Miart, Milan's international modern and contemporary art fair, is launching its 30th-anniversary edition in a new, larger venue, the Allianz MiCo South Wing. The 2026 edition, themed "New Directions: Miart, but different," will host 160 galleries from 24 countries across three levels, featuring sections like Emergent for new voices, Established for historical dialogue, and a special film project called Movements.
independent 2026 exhibitor list
Independent has unveiled the exhibitor list for its 17th edition, scheduled for May 14–17, 2026. The fair is relocating to a new venue at Pier 36 in New York’s Lower East Side and will feature 76 exhibitors showcasing over 100 artists. Notably, more than 70 percent of the booths will be dedicated to solo presentations, including a special solo project by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons and sculptural installations by Gretchen Bender and Francis Upritchard.
Art Paris 2026 will take place from April 9–12 at the Grand Palais, featuring two major curated themes: "Babel – Art and Language in France," guest-curated by Loïc Le Gall, and "Reparation," curated by Alexia Fabre. The fair will include roughly 165 galleries, with sectors like Promises for emerging artists, Solo Show for monographic presentations, and French Design Art Edition.
Artnet News reports on the rediscovery of Colombian artist Luis Fernando Zapata (1951–1994), whose solo booth at Art Basel Miami Beach features works from 1988 to 1994 that resemble ancient artifacts. The booth, titled “The Immemorial: The Transcendence of Luis Fernando Zapata,” is presented by Bogotá’s Galería Elvira Moreno in the fair’s Survey sector, which highlights historically significant art made before 2000. Zapata’s pieces—including totemic shields, a mud-brown sarcophagus with cuneiform-like glyphs, barques, steles, and his “excavaciones”—are mostly hand-sculpted papier-mâché, evoking ritual and imagined cosmologies. Diagnosed HIV+ in the mid-1980s, Zapata died in 1994, leaving a body of work that has remained largely absent from the queer canon and art-world consciousness until now.
The 12th edition of Uruguay's Este Arte fair took place last week in José Ignacio, featuring 14 exhibitors and attracting 5,000 visitors over four days. Notable works included Vanderlei Lopes's aluminum installation resembling a silver leak, Germán Tagle's liquid landscapes paired with altered New York Times front pages, and Diego Bianchi's chimeric sculptures. The fair favored abstraction, with strong sales reported across galleries such as Almeida & Dale, Aninat Galeria, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, and Black Gallery.
Art Palm Beach returns for its fourth edition from January 28 to February 1, 2026, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. The fair features a mix of returning and first-time galleries from the U.S. and abroad, including Gefen Gallery (San Francisco), Onessimo Fine Art (Palm Beach), Oliver Sears Gallery (Dublin), and John Martin Gallery (London). Highlights include Hollis Taggart’s presentation of John Knuth’s fly paintings, Pontone Gallery’s showcase of Matteo Massagrande, and Provident Fine Art’s retrospective ‘Sylvester Stallone: Evolution.’ For the first time, the DIVERSEartPB program presents a large-scale, biennial-style installation curated by Marisa Caichiolo, featuring Chilean artist Eugenia Vargas-Pereira’s participatory work AGUAS (1991).
Design Miami 2025 preview drew a bustling crowd with over 70 exhibitors under the theme "Make Believe." Highlights included Katie Stout's whimsical carousel featuring marine animals, Roham Shamekh's biomorphic "Roots" sofa with integrated headphones, and ATRA's futuristic "Intelligence of Evolution" seating system upholstered in Hermès fabric. The Spanish silver brand Garrido showcased collaborations with Peter Marino, while the fair's 20th anniversary edition embraced a carnivalesque atmosphere with popcorn and mirrored walls.
Several galleries withdrew from Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 amid rising costs and a contracting art market, leaving some like San Francisco's Altman Siegel facing cancellation fees despite closing. Claudia Altman-Siegel, who shut her gallery, owed $22,000 after missing the free-cancellation deadline. Other dealers, including Miguel Abreu, Tilton Gallery, and Sperone Westwater, navigated the fair's strict payment terms for different reasons—some pulling out early to avoid penalties, others proceeding despite business challenges. The fair proceeded with 283 exhibitors and reported strong sales, including an $18.5 million Joan Mitchell painting, signaling a potential market upturn.
Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 has lost at least eight exhibitors from its main sector since the fair released its initial list over the summer. Among the dropouts are blue-chip galleries including Miguel Abreu, Chantal Crousel, Alison Jacques, Peter Kilchmann, Edward Tyler Nahem, Luisa Strina, and Lia Rumma, as well as Shanghai's BANK gallery. Two galleries, Altman Siegel and Tilton, closed entirely between the list's release and the present. Kasmin changed its name to Olney Gleason and will still participate. Reasons for withdrawal vary: Miguel Abreu chose a solo presentation at Frieze Masters over Miami, citing a "less than stellar" experience the previous year and the burden of three fall fairs. The fair's contract imposes escalating financial penalties for late withdrawals, with galleries owing 50% of their fee after August 1 and 100% after October 1.
London's The Gallery of Everything is presenting the first survey of Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite in a European commercial setting at Art Basel Paris, opening October 24. The solo booth in the fair's Premise sector features works by Hyppolite, including three pieces from the historic 1947 exhibition "Le Surréalisme en 1947," along with documentation, photos, and an essay by Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis. Hyppolite, a self-taught vodou priest who died in 1948, was championed by Surrealist founder André Breton after Breton encountered his work in Haiti in 1945.
Artist Lita Albuquerque staged a 25-minute performance titled "The Sea Is Within Me" in the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, a 1926 underground reservoir in Houston, during the inaugural edition of Untitled Art, Houston. The piece featured Albuquerque's daughter and dancer Jasmine Albuquerque, vocalist Carmina Escobar, and double bassist Laura Dykes, guiding small groups through a meditation and a dramatic call-and-response between the vocalist and dancer, exploring themes of joy, despair, and symbiosis.
Untitled Art, Miami Beach has announced the 157 exhibitors for its 2025 edition, running December 3–7 on Miami Beach. The fair introduces a new “Artist Spotlight” section organized by artist Petra Cortright, alongside its main Galleries section and the reimagined Nest section curated by Jonny Tanna. Notable first-time exhibitors include Meliksetian | Briggs, PALMA, and Soho Revue in the main section, while several galleries have switched from NADA and Art Basel Miami Beach, including Kavi Gupta returning after a lawsuit hiatus. The fair also features Allison Glenn as curator of site-specific Special Projects.
Clément Delépine, the director of Art Basel Paris, has been appointed as the next director of Lafayette Anticipations, a prominent Parisian exhibition space. He will succeed Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, who is leaving after six years to pursue new challenges. Delépine will assume the role on November 17, shortly after the upcoming edition of Art Basel Paris, which opens to VIPs on October 22. A search for a new director for the Paris fair is underway.
Intersect Aspen Art and Design Fair returns for its 2025 edition from July 29 to August 3, featuring the largest roster of galleries and programming in its 15-year history. Highlights include works by Shepard Fairey, Pierce Brosnan, and Fernando Botero, with artists such as Cristina Mittermeier, David Drebin, and Kay Seohyung Lee in attendance. The fair will also host talks and signings with photographer Maryam Eisler and a panel on art and the Aspen community.
Independent 20th Century, the art fair focused on 20th-century works, has announced the 30 exhibitors for its fourth edition, running September 4–7 at Casa Cipriani in New York's Battery Maritime Building. The fair emphasizes single-artist presentations, spotlighting underknown figures such as Raymond Jonson, Gertrude Greene, Elda Cerrato, and Bruce Richards, alongside established names like Picasso, Munch, and Judy Pfaff. Notable collaborations include Nahmad Contemporary and Skarstedt Gallery on Georges Rouault, and presentations of self-taught artists like the Florida Highwaymen and Balraj Khanna.
Artnet News highlights affordable artworks available at Art Basel 2025, countering the fair's reputation for multimillion-dollar sales. Featured works include John Tremblay's 'Gold sounds' (2025) from the New Paintings series at Ecart's booth, priced at €2,500, and Kasing Lung's limited edition Labubu doll sold at the Art Basel Shop for CHF 200, which sold out rapidly to VIPs and the public. Also noted is Solomon Garçon's 'Bobby (4)' (2025), priced around $3,500, presented by 243 Luz at the Liste fair.
Beijing concluded its inaugural "Beijing Art Season" from May 22 to June 1, comprising the long-running Gallery Weekend Beijing and two local art fairs, Beijing Dangdai and Art021 Beijing. The event took place shortly after a diplomatic breakthrough in U.S.–China tariff tensions, but amid China's economic slowdown, the atmosphere was subdued: the Visiting Sector for international galleries and the large-scale group show were scrapped, and satellite events were fewer. Despite this, collectors, curators, and institutional directors from Germany, the UK, Korea, and Japan attended, with some noting China's strategic importance due to its deep collector base. French billionaire Laurent Dassault reported better market sentiment in Beijing than in Europe, while Berlin galleries PSM and Galerie Thomas Schulte made their first appearances at Beijing Dangdai, collaborating with Hua International for a "Berlin Section." The fair grew from 32 galleries in 2018 to 87 this year, reflecting local collectors' appetite for international and experimental contemporary art.
The Marfa Invitational, a small art fair in West Texas, has sparked controversy after pivoting to a new format called the "Marfa Invitational Open." The fair issued an open call to Texas-based artists, charging a $75 application fee and later requiring an additional $150 "installation fee" not disclosed in the original terms. Over 500 artists applied, but many dropped out after the hidden fee was revealed, leading to a boycott campaign. Approximately 160 artists ultimately exhibited at the Saint George Hotel last weekend. The fair had previously faced scandal in 2023 when its tax-exempt status was revoked due to cofounder Michael Phelan's failure to file required paperwork.
MCH Group, parent company of Art Basel, announced a new Doha edition of the Swiss art fair, set to launch in February 2026. Art Basel Qatar will start with 50 galleries and expand to around 200, partnering with Qatar Sports Investments and QC+, a commercial arm of Qatar Museums. The fair aims to bolster markets across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
TEFAF New York returns to the Park Avenue Armory from May 9–13, 2025, featuring 91 exhibitors from around the world. The fair presents a broad range of modern and contemporary art, jewelry, antiquities, and design, with highlights including an untitled canvas by Shirley Jaffe at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, a ceramic bird sculpture by Guidette Carbonell at Lebreton Gallery, a Roman marble head of a bearded god at Charles Ede, and design pieces such as Zaha Hadid's Liquid Glacial coffee table at David Gill Gallery and Josef Frank's 'Flora' chest of drawers at Modernity Stockholm. The event also includes curated displays in the venue's historic period rooms, a feature unique to this fair.
Art Dubai became the first major art fair to launch a dedicated digital art section in 2022, inspiring similar initiatives at Paris Photo and Art SG. Now in its fourth year, Art Dubai Digital is thriving in the Gulf region, where cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi have heavily invested in emerging technologies, including the Dubai A.I. campus, the Museum of the Future, and teamLab Phenomena. The fair has attracted tech entrepreneurs and crypto investors, and Sotheby's recent decision to accept cryptocurrency in Saudi Arabia reflects growing infrastructure for digital art transactions. However, the question remains whether digital art can appeal to traditional collectors or will remain a separate market.
The 2026 edition of EXPO Chicago opened at Navy Pier with a renewed sense of energy, marking its third year under Frieze ownership and its first under the leadership of director Kate Sierzputowski. Early reports from the VIP preview suggest a successful revitalization of the fair, which has successfully re-engaged longtime Midwestern collectors while simultaneously attracting a more robust international audience.
The second edition of Vima, Cyprus' emerging international art fair, took place in Limassol from May 15-17, 2026, drawing 5,200 visitors and featuring 26 invited galleries from over 20 countries. Artworks sold ranged from €550 to €90,000, reflecting increased sales from the inaugural 2025 edition. Highlights included a special exhibition curated by Kostas Stasinopoulos titled "The Crashing Waves," performances by Scottish choreographer Magnus Westwell, and notable presentations by galleries such as Cut Art Gallery (Riga) and Eins Gallery (Limassol). The fair also hosted 25 events including talks, live music, and off-site shows across Limassol and Nicosia.
TEFAF New York returned to the Park Avenue Armory with record attendance on its Collector Preview day, May 14, featuring 90 exhibitors showcasing modern and contemporary masterpieces, antiques, decorative arts, and jewelry. Dealers reported strong sales across price tiers, including an Andy Warhol Mao sold by ML Fine Art within the first hour, a Lucio Fontana *Concetto Spaziale* for $2.3 million at Mennour, and works by Giorgio Morandi, Giosetta Fioroni, and Meret Oppenheim sold by Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. A new secondary-market partnership, Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries, debuted with a booth anchored by a 1956 Rothko, signaling renewed confidence in the market.
Frieze New York 2026 concluded with significant sales activity, as galleries reported strong demand for blue-chip contemporary works. The fair featured a mix of established and emerging artists, with notable transactions including major paintings by living artists and secondary market pieces. Dealers noted a cautious but steady market, with collectors focusing on high-quality, investment-grade works.
Frieze New York 2026 took place from May 13 to 17 at The Shed in Manhattan, featuring nearly 70 galleries. Highlights included Cindy Sherman’s new photographs at Hauser & Wirth (many sold on preview day, with Leonardo DiCaprio visiting), the Focus section curated by Lumi Tan and sponsored by Stone Island, and the Frame section where Diedrick Brackens’ woven works were acquired by the Brooklyn Museum. Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center, curated by Brett Littman, showcased 14 international artists including Nick Cave and Hank Willis Thomas. Mapuche artist Seba Calfuqueo won the Focus Stand Prize for hair-centered works exploring feminism and indigenous heritage.
Frieze New York closed its 15th edition at The Shed with strong sales, major museum acquisitions, and 25,000 visitors from 75 countries. The fair featured 68 galleries from 26 countries and launched the inaugural Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, enabling the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art to acquire works by Bettina from Ulrik, Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke. Notable sales included El Anatsui works for $2.2 million and $1.9 million at White Cube, a Georg Baselitz painting for €1.4 million at Thaddaeus Ropac, and a James Turrell light work in the $900,000–$1 million range at Almine Rech. Latin American representation grew to 14 galleries, and the Focus section curated by Lumi Tan drew strong institutional attention.
Frieze New York 2026 opened at the Shed with 68 galleries from 26 countries, marking the fair's 15th year. The event drew art-world elite including curators, gallery owners, and advisers, with notable attendees such as Paulina Kolczynska, Jim Kelly, Larry Ossei-Mensah, and Ludlow Bailey. Latin American and African galleries had a strong presence, and conversations highlighted increased diversity and representation from the Global South. The fair is part of a broader art sprint that includes the Whitney and Venice Biennials, TEFAF, and the Independent Art Fair.
Art Basel 2026 has announced that artist Trevor Paglen will co-curate the latest edition of Zero 10, the fair's global initiative dedicated to digital art, alongside digital art strategist Eli Scheinman. Making its debut at Art Basel's flagship Swiss edition, Zero 10 will take over the Event Hall on Messeplatz from June 17–21, 2026, with a Preview Day on June 16. The expanded presentation will feature 19 exhibitors showcasing artists working at the forefront of digital, generative, and media-based practices, and is themed "The Condition," examining life within algorithmic systems and AI. Highlights include works by Hito Steyerl, Avery Singer, Andreas Gursky, Vera Molnar, Ryoji Ikeda, John Gerrard, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, presented by galleries such as Hauser & Wirth, Marian Goodman Gallery, Sprüth Magers, Esther Schipper, Almine Rech, bitforms gallery, Art Blocks, and HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste).
Art Basel has announced that artist Trevor Paglen and digital art strategist Eli Scheinman will co-curate the third edition of Zero10, the fair's initiative dedicated to digital art, at its flagship Swiss edition in Basel from June 17–21, 2026 (with a preview on June 16). The presentation will feature 20 exhibitors, including major galleries such as Hauser & Wirth, Marian Goodman, and Sprüth Magers, and will be freely accessible to the public in the Event Hall on Messeplatz. The curatorial theme, "The Condition," explores life in a world saturated by digital imagery, computational systems, and artificial intelligence, bringing together historical and contemporary voices across digital, generative, and media art.