Art lovers of all kinds — from seasoned curators and collectors to newcomers — flock to New York City in May to experience the area’s vibrant art scene.
“May in New York is a special moment on the cultural calendar — the city is in full bloom,” said Amy Hau, director of the Noguchi Museum in Queens. Art fairs such as TEFAF and Frieze bring together artists and galleries from around the world, but the scope and volume can be overwhelming.
“For anyone just starting to collect, I always say — don’t be intimidated by the big fairs, even if they can feel like a bit of a visual overload,” Hau said. “Just go, look around, and see what resonates with you. Even if you’re not buying, these fairs are an inspiring, low-pressure way to learn, explore and connect with artists and gallerists.”
Here is a selection of some of the May fairs that will introduce visitors to works and experiences, including 18th-century portraits, new voices in contemporary art and an interactive art scavenger hunt. Venues range from an elegant Beaux-Arts building on Manhattan’s East Side to a former warehouse in the Powerhouse Arts District in downtown Jersey City, N.J. Some offer free admission.
May 1-4 and 8-11 at 528-532 West 28th Street
More than 70 self-represented contemporary and emerging artists are displaying about 250 works, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, mixed media works and installations, at Clio Art Fair, named for the Greek Muse of history and the poetry she inspired. The artists have their own exhibition spaces to encourage relaxed and direct interaction with visitors, and prices range from $250 to $25,000. “Behave as if God Exists,” an immersive performance project, explores spiritual, social and existential themes through live actions and interventions by artists.
May 6-10 at New York Estonian House, 243 East 34th Street
Twenty-five galleries from 18 cities around the world will fill the elegant New York Estonian House for Esther’s second year. Founders Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, gallerists with strong connections to Tallinn, Estonia, discarded the traditional art fair booth concept in favor of shared gallery spaces. Artworks, site-specific installations, performances and events will be presented — and experienced — throughout the four-story Beaux-Arts building, once a gathering spot for Estonian refugees after World War II. “Return to Innocence,” a series of sculptural candle holders by the Tallinn artist Edith Karlson, will guide visitors, and the basement will be transformed into a showroom that will include custom-made products by the Estonian designer Laivi.
May 6-12 at 75 Varick Street
Nontraditional exhibition venues, free spaces for independent curators and reduced-cost spaces for galleries and nonprofits — strategies designed to reduce upfront risk and encourage experimental work — are a few of the hallmarks of SPRING/BREAK Art Show. More than 350 midcareer and emerging artists will be showcased at a landmark building that was once home to many firms in printing and related trades. Among them is the actor Alia Shawkat, whose paintings chart her Assyrian lineage and family migration, reflecting the immigrant story motif that recurs in this year’s theme of “PARADISE LOST + FOUND.”
May 7-10 at Chelsea Industrial, 535 West 28th Street
Future Fair’s fifth anniversary edition will feature nearly 70 local, national and international exhibitors. A quarter are minority-owned, a quarter are global and over half are led by women. Since its founding in 2020, the fair has embraced a cooperative business model, initially profit sharing with founding galleries. Starting this year, the fair will commit 15 percent of its profits toward a pay-it-forward fund that allocates grants to rising art dealers. Visitors can swing by a culinary pop-up by the Brooklyn restaurant Stowaway and grab some Southern-inspired fare and limited-edition anniversary beers crafted by Grimm Artisanal Ales.
May 8-11 at 157B First Street, Jersey City
“Our name (14C) is a wink to the ‘What exit?’ joke about New Jersey,” Robinson Holloway, Art Fair 14C’s chief executive, wrote in an email, “and we embrace our Jersey roots and celebrate the art of our native state.” But exhibitors are wide ranging and include the International Sculpture Center, an artists collective from Brooklyn and a small New Jersey nonprofit that works with artists with disabilities. The Pompidou Center in Paris, which plans a North American outpost in Jersey City, she said, will provide programming, including a workshop for children based on masterpieces from their permanent collection in cooperation with the Jersey City Free Public Library. The venue is a former warehouse for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) in the Powerhouse Arts District. Tours will be available before regular hours for visitors who are visually impaired or need low sensory environments.
May 8-11 at ZeroSpace, 337-345 Butler Street
The 15th edition of the Other Art Fair Brooklyn, presented by Saatchi Art, continues its mission to support artists and make the art world more accessible and inclusive in unexpected and fun ways. A wide variety of works, in forms including documentary photography and embroidery, by 125 New York-area artists, will be shown along with immersive installations, performances and artist-led activities. Highlights include a fantasy drawing experience by the portrait painter Ben Lenovitz, an interactive art scavenger hunt led by the multimedia artist Joe Kraft and machine-free tattoo pop-ups. Special Mother’s Day weekend events feature photographic portrait sessions with the artist and author Anna Marie Tendler and hands-on workshops for making paper flowers.
May 10-13 at Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street
The American Art Fair, now in its 18th year, exclusively celebrates 18th- to 21st-century American works. More than 400 landscapes, portraits, still lifes and sculptures — from folk Art and the Hudson River School through the modernist movements — will be on view. The fair offers a series of lectures, such as one tied to the “Sargent and Paris” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that looks at the early years of the American painter John Singer Sargent’s career, from his arrival in Paris in 1874 as a young art student through the mid-1880s.
More Art Events
There are plenty of art goings-on in New York City beyond the fairs.
MoMA PS1 in Queens will present the first U.S. museum exhibition of the Angolan-born artist Sandra Poulson. Her sculptures, made from furniture and influenced by daily life and customs in her hometown, Luanda, examine how intimate spaces become spheres for political consciousness.
Nature lovers may enjoy the photo-based work inspired by the gardens of the poet Emily Dickinson at Rick Wester Fine Art in Chelsea, or a respite at the Davis Center in Central Park, which opened last week and has a series of special events planned.
NYC Tourism + Conventions’ Spring 2025 Arts Guide provides a raft of art exhibitions, live performances, festivals and outdoor public art programs, including museums, memorials, monuments and attractions that are always free or are free on specific days and times. A special website this year lists places and events that commemorate 400 years of New York City history.
“Don’t miss some of the great museum exhibitions that will be on view,” Hau of the Noguchi Museum said. “This season’s highlight is definitely the Amy Sherald show at the Whitney.”
She also recommends visiting the newly renovated Frick Museum, checking out the public art along the High Line, stopping by the nearby Chelsea galleries and taking a ferry to Queens to visit the institution she leads, which is dedicated to the work of the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Special exhibits, art-making activities, musical performances, and dance and culinary programs are among the events planned at the museum in May, many to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
“And visitors shouldn’t forget the garden,” she added. “It’s one of the most beautiful times to experience our outdoor space, offering a quiet, contemplative escape from the energy and pace of the city.”
