New York’s September Fairs Find Their Identities

Every fall, when the art world reopens, there’s excitement around the gallery openings across New York. It’s great seeing everyone again after a long summer break. That enthusiasm doesn’t always extend to the art fairs that accompany them, though. There’s often a feeling that New York fairs simply don’t live up to their counterparts around the world.

Perhaps that’s partly because lately many New York galleries seem reluctant to participate in fairs within their city. More broadly, galleries are becoming increasingly selective about the fairs they take part in. And given that New York galleries already carry significant overhead for their spaces in the city, it’s understandable that some are hesitant to pay for a fair booth as well, particularly when collectors attending the fair can simply visit the gallery later in the day or week.

There is also a broader critique. It feels like the September fairs in New York have struggled to define exactly what they are and who they are for.

This year, The Armory Show moved to the third week of September rather than taking place just after Labor Day, as it had in recent years. I wasn’t sure what that would mean for the energy in the city during the fair, particularly because most gallery openings had already taken place earlier in the month. September used to feel like one enormous opening week, with almost too much to do across the city, so I wondered whether separating the fairs from that moment would diminish their impact.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. Both The Armory Show and Independent 20th Century seemed more confident in what they were trying to be and each appeared to benefit from having a clearer identity.

After The Armory Show closed, I spoke with an exhibitor who compared the fair to Home Depot. It isn’t sexy, they said, but it gets the job done, and there is something for almost everyone. They told me they would be returning next year.

Maybe that is exactly what the Armory is. It may not have the glamour of some other fairs, but it is a large-scale New York fair and, for many exhibitors, an important opportunity to meet collectors from New York and beyond. Just as importantly, it offers access to a significant number of curators. That is something I don’t think gets discussed enough. Many curators visited the fair, and several galleries I spoke with said that institutional exposure was a meaningful part of the experience.

The Armory also offered a diverse range of presentations. There were the expected group booths, with one work by many of the artists in a gallery’s program, but the presentations I found most intriguing were those focused on one or two artists. Some introduced rising artists, many of whom were at the fair and eager to meet visitors. Others focused on artists late in their careers, or no longer living, whose work remains underappreciated. Those booths gave visitors the chance not only to discover an artist but to spend enough time with the work to understand it more deeply.

Independent 20th Century offered an entirely different experience. As I told Elisa Carollo at Observer, the fair felt incredibly nostalgic and was one of the most pleasant surprises of the week.

I’ve been in the Breuer building regularly since Sotheby’s moved in, and while the auction previews always feature some incredible art, they can still feel awkward in a building so closely associated with museum exhibitions. That’s not necessarily a criticism of Sotheby’s. The Breuer simply feels like a building made for museum shows.

Independent managed to make it feel that way again.

Part of that was uncharacteristic restraint, rarely seen at an art fair. The walls weren’t overcrowded. The quality of the works, the curatorial focus, and some of the incredible finds also contributed. Several galleries told me they were inspired by the opportunity to exhibit in the Breuer, and that was palpable throughout the fair.

In some cases, the connection to the building was almost literal. Both James Fuentes’ presentation of paintings by Al Held and Galerie Lelong’s solo booth of works by Alice Trumbull Mason included examples that had once been exhibited at the Whitney decades earlier in that same building. Seeing works with that kind of institutional history added another layer to the experience.

For the first time in a while, I came away feeling that New York’s September fairs had each found a clearer identity. I’m already looking forward to September 2027.