Industry elders will remember when summer truly was the slow season in the art world: a time for mounting group shows featuring interesting works by contemporary artists on the rise. But this year’s calendar of July art fairs and August art fairs was surprisingly packed—proof positive there’s no longer a slow season in the art world when you come at it globally, perhaps?
That said, plenty of galleries spent the summer preparing for the big fall art fairs. September’s art fair calendar is absolutely packed with events, particularly for New Yorkers who have The Armory Show to look forward to in a month bookended by Salon Zürcher and Affordable Art Fair’s New York editions. Frieze Seoul is sure to be another September standout, along with the brand new Untitled Art Houston and the newly rechristened Hungry Eye Fair in Amsterdam.
Whether you’re hunkering down in New York for the Armory Show-adjacent fairs or hitting the road on an international odyssey of art, Observer’s monthly art fair calendars can help you put together the perfect itinerary.
Salon Zürcher 2025
September 2-7
New York City mini fair Salon Zürcher bills itself as an Armory Week oasis—a restful, non-intimidating space to appreciate art on a human scale. The thirty-second edition of the satellite art fair, titled “100 Women of Spirit +, Part 3” (a continuation of the “11 Women of Spirit” series, which originally launched during the 2020 Armory Show) will present work brought by a distinguished group of just eleven women artists: Trissy Callan, Amy Chen, Marieken Cochius, Ellen Hackl Fagan, Roberta Fineberg, Anne Finkelstein, Cora Jane Glasser, Ali Ha, Kathy Levine, Andra Samelson and Jane Sangerman. Salon Zürcher is held each year in the Zürcher Gallery’s New York space on Bleecker Street, and admission is free, though the best reason to make time for Salon Zürcher is the chance to chat with the artists whose work is on show.
Frieze Seoul 2025
September 3-6
More than 120 of the world’s most recognizable art galleries from across thirty countries will participate in the fourth edition of Frieze Seoul, which takes place at COEX and runs alongside Kiaf SEOUL. On the program this year are several special projects that showcase the dynamism of Korea’s contemporary art scene, including a work by artist duo Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, which will unfold across the fair, and a new site-specific installation by Liam Gillick. This year’s Frieze Talks speakers include Gabriel Ritter (director of the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum and associate professor, department of the History of Art & Architecture), Zoe Butt (founder, in-tangible institute), CHE Onejoon (artist, AfroAsia Collective), Gyeol Ko (artist, ikkibawiKrrr), Yoon Juli (curator, Ilmin Museum of Art), Jiseon Lee Isbara (president, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Mami Kataoka (director, Mori Art Museum), Purat (Chang) Osathanugrah (chairman, Dib Bangkok), Jae Seok Kim (founder, Xlarge gallery) and Sohl Lee (associate professor, modern and contemporary East Asian art at Stony Brook University, State University of New York).
Kiaf SEOUL 2025
September 4-7
While it sometimes doesn’t get the attention of Frieze, Kiaf SEOUL was South Korea’s first international art fair. Frieze has been both a test and a catalyst, director Eunice Jung told Observer. “It challenged us to rethink what makes our fair distinctive, and further to refine our role within a rapidly changing art scene.” This year, running concurrently with Frieze at COEX, Kiaf SEOUL will host 175 galleries from twenty nations. Not to be missed, two curators—Yuli Yoon (head curator of Ilmin Museum of Art, Korea) and Tomoya Iwata (director of the 5th Floor, Japan)—have been invited to organize a joint exhibition exploring themes of collecting and display, interpreted through the distinct yet intersecting cultural lenses of Korea and Japan. And with nineteen booths this year, Kiaf PLUS will spotlight material experimentation and cross-cultural exchange from emerging voices across the Korean and global contemporary art scenes.
Independent 20th Century 2025
September 4-7
The edition of Independent dedicated to works from the 20th Century will be held for the fourth time at Casa Cipriani at the Battery Maritime Building in New York during New York City’s art week, with a tight roster of thirty exhibitors primarily bringing single-artist presentations. Expect to see lots of paintings, though some galleries will showcase sculpture and installation art from the 1980s to the present. In media releases, the fair alludes to “several self-taught artists, distinctive voices from Latin America and five pioneering women artists from the Arab world.” As for what not to miss at Independent 20th Century, Nahmad Contemporary (New York) and Skarstedt (New York, Paris, London) will bring together a curated selection of works by French artist Georges Rouault; Galerie Lelong (New York, Paris) will devote a solo exhibition to Elda Cerrato; and Weinstein Gallery (San Francisco) will present works by Leonor Fini.
Art on Paper New York 2025
September 4-7
The medium-driven September art fair, Art on Paper, is returning to Manhattan’s Pier 36 during New York’s fall art week with a lineup of 100 galleries showcasing the best in paper-based art. The 2025 edition will spotlight leading galleries from across the U.S., including longtime New York participants Tanya Weddemire Gallery, Vellum Projects, Uprise Art, Lincoln Center Editions, Walter Wickiser Gallery, The Tolman Collection, Kim Schmidt Fine Art, Philippe Labaune Gallery and Accola Griefen Fine Art, and New Haven’s GalleryLabs, Houston’s Cindy Lisica Gallery and Philadelphia’s Bertrand Productions. International exhibitors returning to the fair include Rotterdam’s NL=US, South Korea’s Gallery SoSo and Dublin’s Stoney Road Press. Galleries new to the fair include Transborder Art, Art Sales & Research and A Space Gallery will make their debut, alongside national and international exhibitors such as Brazil’s Oto Reifschneider Galeria de Arte, New York’s Elza Kayal Gallery, Milwaukee’s VAR Gallery, Telluride’s Fringe Gallery, Tokyo’s GYAGYAGYA Gallery and Studio Arrows, Brussels’ Mazel Galerie and Paris’ Galerie Minsky. Observer correspondent Alanna Martinez once described this September art fair as having a healthy range of price points and offering a genuinely pleasant viewing experience for art, calling it her “Armory Week sanctuary” and as close to a perfect art fair as you can get.
Aruba Art Fair 2025
September 5-7
Now in its 8th edition and serving as the centerpiece of ART WEEK 2025, Aruba Art Fair has established San Nicolas—known as the Street Art Capital of the Caribbean—as a platform where murals, performances and installations meet in the streets. This year’s theme, “JUSTICE,” sets the stage for more than 50 confirmed artists and crafters to address questions of truth, equity, and change through work that spans fashion, sculpture, building takeovers and art displayed across four galleries. Unlike many commercial fairs, it operates as a non-profit, directing all proceeds back to participating artists, a model that underscores its focus on community and access. The program extends well beyond the three-day fair, with a culinary art competition, sculptural installations, an Art TV program, and a dedicated magazine rounding out the slate.
The Armory Show 2025
September 5-7
The largest Modern and Contemporary art fair in New York, and one of the largest anywhere in the world, The Armory Show in the Javits Center has become such an anchor of the fall art season that many people refer to it (rightly or wrongly) as Armory Week. With more than 230 galleries from thirty countries mounting displays in 2025, the fair is set to debut a revised floor plan designed to improve visitor flow and experience. The fair’s Presents section will feature the largest number of emerging galleries in the fair’s history. “Just as artists and galleries evolve through a pipeline, so do collectors. We actively engage with younger collectors; it’s a real priority for us,” director Kyla McMillan told Observer. “New York is a city where someone with transactional potential can walk through the door and, while relatively unknown today, be on every top collector list in just a few years. That openness to discovery is something we want to foster.”
POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2025
September 11-14
This year’s POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair will showcase works brought by seventy-five galleries from nineteen countries, with a particular focus on galleries from Japan. Given that this September art fair overlaps with Berlin Art Week, it tends to attract a lot of visitors—30,000 last year, from a range of nations. The Berlin art scene is worth checking out but not necessarily easy to absorb in just a week, as the city is home to more than 200 museums and around 440 galleries. POSITIONS is held in hangar 7 of Berlin-Tempelhof Airport (which ceased operating as an aviation hub in 2008) and has a supporting program that includes special exhibitions, panel discussions, the Berlin Art Week Collectors Dinner and other events.
viennacontemporary 2025
September 11-14
viennacontemporary is the leading art fair in Austria, now in its eleventh edition, and its coming typically heralds the arrival of several other art fairs, festivals and events. This year’s roster features 103 exhibitors from twenty-five countries—the U.S. not among them—with the lion’s share of the exhibitors coming from the Central and Eastern European art scenes. The STATEMENT, CONTEXT and ZONE1 curated sections will return for 2025, joined by VC Vault, a new curated section of eight young international galleries—all under the artistic direction of curator Abaseh Mirvali. Through two panel discussions and the exhibition “Realities Building,” the fair will interrogate the construction of truth and the mechanisms of influence in the digital age. One unusual feature of this fair is a children’s program.
Tokyo Gendai 2025
September 12-14
Set to return this year to Pacifico Yokohama from September 12 to 14, the fair will host sixty-seven galleries, evenly split between Japanese and international participants. Among the returning exhibitors at Tokyo Gendai are established international names like Pace Gallery, Sadie Coles HQ and Ceysson & Bénétière, alongside leading Japanese galleries such as Taka Ishii Gallery, Kotaro Nukaga and Kai Kai Kiki. A Lighthouse called Kanata will present a curated showcase of works by contemporary sculptors and painters whose visual language is rooted in Japanese artistic traditions, while ShugoArts (Tokyo) is preparing a group presentation of work by leading Japanese women artists, including Leiko Ikemura, Aki Kondo and Ritsue Mishima. Also back this year is the curated exhibition space Tsubomi (“Flower Bud”), dedicated to showcasing artists who are underrepresented or not currently represented by galleries. “We want to create opportunities for people to discover something new,” director Eri Takane told Observer.
Hungry Eye Fair 2025
September 17-21
Hungry Eye Fair (formerly Haute Photographie) in Amsterdam Noord is the autumn edition of the boutique fine art photography fair launched by Roy Kahmann (the winter edition is held annually in conjunction with Rotterdam Art Week). In addition to the new name, the 2025 edition of the art fair has a new venue, DOOR OPEN SPACE, but what won’t change is the intelligently curated, museum-style format, which showcases vintage and contemporary photography in conversation, and the annual Bookmarket with new and vintage photobooks. As always, the focus is on the independent photographer—as in photographers without gallery representation—and this year, a lineup of more than eighty photographers from around the world will showcase their own work alongside a small selection of galleries.
art3f Monaco 2025
September 19-21
Monaco’s international contemporary art fair at Chapiteau de Fontvieille, art3f Monaco, aims to give art and art collecting a “human and warm side” with affordable art presented “without code, without prejudice and uninhibited.” Galleries are certainly present at this August art fair, but many of the 200 artists whose works are on show were handpicked by the fair’s selection committee, and moreover, the artists are actually on site. Enthusiasts and collectors can meet the painters, sculptors, photographers, etc., and hear their stories, fostering a connection between buyer and artist that leads to a “direct exchange and sharing of emotions.” In theory, anyway. It’s a good concept and one that’s attractive to many younger collectors and would-be collectors, but whether it makes art more accessible is up for debate.
ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA 2024
September 26-28
The only art fair focusing on the concept of Asia, ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA (AFAF) will be held this year at the Marine Messe Fukuoka convention center in Fukuoka, Japan. Now in its ninth edition, AFAF creates opportunities for “diverse interactions between Japan and the rest of Asia” by bringing together galleries that showcase artists from across the region. Eighty-three galleries from Japan’s art scene and abroad will mount displays, and ten cultural organizations (including schools, art-tech companies and galleries) will also bring work to Fukuoka.
Affordable Art Fair New York 2025
September 17-21
If the question is ‘When is Affordable Art Fair?’, the answer is another question: ‘When isn’t there an Affordable Art Fair running?’ Affordable Art Fair London is on the March art fair calendar. Among the February art fairs, you’ll find Affordable Art Fair Brussels. And so on. The autumnal New York edition of Will Ramsay’s Affordable Art Fair will take place at the Starrett-Lehigh Building with a diverse selection of curated works priced between $100 and $12,000 (instead of the usual $10,000, possibly owing to inflation). Affordable Art Fair fairs don’t typically feature work by “celebrity” artists, offering instead a significant platform for emerging artists and younger galleries to gain exposure and connect with new collectors.
British Art Fair 2025
September 25-28
This September art fair has been gathering the best, you guessed it, modern and contemporary British art in London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery since 1988. Now in its thirty-third edition, British Art Fair invites exhibitors that bring works by some of the country’s most famous artists, including Frank Auerbach, Banksy, John Craxton, Tracey Emin, Terry Frost, Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst, Ivon Hitchens, David Hockney, Albert Irvin, Gwen John, L.S. Lowry, Henry Moore, John Piper, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, William Scott. For the fourth year in a row, the SOLO Contemporary section—curated once again by artist and gallerist Zavier Ellis—will shine a light on some of Britain’s most interesting mid-career artists. Hospital Rooms, which collaborates with hospitals to transform clinical spaces into environments filled with color and inspiration, is this year’s charity partner.
The Other Art Fair Los Angeles 2025
September 25-28
The first edition of The Other Art Fair was held in London in 2011 by Ryan Stanier, who created the fair with the dual aims of making art discovery easier and democratizing the art buying experience. This is another one of those art fairs that seems to be everywhere—London, Brooklyn, Dallas, Sydney and so on. In Los Angeles, this fair where “art is for everyone” and the displays are mounted by more than a hundred independent artists, is held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Did we mention the DJs, the fully stocked bar and the party atmosphere? In case it wasn’t obvious, this is absolutely an art fair geared toward a younger, cooler audience, and the prices of the works on view often reflect that.
art3f Paris 2025
September 26-28
With a whopping twenty-one fairs in eighteen cities, the international contemporary art fair art3f comes to Paris twice yearly, once in September and once in January. Presale tickets are just seven 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 cafe and bar 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!”
Even more September art fairs in 2025
As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the September 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.
Clio Art Fair 2025 (New York)
September 4-7, 18-21
FNB Art Joburg 2025 (South Africa)
September 5-7
Parcours des Mondes 2025 (France)
September 9-14
Sydney Contemporary 2025 (Australia)
September 11-14
ArtRio 2025 (Brazil)
September 10-14
Reno Tahoe International Art Show 2025 (Nevada)
September 11-14
ART EXPO NORTE 2025 (Portugal)
September 12-14
Art & Bali 2025
September 12-14
EuropArtFair 2025 (Amsterdam)
September 13-14
Art Athina 2025 (Greece)
September 18-22
ARTBO 2025 (Colombia)
September 25-28
Season Fair 2025 (Detroit)
September 25-28
September 25-28
Untitled Art Houston 2025
September 19-21
Works Art Fair 2025 (Denmark)
September 19-21
FAB Paris 2025
September 20-2
Estación Material 2025 (Guadalajara)
September 27-29
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