The art world has a new word for its own exhaustion: fairtigue. Too many fairs, too big, too often. One of New York’s oldest dealer fairs has drawn its own conclusions. The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), which had staged its Art Show every year since 1989, cancelled the 2025 edition less than four months before opening, calling it a “strategic pause”. This week the fair is back at the Park Avenue Armory – renamed the ADAA Fair and running until 16 November.
Evolution, not revolution
It is the first edition fully led by Kinsey Robb, who joined the association in 2024. She describes it as a continuation rather than a reinvention: still a small, collegial fair of members, adapted to a changed environment. The most visible change is size. 63 galleries take part, about a dozen fewer than last time. The freed-up space opens the area around a circular central bar, giving visitors room to move through the three aisles – and to linger and talk.
That sociability was on show at Thursday’s opening gala, now a benefit for the Whitney Museum of American Art. Despite stormy weather and even a tornado warning in New York City, the evening was well attended, and dealers say the Whitney partnership is bringing in a newer, often younger crowd. The fair’s longtime preview partner, the Henry Street Settlement, has meanwhile moved to the Independent fair.
What is on the walls
The ADAA remains a fair of the secondary market, with a strong lean towards Modern and post-war material. Founding members such as Hirschl & Adler and Kraushaar Galleries, both present at the first Art Show in 1989, exhibit alongside first-timers including Alexander Berggruen, Sargent’s Daughters, Piero Atchugarry, Nicodim and Hollis Taggart. Taggart, nearly 50 years in business but a new ADAA member, devotes a dual stand to two women of Abstract Expressionism, Michael (Corinne) West and Teruko Yokoi.
The highest asking prices reported so far are for Agnes Pelton’s The Well of Peace (1932) at $2.4 million and Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (Paris) at $1.6 million, both with Jonathan Boos. Sales reported elsewhere range from works on paper by Helen Frankenthaler around $75,000 to pieces by Beverly Pepper, Kenneth Noland and Kikuo Saito, and eight new works by Julie Buffalohead at Jessica Silverman between $22,000 and $50,000. Kraushaar also sold works below $2,000 – a reminder that a fair like this is not only for trophy hunters.
A mood check on the market
Dealers describe a “bifurcated” market, unsettled by daily political and financial news, but holding up better than many expected. The ADAA’s decision to shrink and focus is part of a wider trend: even Art Basel Miami Beach, the largest fair in the Western Hemisphere, is reducing its number of exhibitors this year.
For collectors and visitors, smaller may simply be better. A fair you can see in an afternoon, with space to stop and look, could be exactly what a tired art world needs – and the ADAA’s quiet return suggests that the old formula of trusted dealers in a historic hall still has life in it.