until 10 a.m., and the galleries open even later, so I decide to wander toward Lake Michigan. I get sidetracked by the absolute unit of a fountain in the distance—it’s Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain—and I start heading that way, thinking it can’t be too far. And it’s not, technically, but its sheer scale plays tricks on your senses. I know I’m close when I pass Turtle Boy and Dove Girl and the North Rose Garden, which must be stunning at the height of summer, and then I keep going for a quick peek at Magdalena Abakanowicz’s leggy Agora.

I haven’t even officially started my day, but I’ve already clocked more than a mile—according to Friche’s map, in the wrong direction. After an about-face, I get plenty of lake views on my three-mile walk to the MCA Chicago, which is showing “City In A Garden: Queer Art and Activism” and “Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me,” along with “Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera” across all three floors of the museum’s stairwell galleries. Like the Art Institute, MCA Chicago is a feast, but a much more digestible one. You can see everything in a couple of hours, which is ideal because my weekend itinerary is threatening to become an endurance sport.

First stop: Patron Gallery for Bethany Collins’s “DUSK,” which is nuanced but underwhelming as presented—or maybe I’m too overstimulated post-museum to process it properly. Next up: Western Exhibitions, Document, Volume Gallery and David Salkin Creative, which all share a floor at 1709 West Chicago Avenue. Friche is in, and she tells me the neighborhood is a hub for emerging contemporary art, but you’ll also find heavy-hitters like Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and Corbett vs. Dempsey. “It definitely concentrates a lot of the scene,” she says. “And it feels pretty supportive—we each have our own identity. I think it’s hard to find programs in Chicago that resemble each other. I’m not saying anything negative about New York, but sometimes you go to Chelsea and see the same kind of painting shows over and over. I feel like here, you don’t have that.”

Unlike Scott Speh, she’s more than happy to talk about what makes Chicago’s art scene unique: “Because our overhead is manageable, it’s more accessible to open spaces and experiment. Eventually, you get a bit more constrained by the commercial aspects—if you want longevity, you do need to sell some art. That affects your choices. But there’s still a bit more breathing room here than in the coastal cities, given how unaffordable things have become in San Francisco and New York.”

I linger over Kiah Celeste and Gordon Hall’s work at Document and Journie Cirdain’s “The Gloaming” at Western Exhibitions before briefly popping into “Porfirio Gutiérrez: Modernism” at Volume Gallery. Then I’m back out on the streets, where I’m spoiled for choice but already flirting with art fatigue. Sadly, Monique Meloche Gallery isn’t opening its Luke Agada and Braxton Garneau show until tomorrow, so I make my way to Mariane Ibrahim for “Yukimasa Ida: Flaming Memory.” It is, in a word, transcendent. I stand for a long time in front of each painting, hypnotized by the massive brushstrokes and thick layers of paint that blur into half-remembered faces—like fragments of a dream fading faster than I can hold on.

I think about squeezing in a few more galleries, but once again, I’ve grossly underestimated Chicago’s distances—and I’m hitting the wall. In a way, it’s fortuitous: I return to my hotel to the news that the iconic Agnes Gund has passed away, and her obit is waiting in my production queue. I edit, publish and then dash out to gape at the Chicago Picasso before hopping on the train to yet another neighborhood: Washington Park.

I’m here to see a different side of the art scene and join the large crowd gathered at the Green Line Performing Arts Center for a tour of the imagined Washington Park Public Art Corridor. In several batches, a trolley ferries us to Amanda Williams’ Other Washingtons at 51st and S. King Drive, the future site of Breath, Form & Freedom, created by the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation to honor victims of police torture, and Arts + Public Life’s Arts Lawn for a preview of Yvette Mayorga’s City Lovers in Paradise. I learn more about Chicago’s recent history in a few hours than I could’ve gleaned from a week of reading—and not all of it’s pretty. Back at the arts center, there’s live music, dance and collaborative art-making with artist and teacher William Estrada, who’s brought his Mobile Street Art Cart Project to the Art Lawn.

When I ask Estrada about the art scene, he’s frank. “There are a lot of spaces where not everyone is welcome, and that’s the worst part of it,” he says. “But the best part is that there’s a lot of art in Chicago, and you can see it across 77 neighborhoods. That’s the part I get really excited about—because you get to experience different art in different communities, and actually engage in conversations about what that art means and who made it with the folks who are being affected by it or get to experience it directly.”

And that’s exactly why I’m here—not only for CXW (which is fantastic) or the city’s world-class museums (also fantastic) but to understand what makes Chicago’s art pulse so distinct. Back in the Loop, I stroll around Millennium Park waiting for a text from Wilma’s letting me know my barbecue is ready. The evening is gorgeous—warm, breezy and humming with life. Kids are splashing in Crown Fountain, musicians are playing on the sidewalks, and the whole scene radiates that beautiful combination of grit and charm. I can see why so many people love it here.

Day 2

If you have limited time in Chicago—say, you’re breezing in for a weekend of art and, like me, you’ll be operating without wheels—you need to think hyper-locally. This is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own cultural flavor and art offerings. Hyde Park has the Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance Society, Hyde Park Art Center and the Logan Center Gallery (plus the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum and the DuSable Black History Museum in nearby Washington Park). Lincoln Park has the DePaul Art Museum and Wrightwood 659. Ukrainian Village and West Town boast a cluster of commercial galleries, along with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and Intuit Art Museum.

If there are specific museums or galleries you’re determined to hit, book a spot somewhere central. Because if you’re coming from New York and assuming you’ll be able to zip between neighborhoods like you’re downtown, you’re in for a rude awakening. Chicago is about ten times the size of Manhattan in terms of land area—which is why, during my final hours in town, I’m speedwalking the South Loop’s Wabash Arts Corridor. (Sidenote: I consider myself a hotel gym connoisseur, but I racked up so many steps during my two-day stay that I never once made it to the Chicago Athletic Association gym. No regrets.)

Crisscrossing streets so eerily empty of cars they feel post-apocalyptic, I admire murals not just on walls but also on doors, alleyways and parking lots. Initiated by Columbia College Chicago in 2013, the Wabash Arts Corridor project has brought more than 100 murals to the neighborhood, including We Own the Future by Shepard Fairey. I’m especially charmed by Marina Zumi’s Impossible Meeting and the candy-colored Moose Bubblegum Bubble by Jacob Watts, and wish I had more time to wander—but I need to get back to Chicago Athletic Association for my final art experience of the trip: the “City as Platform” breakfast conversation.

On my straight-line power walk back to my hotel, I marvel at Chicago’s abundant parking—a downright shocking sight for a New Yorker—and pause to peer into the windows of Elephant Room Gallery, one of many I didn’t make it to, which is showing Darin Latimer’s solo exhibition “Rhinoceros.” Other things I don’t do in Chicago: participate in the “Throw your phone into a body of water!” activation by Weatherproof, which invited art lovers to toss their phones into any handy body of water on September 19, 20 or 21 whenever the numbers on a clock added up to four in military time (e.g. 0400 or 2200)—though I was sorely tempted. Attend the Improvised Sound Making at The Franklin. See “Alex Katz: White Lotus” at GRAY. Visit the National Museum of Mexican Art and the National Veterans Art Museum.

Before the talk—an engaging conversation between Kate Sierzputowski (artistic director of EXPO CHICAGO), Nora Daley (co-chair of the Chicago Architecture Biennial), Christine Messineo (Frieze director of Americas) and, no surprise, Abby Pucker, who greets me warmly, by name, when I check in. As Sierzputowski notes when the convo kicks off, the panel “reflects the best of what Chicago has to offer: collaboration across sectors, deep civic commitment and a shared mission to place the city’s cultural work on a global stage.” Daley calls CXW a “cultural palooza” and declares that “Chicago shows up,” which is something I see in action, over and over, during my short time here. “I think it’s who’s in the room at these dinners is what makes this work,” Sierzputowski agrees—whether that’s gallerists, artists, curators, museum directors and civic leaders or, as Pucker reminds us, engaged corporate entities committed to supporting the arts in Chicago.

“The creative economy contributes massively to city revenues, yet the people in power often don’t see or understand it,” she says. “We’ve seen perception hurt Chicago. Every city has problems—but if the media only amplifies those, we lose people. Art and culture can bring them back.”

Ironically, the end of the conversation marks the close of my 48 hours of art in Chicago. As I ride the Blue Line back to O’Hare, mulling over everything I’ve experienced, it hits me: as thrilling as it is to be here during Chicago Exhibition Weekend, there’s too much on the CXW agenda and not enough time to do it. What I experienced in two days was barely a teaser of what this city has to offer. So with that in mind, Abby, if you’re reading this, I have three words for you: Chicago Exhibition Week. Think about it.

A few months back, when high-profile gallery closures were making headlines and the commercial art world was considering what a new-era gallery model might look like, dealer Hal Bromm was putting the finishing touches on his namesake gallery’s 50th-anniversary exhibition. Five decades is a remarkable lifespan for any gallery, but it is even more impressive when you consider that Hal Bromm Gallery was the first contemporary art space to open in what would become Tribeca. The exhibition “50: The View from Tribeca,” which runs through November 29, 2025, builds on the gallery’s previous anniversary exhibitions (“TEN,” “20,” “30,” “40”) with works by key artists from the gallery’s half-century.

Behind the gallery’s lengthy run is Bromm, a defining presence in both contemporary art and the neighborhood where he mounted shows of work by quintessential New York artists such as John Chamberlain, Rosemarie Castoro, David Wojnarowicz, Kiki Smith, Martin Wong and Donald Judd. Luis Frangella and Keith Haring had their first solo shows at Hal Bromm Gallery, which developed a reputation for supporting emergent and experimental talent, showing work by artists like Jeff Wall, Robert Longo and David Salle early in their careers. Looking beyond the downtown avant-garde, Bromm organized international exchanges, bringing work by Italian artists such as Alighiero Boetti, Paolo Icaro, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini and Michele Zaza to New York and introducing U.S. artists to Italy.

In NEW ART, OLD BUILDINGS: STORIES FROM HAL BROMM’S TRIBECA, originally conceived by former directors Logan Payne and Katie Svensson and published to mark the gallery’s golden anniversary, painter Lucio Pozzi says, “I never consider [Bromm] a gallerist but a collaborator integral to thinking and doing the art.” And he’s not the only one. Flip through and there’s Robert Yasuda calling the gallery a “sustaining presence” and Gracie Mansion calling Bromm one of the “most loyal dealers.” There’s a distinct throughline across pages: Bromm’s commitment to collaboration, his discerning eye, his willingness to experiment and his overall thoughtfulness. Sur Rodney sums it up tidily when he writes, “Hal has always stayed committed to the artists he continues to admire, and that is why he is so loved.”

Hal Bromm Gallery is something of a rarity in the art world—visionary yet humble, relatively modest in scale while being outsized in its influence and looked on with affection by those in its orbit. Much, it would seem, like the man himself. I couldn’t make it to the opening of “50: The View from Tribeca,” but I was able to connect with Bromm to ask him what it is about his approach that has allowed his gallery to outlast so many others. His answers to my questions reflect both the attentiveness and the graciousness for which he is known.

You’ve been in Tribeca for a long time. What did ‘Contemporary’ mean on day one, in pre-brand Tribeca? How has it changed?

In reflection, ‘Contemporary’ in 1975 seemed more adventurous. Opening our first show on Beach Street was not predicated on how well it would sell, but rather focused on sharing unknown work from London with a new audience. Beach Street was an outpost in an area few people knew, so coming that far downtown was an adventure, a mark of someone who was a true art aficionado. The galleries that followed ours were well outside the mainstream, breaking new ground by showing relative unknowns. Today’s influx of galleries to Tribeca is rewarding, and among those new to the area are spaces that focus on new art. Along with that is also a focus on historically unappreciated artists, so the word ‘Contemporary’ in 2025 has a new meaning.

Do you feel that your gallery played a role in shaping the neighborhood’s cultural identity as it exists now?

Hal Bromm Gallery in the ‘70s was a pioneer space that helped introduce a new neighborhood to collectors both outside the city and above 14th Street. Opening a space in an unknown area made the gallery a destination, perhaps even a novelty, and with time, public familiarity with the area grew. As an early homesteader in what became Tribeca, I was something of a PR guy promoting the area, and by the mid-1980s became involved in the effort to protect the historic character of the mercantile buildings that make up much of the neighborhood. After Edward Albee, Bob DeNiro and Jim Rosenquist agreed to sign on to a “Dear Neighbor” letter urging residents to join the preservation effort, things really took off. The media attention helped push the Landmarks Commission to act, ultimately protecting four small historic districts within Tribeca by 1991. That in turn drew more interest from potential residents who relished the idea of living in a converted loft building that would not be subject to unsympathetic change. The 50th-anniversary book we just published, NEW ART, OLD BUILDINGS: STORIES FROM HAL BROMM’S TRIBECA, explores this history in depth.

Fifty years is a long time. How have you seen collector priorities change over five decades? What’s changed about discovery?

In the early decades, it was rewarding to work with collectors who bought work they enjoyed, unconcerned by what others might think of their choices. Many younger collectors we work with today share that sensibility, but there are some whose focus seems to be more on what they should buy, as opposed to buying what they like. Looking back, I remember Milton Brutten, based in Philadelphia, who engaged with artists and became deeply involved in works by those he collected. His collection was utterly personal. Elaine Dannheisser was another independent thinker. She joked that her circle of friends included collectors who would check in with frequent phone calls to learn what new artists she had discovered, often following her lead. Perhaps today there is too much concern for a young artist’s track record, level of exposure and media attention. Social media can detract from seriously considering an artwork and lead to instant decisions that can be misguided.

Edward Albee was a collector who looked at art carefully, believing that revisiting art in any form (a film, play, opera, sculpture, painting, etc.) was important to understanding it. I’m not sure many people follow that advice today, but it is good practice.

Among the decade-marker shows—“TEN,” “20,” “30,” “40”—and now “50: The View from Tribeca,” are there curatorial throughlines that tie the five anniversary chapters together beyond the gallery’s longevity?

With each anniversary, it felt important to look back at the previous ten years and draw from the works and exhibitions. Yet looking back, the curatorial lines really changed with each decade. At “TEN,” we were young enough to have only a few years to ponder, but by “30” so much had shifted, both culturally and socially. AIDS had taken a horrendous toll in the art world, and we decided to dedicate the 30th Anniversary to the lives of four artists whose works we had championed early on: Carlos Alfonzo, the Cuban artist who had come to Florida as part of the Mariel Boatlift; Luis Frangella from Argentina, who had come to the U.S. to study at MIT and then landed in NYC by the early ‘80s; Keith Haring, the SVA student of Lucio Pozzi who sought approval to forego a degree as his irrepressible talent was bursting forth; and David Wojnarowicz, whose cruel childhood led him to flee his home for the streets of New York. For the “40” show, we included works by virtually every artist who had ever been shown at the gallery, a monumental task but richly rewarding. “50” presents a more focused view, highlighting works by both well-known and younger artists.

What are you most excited about with regard to this particular decade-marker exhibition?

Much of the excitement for the 50th Anniversary has been the relationship between the exhibition and the book that accompanies it. “The View From Tribeca” exhibition relates directly to the stories in NEW ART, OLD BUILDINGS. The book was the brainchild of early gallery director Logan Payne, who in her years with the gallery designed and edited the MOVING 1977 catalogue, the “TEN” catalogue, and more. Logan and her co-editor Katie Svensson have produced a wonderful collection of stories from artists, collectors, critics, curators and gallery friends that chronicle the gallery’s 50-year history through the personal lens of each contributor. While I was drawn into the book to help with some of the actual history, it is really the story of the many wonderful people in the Hal Bromm Gallery ‘family.’

If you could restage any exhibition from the gallery’s 50 years, exactly as it hung, which would it be?

Tough question. Our Rosemarie Castoro memorial exhibition, “Rosemarie Castoro: 1939 – 2015,” celebrated the career of a major artist whose death ended a career that extended back to the 1960s. Castoro’s early Prismacolor Pencil Paintings were first shown at our Ten Beach Street loft. Rosemarie was a personal friend, and curating an exhibition honoring her life was not easy, but the exhibition won kudos. We included a panel discussion with Barbara Rose and Alexandra Anderson, two critics who had early on promoted her work. Castoro established herself in the late ‘60s as one of the few well-recognized female painters among the New York Minimalists. The retrospective exhibition celebrated the uphill climb that Castoro’s friends and peers, including Eva Hesse, Ree Morton and Hannah Wilke, faced. Like them, Castoro was often overshadowed by men, including her then-husband Carl Andre and their friends Sol LeWitt, Frank Stella, Mark di Suvero and Robert Smithson. As that shifted in recent decades, the pioneering work of Rosemarie and other women of her generation has received well-deserved attention.

For reasons already mentioned, our 30th-anniversary exhibition would be another I’d happily repeat, honoring dear friends whose lives and careers were cut short by AIDS.

Our 1978 exhibition honoring the life of Andre Cadere is another. A solo show of new works, long planned with Andre, was abruptly ended by his sudden death only months before. Rather than cancel, we borrowed works from collectors to hold a memorial exhibition in his honor. It was a beautiful tribute, but of course, nothing was for sale.

Lest you assume that I only have fondness for tributes, I’d also be glad to restage our first solo shows with Keith Haring, Luis Frangella, David Wojnarowicz, the Russian painter Natalya Nesterova and most recently Joey Tepedino.

You’ve weathered a lot of storms (9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, etc.) and come out ahead. What’s your secret of survival?

Perhaps the answer is optimism. Generally, I look for the good in people and the positive in bad situations, keeping faith there is always a blue sky ahead. You don’t mention the 1987 Stock Market Crash, but that was fairly traumatic for many East Village colleagues, young dealers who had by then established themselves but perhaps become a bit overleveraged. Seeing so many talented people give up was tough. 9/11 was horrible on every level, and the sense of being close to an unfolding tragedy (the gallery is just a few blocks from the WTC), yet powerless to assist, was unbearable. While it was clear that life above 14th Street was relatively normal, downtown was at first unreachable, and the gallery closed. Camping out in a hotel was no fun, and trying to function outside the office was nearly impossible. After a forever few weeks, friends were coming downtown to the gallery, uplifting our morale, taking us to dinner. The love we’ve felt today, celebrating the 50th Anniversary, reminds me of that time. Those relationships are the essence of a good life.

The pandemic was different: everyone was affected. Online became our lifeline with the gallery space shut down. While I still relish sharing art in person in the gallery space, the reality is that many collectors are now comfortable viewing art remotely.

We’ve seen a recent wave of closures and ‘sunsets’ from respected, well-established galleries (from Marlborough to Kasmin’s transition and other high-profile exits). What do you see as the keys to avoiding burnout in an ever-more-frenetic art market?

Maybe the best answer is to not over-expand? Perhaps closures are not so much due to burnout as to other factors. Every closure is different, unique to gallery owners and their circumstances. Knoedler was perhaps the most infamous case, with clear fault lines in play.

I remember deciding to head off my own burnout by getting back to only one New York City location. When we opened the East Village gallery, it was exciting and stimulating, but several years later, it was clear that managing two spaces, two sets of staff and all that entailed was pulling me further from engaging with art and artists. I value contact with not only artists but what I call the gallery family: critics, writers, curators, collectors. The weight of bureaucracy began to impinge on those connections. When we eventually closed Avenue A at the end of the ‘80s I missed the great space we had and the vibe of the neighborhood, but it was a pleasure to be free of so much busywork.

Not to be morbid, but what does succession look like for an independent gallery with a 50-year identity—continuity through team, foundation or a defined wind-down plan?

The gallery team is quite young and full of enthusiasm and energy. I hope that the gallery will continue to thrive through their good work, even if I begin to step back. While there are no plans for that, one must face the unpredictability of life. And as my friend Marcia Tucker once told Lisa Phillips (now retiring as director of the New Museum), don’t die behind your desk.

What is perhaps another question related to the life of a gallery is whether galleries as physical spaces will ever regain the appeal and importance to collectors they once had. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, visiting galleries was a regular pastime for many people, even if they were only window shopping. Out-of-state and international visitors called ahead to plan time together, and lunches and dinners during their visits were a particularly beautiful way to stay in touch and share new works. There does seem to be a cultural shift toward art fairs replacing the gallery experience. While we have exhibited in fairs around the world, including Basel, Zurich, Chicago, Bologna and other venues, it was at a time when fairs played a very different role.

Today, for some collectors, gallery visits seem like a rarity. There are dealers who no longer have a gallery space, maintaining only an office to support fair attendance. Others have entire staffs dedicated to perpetually preparing for their next fairs, which seem to come with increasing frequency. Observer lists over 160 fairs worldwide this year. In December, fourteen fairs will come and go during Miami Art Week. In New York, more than twelve fairs are scheduled for next spring. While the 37th edition of the October ADAA flagship art fair has been canceled, it is clear that the public supports attending art fairs, even though, unlike galleries, they must pay for the privilege. I recall Roberta Smith’s reminder to the public on the rich variety of art available in the city’s many galleries, all on view for free.

What advice would you give a young gallerist hoping for career longevity?

I will never forget Paula Cooper’s advice to me when she heard I was opening a gallery: don’t expect to make any money. How true that was at the beginning, but fortunately, things picked up quickly. To young dealers now, I’d say let passion lead you to a carefully considered business plan. If you believe in the work of the artists you exhibit, always invest in their work. Norman Braman, the Miami-based art collector, once responded to a question about art advisers. He replied that gallery owners who invested their own money in the art they exhibited were the best art advisers. As a dealer, your commitment to your artists is important when you are promoting their work to your clients.

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The crown jewel of this year’s Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week was the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Afropolitan Ball—a glittering, high-octane gala that raised more than $1 million for the institution’s programming. The black-tie fête once again drew a mix of power players from art, fashion, entertainment and philanthropy, all converging at the San Francisco Ferry Building to see and be seen while celebrating MoAD’s 20th anniversary.

Spotted in the cosmopolitan crowd were artists Mary Graham, Mildred Howard, Cheryl Derricotte, Mikael Owunna, Marta Thoma Hall, Ayana V. Jackson, Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, Gustavo Nazareno, Ramekon O’Arwisters and Lava Thomas and gallerists Francesco Dama, Ashara Ekundayo and Jeremy Patricia Stone. Also in attendance were San Francisco Director of Cultural Affairs Ralph Remington, political powerbroker Willie L. Brown Jr., arts patron Irwin Federman, multihyphenate creator Joy Ofodu, director and screenwriter Maya Forbes and China Forbes, lead singer of Pink Martini. The latter are sisters, MoAD board members and daughters of board vice chair Peggy Woodford Forbes, founder and former CEO of Woodford Capital Management. (Supporting MoAD, it seems, runs in the family.)

Kicking off the evening’s festivities, event chair Eric McDonnell took the stage to spotlight MoAD’s achievements over two decades before Woodford Forbes honored the museum’s founding board, including Belva Davis, inaugural board president and the first African American woman television reporter on the West Coast. MoAD executive director and CEO Monetta White then unveiled the museum’s new mandate. “We step boldly into the future with a new mission, to place contemporary art and artists of the African Diaspora at the center of the global cultural conversation,” she said. “This is not just a statement, it is a charge. A charge to lift up the voices of artists from the African Diaspora and to make sure their contributions are not at the margins, but at the very center of culture.”

Once the speeches concluded, auction specialist Naomi Lewis rallied the glitterati to raise their paddles for experiences including a Donum Estate wine tasting and a private dinner with White and curator Key Jo Lee. A spellbinding performance by Alonzo King LINES Ballet followed—offering a preview of its upcoming collaboration with Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding—before DJ Novena Carmel took over the balcony, spinning a genre-spanning set that kept guests dancing late into the night.

Eric McDonnell, Monetta White, Ralph Remington and Key Jo Lee

Naomi Lewis

Maya Forbes and China Forbes

Mikael Owunna

Ayana Jackson, Gustavo Nazareno, Lava Thomas and Yasmin Lambie-Simpson

Robin Washington and Carl Washington

Toye Moses and Alma Robinson Moses

Willie Brown and Monetta White

Luke Liss, Peggy Woodford Forbes and Shana Simmons

Brandin Vaughn and Gustavo Nazareno

Joy Ofodu

Chuck Collins, Paula Collins and Ralph Remington

Concepcion Federman and Irwin Federman

Key Jo Lee, Lava Thomas, Ashara Ekundayo and Richard Beavers

Naomi Lewis and Ramekon O’Arwisters

Charisse Howse and David Howse

Queen Beatrix International Airport has a reputation for being nightmarish in a way that, I’m glad to say, didn’t align with my experience of traveling to and from Aruba. Then again, I visited well outside the peak mid-December to mid-April season—so who knows what horrors await those chasing Carnival and sub-90 temperatures. But I like it hot, so Aruba’s weather works for me all twelve months of the year. And anyway, I’m here for the art fair.

For many, the phrase “art fair” conjures something specific: a maze of white-walled booths where dealers and buyers parley in hushed tones over five- and six-figure deals. The atmosphere? Upscale. The art? Exclusive. Aruba Art Fair, by contrast, is intentionally inclusive. Beyond the four curated spaces, booths line the streets of San Nicolas—any artist who wants to participate can participate.

But here’s the thing about art in Aruba more broadly: if you want to experience it outside the fair, you’ll have to put in more than a little effort. This isn’t exactly an arts destination… yet. If Aruba Art Fair founder Tito Bolivar has anything to say about it, it will be—and probably within a few short years. For now, I’ll be completely honest and say that researching art in Aruba for this story was frustrating. The island’s own website suggests visiting Unoca, “the island’s national gallery,” which definitely did exist at one point but doesn’t seem to anymore. Several gallery lists I find are actually lists of tattoo parlors. The island’s commercial galleries are mysteriously hard to find when you search for ‘Aruba art galleries,’ even though they’re a major part of the art scene. And as is often the case in smaller destinations, artist-run and retail galleries open and close with a frequency that makes putting together an arts-focused itinerary in advance a challenge.

That said, art in Aruba isn’t confined to galleries. It’s in the hotel rooms. It’s on the walls of businesses. It’s in the caves. It looms over the roundabouts. It’s even on the houses—part of a tradition stemming from the 19th-century Indigenous artisan Simon Donata and later refined by Janchi Christiaans and Goy Semeleer, who are credited with popularizing the Cas Floria (decorated houses) style. I’m here to see all the art I can find in Aruba and to see it all on my own, though don’t take that to mean I’ll be lonely. I was traveling solo long before we could dull discomfort with a swipe of the screen, and I’m comfortable in new geographies with only my own thoughts for company. One thing I’m here to find out is what it’s like to travel alone in a destination that’s marketed to couples as a romantic escape.

Day 0

There’s a bunch of art in the arrivals hall but no placards. I figure it’ll be easy to find more information now that I’m here, and maybe I’m not trying hard enough, but the best I can dig up is that these works are by Aruban artists. One piece is definitely Elisa Lejuez Peters’ We Kiss the Joy as It Flies. And there’s a sculpture garden with work by Ciro Abath, Miriam de L’Isle, Ryan Oduber, Omaira Silva, Osaira Muyale, Gilbert Senchi and Stanley Kuiperi. But search results for Aruba airport art are dominated by the 2023 unveiling of a statue (also by Senchi) commemorating the island’s first seaplane landing in 1923. I drive past it after securing my rental, and it hits me as I’m going around yet another roundabout that this is only the second time I’ve driven in a foreign country. But it doesn’t feel all that foreign, since I live in Massachusetts, arguably the U.S. capital of roundabouts.

I’m headed to The West Deck for my first taste of Aruban cuisine, which I’ll later learn is a mashup of Indigenous, African, Dutch, South American and Asian influences with a heavy emphasis on seafood for obvious reasons. I park in a patch of shade I drive over the sidewalk to reach—from what I can tell, parking in some parts of Aruba can be a free-for-all. “Table for one,” I tell the hostess. (To the uninitiated, I say try solo dining at least once in your life. It’s delightful when you realize no one cares that you’re eating alone. At most, you’ll get some friendly, good-natured ribbing from waitstaff, which is what happens here, but it’s the kind of teasing that makes you feel not just welcome but at home.) The West Deck sits over Governor’s Bay Beach, a quiet stretch of white sand with more pelicans and terns than people. The sky is a painterly blue with picture-perfect clouds, and the airport’s runway is close enough for plane spotting but far enough away that all I hear is the gentle lapping of the waves.

I order passionfruit juice and tamarind juice, Trocadero garlic shrimp, salad and banana (which here means plantains), and I munch while thinking about what to do next. There are no art museums in Aruba, so I’m hunting for galleries and open studios. For fine arts, there are Tito Bolivar’s two commercial galleries in San Nicolas—ArtisA Gallery and Space21.art—both of which I’m scheduled to visit later. Artist Elisa Lejuez Peters has a gallery in Noord, open by appointment, but I’ll be meeting her at the fair. Most of what I find are the aforementioned retail galleries geared toward tourists—not really my thing. Interestingly, there are also several art cafés, including Aruflamingo in San Nicolas and Artitudes Art Cafe in Oranjestad. I wasn’t kidding when I said art is everywhere.

There’s even art at the donkey sanctuary, which is where I head next, operating under the assumption that my room at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort couldn’t possibly be ready (it was). Donkey by Sandy Bruynzeel sits atop a concrete plinth in the enclosure where rescue donkeys and visitors are free to wander. It’s hot and dusty, and I’ve been up since 4 a.m. at this point, but I am in heaven because I’m hugging donkeys. Absolute loads of adorable donkeys. Whatever you are in Aruba for, make time to visit the donkeys—you will not regret it. Unfortunately, I need to freshen up before my aloe scrub class at six, but I hug and pet as many donkeys as I can before climbing back in the car.

Check-in at Bucuti & Tara ruins me for all other check-ins. I’m halfway out of the rental with my suitcase when a porter appears with a cart. I say I’m checking in, he says my name into his earpiece and my luggage vanishes. I turn around, and there’s a concierge with an icy cold scented washcloth, which I wrap around my neck, and once we’re inside, she hands me a glass of champagne. During check-in, she takes my photo, and during my stay, I’m addressed by name several times without ever needing to give it. My bag is waiting in my room, along with a Bucuti & Tara water bottle, engraved champagne flutes and a selection of snacks. A large painting by Elisa Lejuez Peters hangs on the wall.

All around the property, as you might expect, I’m surrounded by couples. Couples in the pool. Couples walking by as I learn about the history of aloe in Aruba and make a custom sugar scrub with an aloe master from Royal Aruba Aloe. Couples working out together in the gym. (Note: I am a hotel gym connoisseur, and I can say without a doubt that Bucuti & Tara has the best and most well-appointed gym of any resort I’ve ever visited.) Couples dining at Elements, where I eat a fabulous dinner of corvina and drink several different mocktails while watching the sun set over the Caribbean. But far from feeling awkward, it means I’m in no danger of a friend or family group trying to adopt what they think is a sad solo traveler. Keep in mind I have two children and a husband and a dog, a cat, a rabbit and four chickens. Here in Aruba, I’m free: doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it—a luxury all its own.

Day 1

I plan to eat breakfast at Bucuti & Tara or maybe Linda’s Dutch Pancake House in Noord, but I wake up before sunrise, drink too much coffee and lose any appetite I might have had. Instead, I hit the beach for a good, long swim in the near-body-temperature water. The sun is already strong when I step out onto the dry sand and make my way to my reserved umbrella, where I have not one but two lounges upon which to recline. I eventually raise my red flag, which summons a blue-shirted waiter on a Segway. I order two smoothies, both for me. Why not?

I do, however, eventually have places to be—specifically, Studio Murano Art, where I’m scheduled to take a glass-blowing class (there are also free glass-blowing demonstrations every day). Co-founder Giuliano Pinzan, who opened the studio near Ayo village in 2019, comes from an Italian family with roots in glass craftsmanship. I’m a little apprehensive about working with molten glass fresh out of a thousand-degree furnace, but it turns out that blowing glass is a team sport. I decide to make a thick-walled tumbler and choose my colors, and then I start working the black and white chunks into a blob of red-hot glass with help from Joshua before Giuliano steps in, and I’m rolling and blowing, rolling and blowing, just like in videos. It’s very cool to see my blob become a bubble and that bubble become a drinking glass. They tell me I’m catching on quickly, and I wonder if they say that to all the tourists, but my tumbler does turn out beautiful, so who’s to say?

By now, I’m starving, so when I see a food stand called La Neryi Snack, with a mascot that looks like an empanada, I flip a wild U-turn. This is the kind of thing I live for when I travel. What am I about to eat? I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out. It’s pastechi, and I buy three: one cheese, one meat, one chop suey. Delicious.

With a couple of hours to kill before my fair walkthrough, I head to Etnia Nativa. Open by appointment, which I pre-booked, this artsy attraction bills itself as “a living embodiment of Aruba’s blended culture.” (The island is smaller than Chicago but houses an astonishingly diverse population, with more than 140 nationalities represented.) It’s actually the home of artist August Anthony Croes and his wife, Silvia, and with artworks on every wall and in every corner, Etnia Nativa is very much a testament to Croes’ skill with his hands: the house was constructed almost entirely from salvaged materials—stones, wood, nails and screws he collected from construction site cleanups, with only the windows, doors, faucets and electrical fixtures bought new.

The tour itself is short, just about an hour, and our chat barely scratches the surface of Croes’ own work, which encompasses everything from the pottery and paintings mounted on the walls to the handcrafted frames that surround them. But if you’re looking for Aruban art, you’ll certainly find it here. “All the work I do has native Aruban inspiration,” he tells me. “For me, the story comes before the art. Then I try to crystallize the story into something material. Everything has a story—the clay I beat for pots, everything.” It also has native Aruban provenance; Croes prides himself on being something of a scavenger, whether he’s painting on salvaged upholstery or shaping clay from the island itself into pots modeled after archaeological finds. And alongside Croes’ artwork, there are artifacts from Aruba’s archaic and Caquetío populations: chipped hand axes used by early hunters-gatherers to open turtle shells and more polished tools that, according to Croes, reflect the more settled life of the Caquetío—the later indigenous people of Aruba—who practiced agriculture and ceramics rather than constant hunting.

Croes is passionate about many things beyond art: genealogy, archeology, politics, history—all of which we discuss as we stroll through his little living museum. “Culture is like strings—as soon as the strings break, it’s over,” he warns. “For Aruba, when the string breaks, it becomes just commercial land or a stationary cruise ship. Real culture doesn’t matter anymore—only cost and value.”

I mull that over as I head back to Bucuti & Tara to freshen up before driving nearly the length of the island to San Nicolas and the art fair for a Collector Preview Tour with curator Renwick Heronimo. When the fair launched in 2016, he explains, Bolivar initially hoped to attract international galleries by mimicking the typical fair model. “With the first edition, he realized this was going to be much more of a community-based endeavor. You have to build up your community, educate them and give them a platform for development to happen.” Heronimo sees the fair becoming more international in the next few years, “but for now, it’s very pluralistic—democratic in the sense that it allows many voices, different perspectives on art, and ways of enjoying art to be celebrated. That’s what makes this project special.”

Heronimo tells us that San Nicolas was once home to the world’s largest oil refinery—a true company town that prospered until Exxon dismantled the facility in 1985, leaving the community economically adrift. Today, there’s still talk of reopening the refinery, given that neighboring Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere. But tourism already accounts for a major portion of Aruba’s GDP, and the vision now is to transform San Nicolas into the island’s cultural capital. Aruba Art Fair—the culmination of Aruba Art Week—is just one part of that plan.

“Imagine this town before—post-industrial decline, everyone leaving for Saudi Arabia or Curaçao for oil jobs,” Heronimo says. “Buildings were abandoned. I started working with the museums, and Tito started the art fair and the mural project. The minute the murals appeared, things started changing.” Cafés, cinemas, shops and restaurants began to reopen. “Tito’s philosophy is democratic, meaning not only the top artists get to participate. He believes everyone who wants to be an artist should be able to. You can exhibit outside, get feedback and develop your process. And then we approach the most prominent and promising artists and present them in the curated shows indoors.”

The curated sections of the fair span four gallery spaces, including an unused building at the edge of town that houses more conceptual and performance-based work. These include a relational aesthetic activation with Velvet Zoé Ramos with Diamonta Kock (which I miss) and a powerful immersive performance by Natusha Croes, along with a presentation by sisterly duo KIP Republic, which you might know from their 2025 production KINGS… COME HOME at New York’s Apollo Theater. Some of the most striking work in the curated galleries is by painter and sculptor Belinda de Veer, ceramicist Helen Hoes and painter Kim Violenes, though with 100 artists showing at the fair, it’s hard to keep track. There’s just a lot of great stuff here. I saw some familiar names in the galleries—Sandy Bruynzeel, Elisa Lejuez Peters—but I eventually buy two paintings by Mauricio Ruiz, who’s showing in a booth outside. I meet glass artist and amateur archeological researcher Bernadette van der Klooster after Giuliano Pinzan spots me and calls me over; she’s showing a fascinating glass/poem/research-grounded work based on the island’s cave paintings. Surprisingly, some artists whose work has been staged in the curated spaces in previous years opt for outdoor booths in subsequent years, including one who tells me that “being outside is nice, because you have more contact with people. They stop, they talk, they want to know something about your art.”

After the walkthrough, I ask Heronimo why Aruba doesn’t have an art museum. “If you look at the quality of the art being created here—the dynamism among artists each year—it’s inevitable that people will ask: how is it possible we don’t have an art museum?” he answers. And there are, he tells me, enough local collections, both contemporary and historical, to support one. (I later learn that in 2018, European collector Jan Mol offered to gift his private collection to Aruba as the seed for a national museum of contemporary art, but it’s unclear where the project landed.) We chat a little more about art scenes around the world, and then I wonder what opening Aruba up to more cultural tourism might mean for the island. “They’re already diversifying tourism—positioning Aruba as a family destination or a getaway for solo travelers,” Heronimo says. “But it needs to be controlled. If not, locals will be shut out. Growth needs to be managed. It’s going to be shocking for many people here. But in the meantime, we build museums, we create art. That’s the therapy. That’s the future.”

The fair officially opens at 7 p.m. and runs late, though I never make it to the closing bell. If commercial fairs are one kind of overwhelming, hybrid fairs are another. Aruba Art Fair is part exhibition, part arts festival and at least two parts block party, with multiple performance stages and street vendors. There’s a whole row of people selling handmade jewelry and a special installation of artworks made by women in Aruba’s prison system. I try to see everything and give it all equal weight—I want to understand where Aruba’s art scene is and where it’s headed—but by 9:30 p.m., I hit a wall. The party continues without me.

Day 2

I wake up early. Again. After a swim, I head to the breakfast buffet at Bucuti & Tara, where I learn that the funny black birds I see everywhere on the property love scrambled eggs. Drinking my banana juice on the Elements deck, I watch them dive-bomb a woman who skipped the recommended plate cover, while two more birds eye my plate from a safe distance. Breakfast is delightful, but I don’t overdo it because I’m scheduled to spend several hours in the company of an Isla Aruba guide, bouncing along dirt paths in Arikok National Park, the vast protected space that comprises approximately 20 percent of the island and almost the entire eastern coast. You don’t strictly need a guide to visit the reserve, which has ruins, lava fields, limestone crags, caves with paintings by the island’s native Arawak people and cacti galore, but driving to conchi, the famous natural pool, can be tricky, and the hiking is hot.

Our first stop is Quadirikiri Cave, which has two large dome-shaped chambers lit by natural skylights, Amerindian petroglyphs and a population of southern long-nosed bats. But Fontein Cave is what I’m really here to see. Behind the 200-year-old graffiti scratched into the ceiling by European visitors are Arawak drawings that are at least a thousand years old. “We don’t know their meanings, but we know they depict plants, humans, animals and sometimes combinations—like visionary symbols,” my guide tells me. “Shamans were said to come in spiritual form, not human form, to make the drawings.”

It’s awe-inspiring to stand where the island’s ancient artists stood, and I wish I could spend more time here. As I’m basking in the art, my guide points out a trio of blue land crabs nestled in the crags and then casually mentions their neighbor, the giant yellow-leg centipede. I spot it at the base of a rock formation; it is literally a foot long, and just like that, I’m ready to move on.

Next up, a Garra rufa fish pedicure at the island’s only natural freshwater pond, where we have a delightful encounter with a random herd of goats, and then it’s off to the natural pool. Conchi is usually serene, but today it’s roiling. Waves crash over the rocks; currents pull strong from the south. I splash in anyway, swimming against the push of the waves to climb to the calmer “hot tub” on the opposite side, where I snorkel, spotting spiny urchins and anemones clinging to the rocks. Juvenile angelfish dart around below; crabs navigate the rocks above. The windy-day surf might not be ideal, but I have the natural pool to myself for a good quarter of an hour.

On the drive back, I sit up front and chat with my guide about raising kids, travel and what it’s like to grow up quadrilingual—as Arubans do. I tell him I’m jealous. Most Americans barely manage one other language, and I can’t help but wonder what we’ve lost because of that.

Next on my itinerary is the famous Zeerovers—part seafood shack, part rite of passage. Getting there is easy. Parking is another story: it’s another sandy lot with no marked spaces and an anything-goes vibe. When I arrive, the line is nearly out the door, and it only grows longer as I wait. By the time I reach the window where you order today’s catch by the pound, I’m hot, hangry and so I over-order by a lot. But when my tray finally arrives and I take that first bite, I’m glad I waited. Seafood lovers: brave the line. Solo travelers: bring a book.

Later that afternoon, I head back to the fair for Tito Bolivar’s mural tour. I’ve read that the murals of San Nicolas are a gift from the artists who participate in the fair, but whether or not that’s technically true, there’s clearly a strong link between each year’s fair and new murals going up. Bolivar—whose outlook on life might best be described as boundlessly optimistic—is the reason Aruba has commercial galleries at all and why Forbes named San Nicolas the street-art capital of the Caribbean. So I’m shocked to learn that he wasn’t always an art guy. He fell in love with street art, and art more broadly, in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2015—and produced the first edition of Aruba Art Fair just a year later after connecting with local artists, international artists, art influencers and culture activists.

“I wanted to do something meaningful, so we started a mural and gallery movement in San Nicolas,” he says as we stroll from one wall to the next, making it sound easy. “And because this is the island’s heart, we brought it back to life. We don’t just do the fair—we run social projects, too.” He’s facilitated art programs in Aruba’s prison and started programs in schools focused on web design, videography, music production, dance and fashion. He hosts solo shows in his galleries; in December, he’ll be bringing work by artists from his roster to Red Dot Miami. (You can check out the murals just by walking around, but the tour is absolutely worth taking if you’re staying in Oranjestad or further north—not just for the depth of Bolivar’s knowledge but for his energetic delivery.)

I spend a few more hours at the fair, wandering from booth to booth, chatting with artists, who hail from Aruba and the Netherlands and the U.S. and Colombia and lots of other places. Inside the galleries are throngs of people. Outside are throngs of partiers. An artist/illustrator whose name and Instagram handle I’ve since lost turns me into a cartoon (on the off chance you’re reading this, email me!). I sit at a long table and paint a lopsided luchador on a bottle with painter and singer Angela Croes, who serenades us as we struggle to find the spirits lurking in our recycled glass canvases. One throughline of my time here is how inclusive everything—art and otherwise—feels. I’m traveling alone, but everywhere I go, there’s good, earnest conversation and a shared appreciation for everything Aruba has to offer.

On the drive back to Bucuti & Tara on my final evening, I take a wrong turn and find myself somewhere unexpected—an upscale shopping strip. There’s a Louis Vuitton store (. Then Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada. I park and wander. Aruba is extremely safe, and I’m curious to see a little more of it in my final hours here. There are the pastel-hued Dutch colonial buildings that look like fancy tea cakes that I’ve only seen in photos. Streetcar tracks that, I learn later, are for the double-decker trolleys that shuttle cruise passengers through the capital. There are Osaira Muyale’s famous blue horses—public sculptures commemorating the island’s horse trade. And of course, bustling restaurants, casinos and nightclubs. This is Oranjestad, Aruba’s capital city and where the cruising class makes landfall. It’s charming, sure, but give me gritty San Nicolas and a chop suey pastechi over a trip to Cartier any day.

Flash forward to the next morning, and it’s Monday. My bizcation is officially over, and I wake up—yet again—stupidly early to work and then sip coffee on my balcony for much longer than I should, watching the sun come up over the palms and listening to those egg-stealing birds. I know I need to check out, head to the airport and get a few more stories filed. But I don’t want to leave. All during my trip, people kept talking about Aruba’s repeat visitors. “You’ll be back,” they’d say, and I didn’t understand—until now. I make my way down to the beach one final time to sit and stare at the turquoise waves. There’s that gentle breeze again. And I find I can’t bring myself to stand up and turn my back on the beach just yet.

I still say I’m not a sit-on-the-beach person. Unless, apparently, I’m in Aruba.

October is National Arts & Humanities Month, which launched thirty-plus years ago as National Arts Week to honor the twentieth anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts. Yet perhaps not so ironically, given the state of the arts in the U.S.’s current political climate, this year’s October art fair calendar is heavy on the international fairs, with London hosting Frieze, Frieze Masters and 1-54, along with several others, and the much-anticipated return of Art Basel Paris. The handful of domestic fairs on the list includes the inaugural edition of Affordable Art Fair Boston, while in New York, the cancellation of the 2025 edition of ADAA The Art Show has left a void. Scene newcomer Echo Soho (founded by and for female-led galleries) is stepping up.

According to our reports from on the ground, American collectors were feeling optimistic at the September art fairs (particularly this year’s Armory Show, which had healthy early sales), and it will be interesting to see whether those same collectors make their way across the pond or take a breather before the upcoming edition of Art Basel Miami Beach and all its associated satellite fairs and shows. If your plans involve doing the former, Observer’s guide to this year’s October art fairs can help you put together the perfect itinerary.

Art Now Fine Art Fair 2025

October 2-5

The tenth edition of the Art Now Fine Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind event, hosted by SaskGalleries in the Canadian prairies of Regina, Saskatchewan. Highly local, it promises an accessible and enjoyable pageant of the nation’s emerging artists; the fair’s programming includes daily conversation with presenting artists, musical performances, live artist demonstrations, guided tours of the Dimensions 2025 craftwork exhibition and the Craft Is… Fine Craft Market, organized by event partner Saskatchewan Craft Council.

Art Jakarta 2025

October 3-5

Art Jakarta is a vibrant art fair with a priority on platforming work from Southeast Asian exhibitors. Under the leadership of fair director Tom Tandio, Art Jakarta has blossomed into an internationally-acclaimed forum for artistic exchange and cultural dialogue. The fair presents a diverse catalogue of 75 exhibitors, with a dedicated section called the “Scene” for the 33 participating artist collectives, studios and projects. Other exciting features include the Portrait of Possibilities, a new entry into the monumental self-portrait series of artist Agus Suwage, comprised of 60 painted zinc panel portraits, and Reserve for Care, an interactive installation by Azizi al Majid and Nuri Fatimah framed around the multisensory experience of sitting around a table.

art3f Luxembourg 2025

October 3-5

With a whopping twenty-one fairs in eighteen cities, the international contemporary art fair art3f comes to Luxembourg twice yearly, once in spring and once in October. The focus of the latter Luxembourg edition, this year at Luxexpo – THE BOX, is squarely on friendliness and accessibility (there’s even a special kids’ section). Tickets are just ten euros, the opening night preview is open to all, and there’s an emphasis on affordability that you don’t see at many other art fairs. It’s a great place for collectors to discover artists on the rise and to relax in the presence of beautiful things—live music and a fully stocked café round out the experience. As art3f puts it, “Because life goes on and optimism takes back its rights, because you have to be positive, drink, eat, have fun, marvel, art is an excellent remedy!”

ArtVilnius 2025

October 3-5

Hosted by the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association at LITEXPO center in Vilnius, the sixteenth edition of ArtVilnius has eighty galleries and institutions participating, with over 320 artists from sixteen countries. The art fair focuses on Baltic creativity, with an emphasis on artistic practices, traditions and narratives from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Along with installation, sculpture and performance exhibitions, the event will host conversations featuring various perspectives on the implications of art collection locally, internationally and historically. ArtVilnius is also family-friendly and hosts several creative workshops ranging from tutorials on postage stamp creation to lessons in trinket collection and cataloging.

Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam 2025

October 8-12

The Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam will return to De Kromhouthal for its 19th edition with the provocative theme Nature and Connection. The fair will showcase over 1,000 works from 68 galleries exploring humanity’s relationship with the natural world, exploring nature as inspiration, subject, and occasionally, medium. The fair’s campaign artist, Koz Dos, will present his interpretation of the theme with both his featured Led Zeppelin-inspired painting, When the levee breaks, and a live painting demonstration. The Discover Programme spotlights Netherlands-based artists, Anne ten Donkelaar, Ben Rikken and Tarja Laine, while the Interactive Studio invites guests of all ages to contribute their plant to the collaborative mural. And as always, the pricing of artwork is accessible, with a new feature of eight galleries dedicated entirely to work under 750 euros.

The Other Art Fair London 2025

October 9-12

The Other Art Fair empowers both emerging artists and new collectors by lowering the barriers to entry into the contemporary art world for both. Presented by Saatchi Art, the Other Art Fair will return in East London’s The Truman Brewery with its largest edition to date, showcasing works brought by 175 artists alongside interactive installations, workshops, and a fully outfitted tasting room. Returning to the event is the Price Point Curated Hang where all works displayed are available for 300 euros and under. The fair is curious, yet charming—with a mini print vending machine stocked with the blithe illustrations of Hollie Fuller, an on-site S l o w l y tattoo studio pop-up booth, staffed by tattoo artists, Suki and Molly G and opening night life drawing workshops of the East London Strippers Collective—the event promises to be a fun, high-octane and, above all, an affordable experience.

ARTMUC 2025

October 10-12

Founded on principles of international diversity, artistic freedom, and subjective interpretation, the 2025 autumn edition of ARTMUC is slated to be the most ambitious year of the art fair’s twelve-year standing. With over 180 exhibitors, galleries and international projects from Europe, South America, India, Taiwan and Thailand, ARTMUC has declared this year’s roster the most diverse in its history. Highlighted exhibitions include the soft-sculpture, flying installation, Under Butterfly Wings, by Thai artist Rungploy Lorpaitoon, and the Indian start-up NALOM’s collection of silk scarves celebrating the extinct and endangered folk art forms of India’s remote villages. The event is priced at 17 euros for day tickets, and 18 euros for access to the full duration of the event, with free admission for wheelchair users and children under the age of 16.

Minor Attractions 2025

October 14-18

Boutique art fair Minor Attractions returns to The Mandrake in London mid-month for its third edition. This year’s roster of participants is twice as big as last year’s, with 70 galleries from across Europe, Mexico City, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Los Angeles mounting displays in the hotel’s rooms and public spaces. Beyond gallery presentations, the fair has a nightly program featuring music, film, conversation, book launches and performance that serves as a platform for emerging voices.

PAD London 2025

October 14-19

PAD London is slated to return for its seventeenth edition in mid-October with an evolved selection, but familiar intent on 20th-century design, art, photography and jewelry. This year, sixty-seven galleries from approximately twenty countries will be participating, eleven of which will be joining for the first time. Among the exhibitors are Christian and Yasmin Hemmerle, fourth-generation family jewelers renowned for their innovative works, Bryan O’Sullivan, who designs a range of pieces fitting both classical and contemporary proportions and Adrian Sassoon, the U.K.’s leading gallery for international contemporary sculptural art and design. The preamble of the 2025 PAD catalogue asserts that, at the fair, “the eye is constantly alert, the mind on the ball… taste for historical and contemporary Design is not only revealed but constructed.”

Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025

October 15-19

Frieze and Frieze Masters, the reigning headliners of London’s Frieze Week, will take to London’s iconic Regent’s Park for their 2025 edition, showcasing work from more than 280 galleries from 45 countries. At the foreground are leading local and international galleries that help to mold the dialogue around both contemporary and historical art, including London’s own Modern Art, Seventeen and The Sunday Painter. Returning to the Frieze London is the Artist-to-Artist section, spotlighting six solo presentations nominated by prolific and respected artists such as Camille Henrot, Nicole Eisenman and Abraham Cruzvillegas. Across the row, Frieze Masters will introduce a new and exciting line-up for the third iteration of its Studio section, curated by chair emerita of modern and contemporary art at The Met, Sheena Wagstaff, alongside Margrethe Troensegaard. Exploring the studio as a unique space of both culture and creation, Studio features solo presentations from Dorothy Cross, Anju Dodiya, Samia Halaby, R. H. Quaytman, Anne Rothenstein and Glenn Brown.

1-54 London 2025

October 16-19

1-54 returns this year to London’s Somerset House for its 13th edition. Founded by Touria El Glaoui, it remains the first and only international fair dedicated to African and diasporic contemporary art. Alongside artist talks and panel discussions with both emerging and established voices in the art world, 1-54 will also feature a curated Caribbean Spotlight. Of the over 50 exhibitors from 13 countries, most participants come from Africa or wider diaspora, including 193 Gallery, 50 Golborne x Project Loop and Affinity Gallery. Among various special projects and installations is Mónica de Miranda’s remarkable Earthworks installation, nested in the courtyard of Somerset House—the work utilizes stage-sculptures, vertical gardens and public space to depict an imagined terrestrial community where human and non-human life blends into one.

Echo Soho 2025

October 16-19

Founded by gallerist and art fair veteran India Rose James, the inaugural edition of Echo Soho is set to take place at the Mannette Street Artists’ House of London, offering a platform to underrepresented artists and highlighting female-led galleries. Launched as a satellite art fair of the Soho Revue, Echo Soho presents a bold and accessible alternative to the traditional art fair. Timed to coincide with Frieze Week, the fair’s highlights include performances, workshops, a special preview courtesy of the Contemporary Art Society and an AWITA-curated chapel presentation. This year’s roster of participating galleries includes Alice Black, Alice Amati, AWITA, Berntson Bhattacharjee, Gillian Jason Gallery, House of Bandits, LAMB, Liminal Gallery, Lizzie Glendinning, Pipeline, Wilder and Wondering People. Don’t miss the site-specific chapel installation by Alicja Biala with Berntson Bhattacharjee.

FOCUS Art Fair London 2025

October 16-19

For its landmark fourth edition, FOCUS  art fair will unite 42 exhibitors in London’s SAATCHI GALLERY, honing in on its foundational dedication to Asian contemporary art with a bold, transformative program. Founded in 2017 by Paris art agency HongLee Curator, FOCUS was envisioned as an interface between the physical and digital art worlds, and is one step closer to achieving this vision by availing the advanced display technology of collaborative partner, LG Electronics. In addition to exciting showcases from exhibitors such as Gore Gallery, presenting a solo show of Oliver Mourão, East Atelier Gallery Seoul and Jay Chung Gallery, there will be exhibitions from Michelin-starred Chef Kiran Kim (colloquially known as “Chef KiKi”). Kim will present her “Art on Table” performance, which melds the experience of fine art and fine dining.

Art Market Budapest 2025

October 16-19

Art Market Budapest is Central and Eastern Europe’s leading international art fair. Since its founding in 2011, it has featured exhibitors from over 40 countries with innovative and inspiring exhibitions, performances, discussions and concerts. Art Market Budapest also has a satellite fair, Art Photo Budapest, dedicated entirely to photography—the only fair of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe.

Parallax Art Fair 2025

October 18-19

Born from a provocative 2010 research exhibition in London, Parallax Art Fair has since grown into the largest indie art and design fair in Europe. With the foundational philosophy on the equality of all artists and artworks, Parallax Art Fair primarily exhibits independent artists and designers, rejecting the conventional dealer-artist dynamic that many fairs are predicated on. Instead, Parallax Art Fair keeps exhibitor space prices and break-even points low, and offers free entry to visitors. With over 10,000 works of art and design on display, Parallax Art Fair is both experimental and accessible.

OFFSCREEN 2025

October 21-26

Returning for its fourth edition to the exquisite 17th-century baroque La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, OFFSCREEN offers visitors a refreshingly active art fair experience. It features a selection of avant-garde, historical and contemporary exhibitors, underscoring installations and experimentation with the still or moving image. Programming highlights include an exhibit on the video art and sculpture of Shigeko Kubota, and showcases from 28 participants, including Maria Brunner, Laurent Lafolie and Gisela Capitain.

Affordable Art Fair Boston 2025

October 23-26

After hosting events in cities such as London, Sydney, Stockholm and Amsterdam, Affordable Art Fair is making its Boston debut in the city’s cosmopolitan South End. As this fair’s name implies, Affordable Art Fair prides itself on offering visitors an array of art priced $12,000 and under, with various monthly payment plans available. Showcasing work from both emerging and established exhibitors, workshops, interactive artist performances, kid-friendly activities, food, live music and talks, the Boston edition of Affordable Art Fair will be an eclectic yet intentional “creative smorgasbord.”

Art Toronto 2025

October 23-26

Art Toronto, Canada’s largest international art fair, is returning to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for its 26th edition with an expansive new program and a diverse roster of exhibitors. With more than 100 galleries participating, there are presenting galleries from nearly every continent, including cities across Canada, the Americas, Europe, Australia, Asia, and elsewhere. This year’s Focus Exhibition, curated by Dr. Zoé Whitley, explores the versatility of Canadian artistic practice and creative thinking, while the Discover section distinguishes a selection of gallery presentations on exceptional solo artists, including Jermay Michael Gabriel (Black Artists’ Networks In Dialogue (BAND) Gallery), Greg A. Hill (Central Art Garage) and Aline Setton (DURAN CONTEMPORAIN). Capping it all off is a new section curated by Karen Huber, Arte Sur, dedicated to the vibrant and vivid artistry of Central and South America.

Art Salon Zurich 2025

October 23-26

The founders of Art Salon Zurich, Fabian J. Walter and Sven Eisenhut, envisioned the galleries, dealers, and artists when designing the city’s newest art fair, and this ethos is clearly communicated through the fair’s fourth edition, with 40 local and international participating galleries present diverse and current works, including those by Swiss artists such as Carlos Leal and Hanna Roeckle. A first for the Art Salon Zurich, the Zilkens Best Booth Award will be presented, recognizing the outstanding curatorial approach and design execution of the winning booth. Two of the anticipated special projects are Galerie Bildhalle’s tribute to the Swiss photography pioneer, René Groebli, and the Jasmin Glaab Gallery’s exhibition, “Female Artists,” on the works of important and underrecognized contemporary artists.

Art Basel Paris 2025

October 24-26

The majestic Grand Palais, nestled on the banks of the Seine overlooking the Champs-Élysées, only further reinforces Art Basel Paris’s critical dialogue with the city’s art history. This year’s program is a celebration of the city’s prolific avant-garde movements, past and present, with 206 leading galleries participating, a variety of panels, performances and a Public Program spanning nine monumental venues across the city. Some highlights of the Public Program include the presentation by Miu Miu at the Palais d’léna, British artist Helen Marten’s 30 Blizzards, a fascinating blend of sculpture, video and libretto performance, and Alex Da Corte’s inflatable sculpture Kermit the Frog, presented by Sadie Coles HQ.

AKAA 2025

October 24-26

The Also Known as Africa art fair, or AKAA, will take place in the Carreau du Temple for its 10th edition. The fair’s mission in highlighting the diverse and thoughtful expression of African and diasporic art is paid forward with 41 participating galleries, spanning countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Caribbean. Headed by new artistic director Sitor Senghor, who has both a personal and familial history in uplifting African art, the fair will feature a monumental installation by Serge Mouangue in the central aisle of the venue. Presented by Tokyo gallery, gallery space Un, Mouangue’s The Third Aesthetic invites audiences to stop and behold its “sculptural staging imbued with collective memory,” thus making the audience collaborate in the piece’s dialogue around materiality, spirituality, and self.

Menart Fair 2025

October 25-27

Now officially part of Paris Art Week, Menart returns this year for its sixth edition with work reflecting this year’s theme, softness, which looks at the balance between vulnerability and power. The only international art fair in Europe dedicated to modern and contemporary art from the MENA region (the Middle East and North Africa), it will bring 30 galleries from a dozen countries to Galerie Joseph for discovery and meaningful exchange between institutions, art lovers, galleries and artists. Work on view will highlight the strength and power that is often present in softness and how it manifests in different contexts.

Even more October art fairs in 2025

As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the October 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 fall art fairs you might want to check out this month.

Affordable Art Fair Stockholm 2025

October 1-5

art3f Haute-Savoie 2025

October 10-12

Upstairs Art Fair 2025 (Paris)

October 22-24

Paris Internationale 2025

October 22-26

FUZE Caribbean Art Fair 2025

October 22-26

art3f Barcelona 2025

October 24-26

Lausanne Art Fair 2025

October 30 – November 2

ARTISSIMA 2025 (Turin)

October 31 – November 2

Last year, the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art (known colloquially as the Archives) marked its seventieth anniversary with a special celebration at New York’s Rainbow Room that honored Senga Nengudi, Richard Tuttle and Ann Philbin. This year’s gala was a lower-profile affair, but only marginally. Hosted at the Frick Collection, the gala unofficially opened with a private prelude moment on the museum’s upper floor for trustees and honorees before doors opened to all at six for cocktails and conversation. ​​As the sun dipped below the skyline, guests made their way to the Frick’s new auditorium for the award presentations, followed by a lively seated dinner and dessert reception.

Established in 1954, the Archives is the world’s largest repository dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing primary sources that chronicle the history of visual arts in the United States. During the evening, director Anne Helmreich echoed a sentiment shared by artist Glenn Ligon at the 2017 gala that resonated especially strongly in today’s political climate: “We need the Archives of American Art for many, many reasons, but the most important one for me is to preserve the memories that we have until we are ready to receive them.”

This year’s honorees were Alex Katz, Adam D. Weinberg and—perhaps unexpectedly—Bank of America, all recognized for pivotal contributions to the arts. Katz received the Archives of American Art Medal, Weinberg was awarded the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History and Bank of America received the Archives of American Art Award for Philanthropic Leadership. (For those unaware, the bank supports global art conservation projects, including the recent preservation of a mural by Diego Rivera and the conservation of Jackson Pollock’s Sea Change.)

“The board of the Archives of American Art believes that now, more than ever, saving the stories of American artists matters,” said Alexandra May, chair of the board—and we couldn’t agree more.

The guest list reflected the significance of the occasion. VIPs in attendance included Richard Armstrong (director emeritus of the Guggenheim), art historian and Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen director at the Frick Axel Rüger, Guggenheim curator Katherine Brinson, collector and patron Beth Rudin DeWoody, collector Carla Shen, architect Kulapat Yantrasast, legendary British designer Dame Zandra Rhodes and Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Jamila Robinson, among many others.

Artists present at the Frick that night included Adam McEwen, Gajin Fujita, Colin Lee, Darren Waterston, Hope Atherton, Jeffrey Meris, David Novros and Kendall Messick. The dealers were out in force as well—spotted were Michael Rosenfeld and halley k. harrisburg of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery; Paula Cooper, Steve Henry and Lucas Cooper of Paula Cooper Gallery; Gavin Brown and Trina Gordon of Gladstone Gallery; James Danziger of Danziger Gallery; and Jonathan Boos of Jonathan Boos Gallery.

Diane Fogg, Elyn Stubblefield, Laura Whitman, Yng-Ru Chen, Maggie Adler, Martha Fleischman and Michael Stubblefield

Kulapat Yantrasast, Adam Weinberg, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Alvin Hall and Kendall Messick

Alvin Hall and Gavin Brown

Oliver Jeffers and Carla Shen

Maggie Adler and Jeffrey Meris

Beth Rudin DeWoody

Vivien Bittencourt Katz, Isaac Katz, Oliver Katz, Alex Katz and Vincent Katz

Daisy Charles and Steve Henry

Jacob Proctor and James Merle Thomas

Jamila Robinson

Devin Gordon and Yng-Ru Chen

Alexandra May and Anne Helmreich

Jodhpur Arts Week, which launches its Edition 1.0 next month, is a contemporary art festival as well as an exploration of authorship, memory and place. While the upcoming edition, which runs October 1-7, is ostensibly the first, it builds on last year’s Special Projects Edition, which, in a successful proof of concept, drew a crowd of 45,000 to Rajasthan’s Blue City. Having tapped curators Tapiwa Matsinde and Sakhshi Mahajan to helm this year’s festival, the Public Arts Trust of India (founded by philanthropist and collector Sana Rezwan) is now looking to create something more enduring: a model of cultural programming that proactively contextualizes contemporary practice through convergence with the living local heritage.

Many of the international artists and designers who trekked to the edge of the Thar Desert for Jodhpur Arts Week have been working with the city’s master weavers, embroiderers, metalworkers and woodcarvers. The result is a collision of ancestral skill and contemporary gesture, where community members are co-authors. The title of this year’s curatorial exhibition—“Hath Ro Hunar,” or “skill of the hand” in Marwari—is apt, as the festival positions artisan knowledge not as peripheral to contemporary art but as foundational to it.

Indeed, Jodhpur Arts Week stands out among the many art weeks around the globe in its rejection of the hierarchy that too often denigrates traditional art forms as craft, somehow separate from what we deem fine art. This is a festival that breaks down silos, melding experimental practice with heritage technique and encouraging visiting artists and Jodhpur’s craftspeople to engage with each other as peers.

This edition’s visiting artists and designers include Awdhesh Tamrakar, Aku Zeliang, Gaspard Combes, Anitha N. Reddy and the Siddi Women Quilters, Theo Pinto, Zavier Wong Zhen Rui, Chila Kumari Singh Burman and the Raqs Media Collective. Each will produce site-specific installations that live and breathe the textures of the city, and their output promises to be process-forward, fusing ancestral techniques with materials and methods utilized by contemporary makers. Observer caught up with Mahajan and Matsinde to hear more about how they approached putting together Jodhpur Arts Week Edition 1.0 and what we can expect from future editions.

The festival is billed as an exchange. How will the relationship between Jodhpur’s local craft traditions and the global contemporary art and design projects be expressed in practice? 

Sakhshi Mahajan: Jodhpur Arts Week’s site-specific and site-responsive works have developed through two distinct methodologies. Some emerged from immersive recce trips, where invited artists engaged deeply with Jodhpur’s visual, ethnographic, artisanal and cultural histories, closely observing its architecture, craft practices and everyday life. Others took shape during extended residencies that enabled sustained exchange between contemporary creators and traditional artisans, allowing techniques, tools and ideas to move fluidly between them. In both approaches, the process remains as visible as the product, and nearly all works are at least partially fabricated locally.

I connected with contemporary practitioners whose work is rooted in tradition, whether through storytelling, cultural mythology and oral histories, or through materials and methods tied to heritage techniques, indigenous practices and craft knowledge, not limited to the Marwar region.

Tapiwa Matsinde: Bringing artist/designer and artisan together to inspire and learn from each other, Jodhpur Arts Week has provided fertile ground for collaborative creative expression. This has unfolded through a unique immersive experience into Jodhpur’s rich artisanal heritage and vibrant culture. A hands-on experience that has extended beyond the craft workshops and into exploring the culture, architecture, layered histories and biodiversity of the city. Innovation played its part as the designers and artisans connected not only in person but across screens, at times employing technological connectivity to explore the capabilities of the age-old techniques.

The end result is a reflection of the collaboration between artist/designer and artisan as each work and installation expresses their individual voices collectively.

And how do ‘thinkers’ fit into the program? 

Mahajan and Matsinde: Understanding the historical and cultural legacy of Jodhpur has been the foundation on which we’ve built this program. The region’s layered and continually transforming histories have shaped not only what we do, but how we do it.

Extensive research conducted by our team on the ground has been invaluable for the creatives who have joined the program. The researchers, historians, archivists and cultural specialists have provided critical context and conceptual frameworks that have inspired and informed the makers. Members of our own team, from assistant curators to junior coordinators, are building a growing, accessible repository of knowledge on craft traditions and cultural legacies from the region.

Thinkers within the program include cultural, educational and archival partners. Learning through Arts Narrative and Discourse (LAND) brings a pedagogical lens, working with schools to reimagine how heritage, craft and contemporary art can be integrated into everyday learning. The Mehrangarh Museum and Sardar Museum Archives and curators provide deep historical context, offering primary resources and material references for the various creators. Kuldeep Kothari and Arna Jharna Museum adds a perspective that connects ecology, labor, crafts and social history, reminding us that culture is inseparable from the everyday environments and community practices that sustain it.

The theme of the festival, “Hath Ro Hunar—Skill of the Hand,” places craft at the center. How did you weave that into your curatorial approach? 

Mahajan: Through theoretical, practical and anthropological research, it became clear that artisans sustain centuries-old practices despite systemic challenges: informal work arrangements, limited institutional support, seasonal and unpredictable incomes, gendered inequities and minimal access to contemporary markets or education. This became a point of departure, prompting us to consider how art/ design practitioners can reflect with sensitivity and collaborate with intention, rather than simply intervene in or appropriate these legacies.

Matsinde: It was imperative that artists/designers coming into local artisanal communities did so from a place of respect. Honoring the skills of the master artisan while seeking to elevate and contribute their creative voices to the evolution of Jodhpur’s local craft heritages that have survived generations. The theme raises awareness of these skills that are in danger of dying out, and bringing artist/designer and artisan together helps find ways of keeping these skills alive and relevant, and encouraging upcoming generations to see the value in taking them up.

How can initiatives like this influence institutions, collectors, and the wider ecosystem to rethink hierarchies that place strict boundaries between art and craft? 

Mahajan and Matsinde: Hath Ro Hunar foregrounds the skill of the hand, insisting on recognition for all contributors to the work while challenging entrenched hierarchies between “low” and “high” arts, a colonial inheritance that still shapes perception. The project celebrates labor, skill, knowledge and materiality as critical elements of cultural memory, interrogating the intersections of the traditional and the contemporary, and the visible and invisible makers who sustain creative practices and cultural heritage.

By creating community-engaged workshops and inviting audiences to actively participate, the festival exposes collectors, institutions and the public to the processes behind each work. Audiences encounter artisans as masters of their craft, learning directly from them and witnessing the skill, labor and knowledge involved. By respecting the maker’s authority and avoiding imposition, the festival dismantles hierarchical distinctions between art, design and craft.

Which artworks, installations or discussions are you most excited about? 

Mahajan: I am excited about Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s debut site-specific neon installation in India at Toorji Ka Jhalra, a mid-18th-century stepwell commissioned by Rani Tawarji. Her Well Speaks / उणी बावड़ी बोल, created in collaboration with skilled neon artisan Abid Shah, is celebratory, playful and visually stunning while also highlighting marginalized histories and feminist narratives. I am looking forward to seeing her work animate this centuries-old architecture.

Matsinde: “The Siddi Women Quilters,” in collaboration with arts practitioner and historian Anitha N. Reddy, is an exciting and deeply moving presentation. One that speaks to having the courage to embrace new experiences that have been embedded into their artworks. As participants in the Jodhpur Arts Week Residency, Siddi women quilters Ladamabi Mandvekar, Husenbi Jamadar and Hattarabi Gunjavati have stepped outside their community for the first time to engage with other artisans. Their hand-stitched textile panels reflect journeys, memories and shared knowledge.

Mahajan and Matsinde: Jodhpur Arts Week has been full of firsts—first-time collaborations, experiences and debut presentations, so there’s so much to be excited about. What excites both of us the most is seeing how all the installations come together and how audiences interact with them, especially since this is the very first edition of Jodhpur Arts Week.

Do you see Jodhpur Arts Week serving as a model for how art weeks in other heritage-rich cities could facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue? 

Mahajan: Absolutely. Our curatorial approach places Jodhpur’s community, history and traditions at the heart of the project, ensuring that the Arts Week generates tangible, meaningful impact within the city itself. By prioritizing creating value for the local community, we believe that small, micro-level interventions can eventually have broader, macro effects. A key part of this is building awareness of Jodhpur’s archives and cultural resources, and ensuring that the majority of production, whether for artworks or the event itself, is carried out locally.

Matsinde: Jodhpur Arts Week is part of a growing network of art weeks, but what sets it apart is its emphasis on active engagement with heritage, craftsmanship and the city’s cultural legacy. The central element of our approach is honoring and activating this legacy, creating spaces where interdisciplinary dialogue can flourish in ways that are deeply rooted in place.

Looking ahead, what possibilities do you see for expanding or evolving the festival? 

Mahajan and Matsinde: Looking ahead, we hope that future editions of the festival will attract more local and global partners, including creators, decision-makers, sponsors, patrons and venues. We also envision the expansion of opportunities for residences and collaborative projects within the local region, deepening engagement with Jodhpur’s communities and cultural landscape.

Even with the recent high-profile gallery closures, there are plenty of signs that the art market isn’t in decline but facing a reckoning. Sales measured by value are flatlining at the top, but the number of works sold is climbing thanks to younger collectors and first-time buyers who aren’t playing in the seven-figure leagues. These new entrants into a rapidly changing market are shopping for works that ring in at under $50,000—often well under—and their presence is reshaping everything from what’s on offer to how art is purchased.

This plateau at the top and upswing in smaller transactions is having ripple effects across market segments: mid-level galleries are testing editions, prints and smaller originals, while established fairs are rethinking their relevance in an environment where prestige is no match for rising costs.

Overall, what collectors are buying in 2025 is changing, as is how they’re buying. According to the 2024 Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting, Millennials and Gen Z lead the global market in both activity and growth. In the process, they are challenging traditional hierarchies and creating new avenues for artistic success outside of the conventional system, and their preferences for accessibility and transparency are pushing galleries into direct competition with online platforms and hybrid spaces that cater to speed, affordability and experimentation. For many galleries, survival now means learning how to talk to audiences who don’t see themselves as “collectors” in the traditional sense, but who are nonetheless spending and reshaping the market in the process.

As the art market weathers a transfer of wealth on top of it all, Affordable Art Fair—which has been democratizing collecting since Will Ramsay founded it in 1999—has the advantage of being built for exactly this moment. As other fairs are scaling back due to rising costs and inconsistent returns, it is expanding into new markets like Boston and Austin while continuing to thrive in stalwarts like New York City. Its model of eschewing celebrity artists, spotlighting emerging talent and younger galleries and keeping prices capped at $12,000 aligns perfectly with the energy driving today’s market.

The numbers back it up. Erin Schuppert, director of Affordable Art Fair NYC, points out that every year about half of the fair’s visitors are first-timers, and exhibitors regularly report that more than 77 percent of their sales go to new clients. That kind of churn—new buyers entering, new relationships forming—is what the market needs but has struggled to generate. On September 17, the fair’s New York edition will return with the ethos of accessibility that has made it uniquely resilient, and Observer connected with Schuppert to learn more about how the fair’s audience is changing, how galleries are responding and the artists she thinks we need to watch.

How do you define ‘affordable’ in the context of today’s art market, and how has that price point shifted over the years in response to inflation, market trends and changing collector expectations?

It is true that the term “affordable” is relative, but at our New York editions of the fair, we define this as priced between $100 and $12,000. Every Affordable Art Fair around the globe calibrates the price ceiling to the local market and adjusts as needed in response to inflation and trends. In New York City, we raised our price ceiling a couple of years ago from $10,000 to $12,000 to better align with the market for the living artists presented at our fairs. What’s important to remember is that the average price for artworks sold at Affordable Art Fair typically falls between $1,800 and $2,100. So, while visitors will certainly see pieces priced closer to the top of our value range, we strongly encourage our exhibitors to dedicate at least half their stand to their most accessibly priced works. Thousands of artworks go to happy new homes each edition of Affordable Art Fair, and the vast majority of them are priced between $100 and $3,000.

What’s the curatorial strategy for balancing accessibility with quality—how do you avoid the perception that “affordable” means less important?

It is our priority to showcase diverse, high-quality artworks at accessible prices. We consider each gallery application carefully, and once accepted, we work closely with our exhibitors to confirm an artist list that we feel will offer our audience something special. There is a lot of mystery around pricing in the art world, so I think it’s key to debunk this idea that more expensive equals more important or higher quality. We only present living artists at Affordable Art Fair, which means pricing has been considered by the artist and their gallery, factoring in their time, resources, materials and the artist’s reputation and exhibition history. When you buy work by a living artist, you know it’s supporting their career directly.

How has the profile, taste and buying behavior of collectors at Affordable Art Fair changed in recent years, and what economic, cultural or generational factors do you think are driving those shifts?

Our audience at Affordable Art Fair NYC is really diverse, with a pretty even spread of age groups. However, over the past year, the number of collectors who report buying at the fair aged 35-44 has edged out the 45+ age bracket, and our audience aged 25-34 has grown. It’s great to see so many young people start or add to their collections at the fair. These collectors desire more personal connections with the artwork versus an ‘art as investment’ approach. They want to know an artist’s story or see themselves reflected in the subject matter. Also, in this very digital age, there has been a really positive response to more tangible mediums like textile art or ceramics. We’re seeing these trends not just in the behaviors of emerging collectors but also in seasoned art buyers who are seeking the thrill of discovery or ways to diversify their collections.

How are galleries rethinking the kinds of works they bring, the price points they focus on and the way they engage with next-generation collectors who approach art differently than previous audiences?

There has been a lot of art news in the past couple of years about the market being down in value, but what’s interesting is that the number of transactions is increasing. These acquisitions happen at lower price points in less certain economic times, but collectors are still buying. There has been more attention on emerging artists and a focus on the discovery of something new or unknown or emphasis on that personal connection I mentioned earlier. When I speak with our exhibitors, I encourage them to try new artists right now and make sure they are mixing up price points to further broaden their collector base. Utilizing digital platforms can also be a great way to reach next-generation collectors. First-time art buyers may need more time to see, think about and research artworks before pulling the trigger, so last year we created an app in partnership with ArtPlacer to give our audience more access to artwork images and details (plus AR capabilities) before the fair begins. We also partner with Cohart, a platform that helps galleries build online portfolios and manage sales directly through their app.

Beyond its price cap, what do you see as the defining qualities that make Affordable Art Fair stand out in a crowded New York fair calendar?

I have been working in the New York art market for over a decade, visiting every fair I can, and honestly, there is no place like Affordable Art Fair. I felt that way even before I worked here—I bought my first artwork at Affordable Art Fair NYC about three years before I joined the team. It is welcoming and encouraging, and there are no pretensions here. We really want this event to be fun, as browsing and buying art should be!

With the traditional art fair model under pressure from rising costs and shifting audience habits, what new formats, partnerships or programming have you introduced to keep the experience compelling for both galleries and collectors?

Affordable Art Fair’s specialty is reaching new collecting audiences and broadening the definition of a collector. In New York, we welcome 12,000-15,000 visitors each edition, and about half of those visitors are new to the fair each time. This is intentional because we really want to bring thousands of new art buyers to our exhibitors every fair. For each edition, we feature new galleries, present new artists and host new programming, including special hours for young families. Again, opportunities to digitally share artworks in advance of the fair via an app or digital portfolio are only growing in importance as younger collectors start their fair journey online.

How do you see Affordable Art Fair evolving in the next 10 years?

We are growing! This New York Fall edition will showcase eighty-five exhibitors compared to just under eighty the last few years, and later this year, we are launching Affordable Art Fair Boston from October 23-26. I expect that over the next ten years, we will continue to grow both in our established locations and in new cities. We will always prioritize reaching the next generation of collectors, and we are always collecting tons of art sales data from each of our fairs, which allows us to respond quickly to trends.

And finally, what kind of art do you collect? Who are the artists you think our readers need to know about?

I’ve really learned to trust my gut—when I see something and immediately feel like I want to live with it, I know it’s a good buy. My gut is a little unpredictable, so I collect a lot of different kinds of art! My last few acquisitions were a beautiful charcoal drawing by figurative artist Junyi Liu, a gorgeous miniature Lover’s Eye by oil painter Emma Hapner and an adorable ceramic dachshund with a baseball cap by multidisciplinary artist Joy Tien. There are definitely some artists I have my eye on for this edition! Nathaniel Williams (Bryan Gallery) is an American landscape painter, and his night scenes of deserted highways are eerily beautiful. Xenia Gray (CABADA CONTEMPORARY) is a figurative artist who focuses on the nuances of human emotion in her stark portraits inspired by the Siberian landscape in which she grew up. Australian artist Mikaela Stafford (Tits & Co.) makes motion picture graphics and 3D digital works, including some for brands such as Nike, and her prints look like they could flow out of the frame at any second.

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