Sometimes it seems as if the art collectors, dealers, curators and advisors who run the art world would travel anywhere on the map to see a show or buy a work of art. Even a deadly epidemic can only delay the spread of events in a truly global market.
In March, the art fair buffet included Frieze Los Angeles, Art Dubai and Art Basel Hong Kong, but there were also major auctions in London. This month, the opening of the legendary Venice Biennale was a non-commercial center of gravity, although buyers had opportunities at art fairs in Brussels, Chicago and Dallas.
But in May, that ubiquity shifts into focus, and all eyes turn to New York for what may be the busiest arts month of the year anywhere, including hubs like Los Angeles and Miami.
“Our business is cyclical, and May is the peak,” said David Zwirner, one of the world’s most powerful dealers, who runs multiple spaces in New York and in other art capitals such as Paris, London and Hong Kong.
“There is an inherent psychology among art collectors,” Zwirner said. “This is the time when they have to make decisions. A few times a year, they’re ready to step up. If I’m honest, I won’t have that in January.
It all started with auctions.
Since the late 1970s, auction giants Sotheby’s and Christie’s have held some of their most important Impressionist, modern and contemporary art sales in New York in May (November is the other prestige season).
The same is true this year, with huge sales scheduled for the week of May 13th. At Sotheby’s, Francis Bacon’s 1966 painting “Portrait of a Crouching George Dyer” is being offered, and the only major auction offered by Christie’s is Bryce Marden’s abstract painting. “The Event” (2004-7); Both paintings are estimated to be worth between $30 million and $50 million.
Since 2012, when Frieze New York was founded, art galleries have also congregated in the city in the spring, synchronizing their schedules to hold close to the auctions and their accompanying previews.
Now, Frieze New York (Thursday to May 5) is closely followed by the New York edition of the European Foundation for Fine Arts fair, TEFAF New York (May 10 to 14) and The Independent (May 9 to 12), as well as no less About six others around the city.
Zwirner said the main reason for this activity is the large number of buyers. “There are some blocks on the Upper East Side that have more art collectors than some mid-sized European cities,” he said.
Pamela Joyner, a philanthropist and collector known for her focus on abstract art by African Americans and members of the global African diaspora, said she believes recent power shifts elsewhere have reinforced New York’s primacy.
These shifts include the emergence of Seoul as the capital of the Asian art market to rival Hong Kong, and the complex status of London after Brexit – where the modern art market arguably began in the 18th century, when Sotheby’s and Christie’s were founded.
“New York is a safe haven,” said Joyner, who divides her time between the city and the Lake Tahoe area in Nevada. She works as a curator at four museums, including the Museum of Modern Art.
“I think New York is more of a center for the art world now than it has been in the last decade,” she said. “With all this movement, there is a backwardness or standardization of what is known.”
The familiar rhythms of the season are a bonus, she said. “The predictability of the schedule is a safety blanket,” Joyner added.
J. Tomilson Hill, managing director of hedge fund Two Sigma, is a prolific art collector in New York who in 2019 established the Hill Art Foundation, which has an exhibition space in the Chelsea neighborhood. His diverse specialties include Renaissance and Baroque bronzes, as well as modern and contemporary works.
Hill is adding his own addition to May’s crowded mix. Beginning May 3, The Hill Foundation for the Arts will feature a solo show by artist Mika Tajima, known for her paintings, sculptures, and installations that incorporate data and science.
Having one’s own public exhibition space offers a lot of freedom, but even so Hill times his spring exhibition to coincide with fairs and auctions—the gravitational pull of the schedule is strong.
“We want traffic from collectors who may be traveling from out of town,” said Hill, who also serves on the Gagosian Gallery’s board of directors and on Christie’s advisory board. “We want people to watch the show.”
In Hill’s opinion, collectors are becoming more sophisticated. “The market has gotten really good at differentiating what is a 10 and what is an 8,” he said.
Although such nuances may be the purview of major art collectors, Hill added that he believes art galleries also serve an educational role in New York, where large numbers of ordinary visitors have the opportunity to wander the aisles. “You get a higher proportion of first-time fairgoers,” Hill said, compared to events elsewhere, such as the small Dutch city of Maastricht, which attracts loyal TEFAF fans.
The abundance of options is made clear by the fact that Frieze is set in the Shed in Hudson Yards, just a few blocks from the crowded gallery buildings of Chelsea.
Rather than the location being unnecessary, Frieze organizers say the location is synergistic.
“People come to the expo and then look for what to do next,” said Christine Messineo, director of the Americas. “You start the conversation and then lead them into the gallery an hour later. You can’t recreate that anywhere but New York City.”
Frieze is now owned by sports and entertainment conglomerate Endeavor, which last year bought the Armory Show, an exhibition held in New York in September. The purchase was evidence that organizers believe collectors have an appetite for multiple events in the city throughout the year.
Christelle Shady, There is “relatively limited overlap between the two galleries – less than 10 galleries,” said Frieze’s executive director of exhibitions.
What’s more, Chadi said Frieze and the Armory Show were complementary, because “price points are more diverse” at the Armory Show, which last year had 225 dealers, while Frieze had 68.
“Frieze New York is an international fair that welcomes global visitors,” Messineo noted, and that this year, there will also be merchants from Guatemala, the Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa participating in the event.
Some visiting collectors will also attend auctions, or auction previews, which are free and open to the public.
“Increasingly we think people are designing their calendar around these events,” said Brooke Lampley, head of Sotheby’s global fine art department, speaking about exhibitions and auctions.
Sotheby’s wanted to “leverage and align with other events as much as possible,” Lampley said.
“My friends who want to start collecting art, I always tell them to go to an art gallery,” she said. “They see a lot at once. It’s a great way to start directing your eye and taste.”
New York’s dense and diverse museum scene — which this season includes, among other big shows, a new edition of the Whitney Museum’s Biennial of American Art — is a major draw for collectors, and auction houses see an opportunity in the market.
“Trust me, my sales team surveys biennial artists,” Lampley said, in order to stock her sales with artists in the public eye. “It is a message of affirmation and appreciation, and a meeting point between the regulatory and the commercial.”
You probably won’t see Joyner lifting the paddle; she watches auctions online and then bids over the phone. “I never attend auctions in person,” she said. “I don’t want to broadcast what my standards are.”
But she goes to premieres and attends major art fairs, as Hill does. “Sometimes people buy a work without seeing it in person, and to me, that’s crazy,” Hill said.
This interest in being in the same room with art is what makes the gallery scene buzz, and plays its part in the larger ecosystem—and not all at Zwirner’s high-flying level. Traders who end up at Frieze New York have to start somewhere. (Exhibitions are expensive for galleries, and organizers are selective about who they include.)
David Pagliarulo, 28, began David Peter Francis Gallery in March with a group show in a third-floor space in Chinatown. “The show was about the beginning, and what it means to jump off a cliff,” Pagliarulo said of the inaugural exhibition, which included works by Peter Hujar, Matt Keegan and Catherine Kerr.
Pagliarulo previously worked at other galleries, including Marinaro, before opening his own gallery, and the solo exhibition at his new gallery, which opened Friday, showcases the work of photographer Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, including the photograph “Kyle/David” (2024).
Hill and Joyner probably won’t make it to Chinatown, but judging by the show’s crowded opening night in March and the number of eager collectors in town in May, someone probably will.
As Pagliarulo said: “Density here is good for everyone.”
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