New Art Fair agenda… starting September

There are too many unknowns regarding the evolution of the pandemic and contingent travel restrictions for the fairs, initially planned for spring, to go ahead. In recent weeks we have seen numerous schedule changes with events planned for the first semester getting postponed, mostly until after the summer. The management of Art Paris has also just made the difficult decision to postpone its fair to September in view of pandemic-related uncertainties. The real resumption of art fairs is therefore now stacked up for a packed September schedule with fairs in Basel, Paris, Maastricht and London…  here are the key dates in the new agenda.

First half of September:

Art Paris: 9 – 12 September 2021 at the Temporary Grand Palais in the Champs-de-Mars.

Independent (NYC): this New York Contemporary Art fair has rescheduling its 12th edition for 9 – 12 September and has changed address to the renovated ferry terminal in Lower Manhattan.
Photo London (London): Initially scheduled for 13 – 16 May, Photo London has also rescheduled to 9 – 12 September.
Tefaf Maastricht (Maastricht): the 34th edition of this prestigious art fair has been postponed twice, but is now planned for 11 – 19 September.

Second half of September:

Art Basel, Liste Art Fair Basel and Photo Basel have all postponed their 2021 editions from June to September:
Art Basel: 20 – 26 September (In 2020, the pandemic forced Art Basel’s organisers to cancel their events in Hong Kong, Basel and Miami).
Liste Art Fair Basel: 20 – 26 September  
Photo Basel: 21 – 26 September

Exceptions to the calendar:

Art Genève: the 10th edition, initially programmed for end-January, is now planned for June.
Art Dusseldorf: postponed from November 2020 to April 2021, the 4th edition is now scheduled for 17 – 20 June.
Frieze New York intends to maintain its regular meeting in May, but has reduced its exhibitor list by two-thirds and is moving to the new cultural center in the Shed.
Art Cologne, Germany’s most important Modern & Contemporary art fair, has been postponed from April to November 2021.
TEFAF New York Spring 2021, normally held in May, has been postponed to 2022.
Art Basel Hong Kong, whose May 2021 has been cancelled, is offering galleries the possibility of displaying works physically on stands run by Art Basel assistants. The fair’s management wants to offset international travel restrictions while banking on the presence of visitors thanks to the current vaccination campaign. These “ghost stands” are offered as an alternative to the fair’s digital version.

The FIAC goes to October 2021… via March

The next FIAC (cancelled in 2020) will be held in Paris from 21 to 24 October 2021 at the Temporary Grand Palais. But the fair is planning to attract attention in the spring with a 1st edition of “FIAC Online Viewing Rooms” from 4 to 7 March (with a VIP preview on 2 and 3 March): “A simple and efficient ergonomic platform, developed in collaboration with Artlogic, leader in digital technology for the art world”. Artlogic notably organised the digital section of the Outsider Art Fair in October 2020 (Paris).