Today Observer’s arts team learned that October is “National Arts & Humanities Month.” Apparently, the associated campaign launched thirty years ago as National Arts Week to honor the twentieth anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts. Ironically, the October art fair calendar is heavy on the international fairs, with London hosting Frieze, Frieze Masters and 1-54, along with several others, and Art Basel Paris returning after ditching the ‘Paris+ par.’ The only domestic fairs on the list are the inaugural edition of Atlanta Art Fair at the start of the month and ADAA The Art Fair at the end.

According to reports from on the ground, American collectors were back in force at the September art fairs (particularly this year’s Armory Show, which had healthy early sales), and it will be interesting to see whether those same collectors make their way across the pond or take a breather before the 2024 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach and all the associated satellite art fairs and shows. If your plans involve doing the former, Observer’s guide to this year’s October art fairs can help you put together the perfect itinerary.

Atlanta Art Fair 2024

October 3-6

The first edition of Atlanta Art Fair will take place at Pullman Yards and coincide with the third edition of Kendra Walker’s Atlanta Art Week. Under the leadership of director Kelly Freeman, artistic director Nato Thompson and art advisors Tim and Dirk von Gal, the fair will showcase work brought by sixty galleries, many of which are located in Atlanta or hail from the American South. Local galleries mounting displays at the fair include Alan Avery Art Company, Maune Contemporary, Spalding Nix Fine Art and Day & Night Projects, while  M. David & Co. and Spanierman Modern are coming from New York and Luis De Jesus and Residency Art Gallery from L.A. Participating international galleries include South Korea’s Gallery Tableau and Galeria Baobab from Colombia. Guest curators Lauren Jackson Harris and Karen Comer Lowe, both known for championing underrepresented voices, promise to deliver compelling and timely exhibitions.

PAD London 2024
October 8-13

Launched in 2007 by antique dealer and PAD Paris founder Patrick Perrin, PAD London brings collectible 20th-century design, art, photography and jewelry to the city’s affluent Mayfair district. Sixty-three galleries will display their wares at the sixteenth edition of this multifaceted contemporary art and design fair, including twelve galleries new to PAD (most of which are London-based). Tristan Hoare will present a solo exhibition of New York-based artist Peter Schlesinger, with a focus on his works on paper and ceramics. Peter Layton–London Glassblowing will present vibrant glass artworks by David Patchen, Anthony Scala and Elliot Walker. And Brazil Modernist will display works by Oscar Niemeyer and José Zanine Caldas. Like its Parisian sister fair, PAD is both a one-stop shop for lovers of art and design and an inspiration to curators, consultants and designers.

Women in Art Fair 2024

October 9-12

Women in Art Fair is set to return to the Mall Galleries during London Art Week for its second edition, once again providing a platform for women artists, curators and gallerists to acknowledge and address gender imbalances, of which there are still many, in the art world. “This is not about excluding men,” said fair founder Jacqueline Harvey in a statement. “It’s about disrupting the established model which isn’t serving us, as it’s failing half of the artistic community: women.” Running concurrently with Frieze, Women in Art Fair will take over all three spaces at Mall Galleries: twenty-one participating galleries and many independent artists will mount displays in the West Gallery; the East Gallery will host a curated exhibition of works by leading 20th- and 21st-century women artists; and an exhibition of work by contemporary women artists will be mounted in the North Gallery. The 2024 edition will also continue the fair’s Open Call, which invites submissions centered around themes of the creative process, with an emphasis on challenges and setbacks in producing art.

Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2024

October 9-13

Frieze and Frieze Masters, which take place concurrently in The Regent’s Park, are the headliners of London’s Frieze Week, and this year, with a fresh floor plan design for Frieze London and new curation for Frieze Masters, the fairs hope to enhance the overall art browsing and buying experience. The 2024 edition of Frieze London will feature more than 160 galleries from forty-three countries, including some of the leading spaces in London’s gallery scene, with established names like Stephen Friedman Gallery, Alison Jacques, Lisson Gallery, Victoria Miro, Modern Art, White Cube and Thomas Dane Gallery, along with a long list of returning galleries that includes Gagosian, Goodman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Gallery Hyundai, Tina Kim Gallery and Lehmann Maupin. Meanwhile, Frieze Masters will feature 130 galleries from twenty-six countries mounting booths focusing on works created before or just after the year 2000. D’Lan Contemporary, which exclusively shows work by Australian First Nations artists, will show “Paddy Bedford: Spirit & Truth,” with fifteen significant paintings and twenty gouache works on paper.

Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam 2024

October 9-13

Since its inception in 1999, Will Ramsay’s Affordable Art Fair has been democratizing the acquisition of art with its inclusive ethos, welcoming atmosphere and round-the-calendar schedule. When is Affordable Art Fair? ‘When is there not an Affordable Art fair on?’ might be the better question. 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. In October, we have Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam, back at De Kromhouthal with a robust cross-section of Dutch and international galleries showcasing thousands of reasonably affordable contemporary artworks that, true to the fair’s name, start in the hundreds of dollars range. New-to-the-fair galleries include Contempo (the Netherlands), LADS Gallery (Japan), Doost Art (Iran/the Netherlands) and Brita Prinz Arte (Spain).

1-54 London 2024

October 10-13

Last year, Observer writer Reuben Esien pointed out that, “In the hullaballoo of London’s Frieze Week, the slick and rather discreet 1-54 contemporary African art fair can slip by unnoticed. Smartly tagging onto the much larger fair without quite stepping out of its shadow, it often ends up being a blink-and-you-could-miss-it event.” We recommend you don’t miss it when it returns to the iconic, neoclassical Somerset House, which charmingly overlooks the Thames. The twelfth edition of 1-54 London will coincide with Frieze London, and more than sixty galleries will mount displays of the work of 160 established and emerging artists from the African continent and global diasporas. The African Art Hub (TAAH) will present “Beneath The Stars, Where Dreams Take Flight,” an evocative exhibition of the works of Houda Terjuman, Gbemileke Adekunle and Reggie Khumalo.

The Other Art Fair London 2024

October 10-13

The Other Art Fair, a pioneering event designed to make discovering emerging artists easier, was first held in London in 2011 by Ryan Stanier, who wanted to empower direct connections between artist and collector, democratizing the art buying experience by making it more accessible, more personal and more fun. Today, the London edition of The Other Art Fair continues to embody this ethos, bringing works by independent artists to the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. This venue, known for its rich history and contemporary edge, perfectly complements the fair’s mission to showcase the next generation of talent. Attendees of this, the 100th edition, will be treated to an immersive experience that goes beyond art market transactions, with workshops, performances and public installations, plus a Black Chalk Wine tasting room and live tattooing by Suki Lane, all in the heart of London’s bustling art scene, making it a must-visit event for those looking to discover and engage with the art world in a more intimate and meaningful way. This year’s featured artist is the late Dan Hillier, a friend of Stanier, who will be honored with a retrospective exhibition of his most notable works.

Art International Zurich 2024

October 11-13

Art International Zurich bills itself as ‘the definitive event for contemporary art’ in the city, which is arguably correct, as this October art fair launched way back in 1999. This year, the fair will showcase artworks brought by more than fifty exhibitors—including many international exhibitors, with a solid Asian presence—as well as a public program of artist talks that offer a unique opportunity to learn more about the artworks and the creative process. Networking between artists and industry professionals is encouraged. Seoul’s Harang Gallery will show the work of Jungmin Kim, Miky Kim and Sangyung Lhee. Local gallery Tibetan Lama Art is mounting a presentation of thangkas, statues and ritual objects. And London’s ADM Gallery will show works from Anna Dobrovolskaya-Mints’ Zero F*cks Given project.

Art Basel Paris 2024
October 18-20

This year’s Art Basel in the French capital has a simpler name, Art Basel Paris, which is something of a relief after two years of trying to figure out exactly how to say “Paris+ par Art Basel” in conversation. The robust program at the Grand Palais will showcase works brought by 195 leading galleries from forty-two countries and territories, but there are also thousands of satellite events and special projects planned citywide. Nine iconic Parisian sites will host exhibitions, installations, large-scale sculptures and curatorial projects. Don’t miss artist Jesse Darling’s takeover of the Petit Palais and the sculptures by John Chamberlain, Yayoi Kusama and Jean Prouvé lining Avenue Winston-Churchill. The Domaine National du Palais-Royal will host a group exhibition featuring works like Franco-Egyptian artist Ghada Amer’s “Paravent Girls” series, César’s iconic 3.5-meter-high thumb and Heinz Mack’s Silver Stele (2015).

AKAA 2024

October 18-20

AKAA (more formally, the Also Known as Africa fair) is focused on African art and its diaspora, highlighting the diversity of African artistic expressions and promoting dialogues between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, with a particular focus on artists from France’s overseas territories. The ninth edition will take place at the Carreau du Temple during Paris Art Week, with displays mounted by galleries from twenty-nine countries representing ninety-six artists. Several new galleries are coming to AKAA this year from Uganda, Egypt, the U.K. and elsewhere, while long-time exhibitors like Galerie Primo Marella from Italy and Band of Vices from the U.S. are set to return. Cameroonian artist MALAM (represented by 193 Gallery) was commissioned to create a monumental installation for the fair that draws attention to the human habit of egregious overconsumption.

Art Salon Zurich 2024

October 23-27

Art Salon Zurich is the city’s newest boutique art fair, and unlike many fairs that bill themselves as being collector-focused, this one “primarily focuses on the needs of art galleries, art dealers and their respective artists”—in other words, the supply side. It makes sense, given Switzerland’s leading role in the global art market. The country’s robust gallery ecosystem has something to offer regional collectors and international buyers, not just during fair season but also year-round. Led by Fabian J. Walter and Sven Eisenhut, the second edition of Art Salon Zurich has a roster of participating galleries that’s semi-local, with Zurich’s Galerie Soon and sam scherrer contemporary, and galleries from somewhat further afield like Basel’s Sarasin Art, Berlin’s Galerie Albrecht and Ljubljana’s Galerija Fotografija.

Contemporary Istanbul 2024

October 23-27

In 2019, Contemporary Istanbul chairman Ali Güreli underlined culture’s crucial role to play in the future of Turkey as an international force, telling Observer, “We need soft powers, like art, to maintain sustainable foundations with strong economy and politics.” Now in its nineteenth edition, this October art fair is certainly doing its part to elevate the art scene in this country uniquely positioned between old Europe, the rising Middle East and budding Eurasia. Tersane Istanbul will welcome fifty galleries from Istanbul and elsewhere. Among the participating international galleries are New York’s C24 Gallery, Andrea Rehder Gallery from Sao Paulo, Dubai’s AWC Gallery and Moscow’s SISTEMA Gallery. Steve Sacks’s digitally native bitforms gallery will exhibit works from Jim Campbell, Daniel Canogar, Claudia Hart, Manfred Mohr, Ellie Pritts, Quayola, Casey Reas and Clement Valla.

ADAA The Art Show 2024

October 30 – November 2

In 2016, Observer correspondent Ryan Steadman posed a question in this attention-grabbing headline: Is the ADAA Secretly New York City’s Best Art Fair? His answer was that the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual fair, known simply as The Art Show, “clearly puts superior art ahead of style and glitz” even if it “is usually seen as a quiet, ‘insider’ affair.” Since 1989, the ADAA has mounted the fair at the historic Park Avenue Armory after reviewing booth proposals submitted by the organization’s 180-something member galleries. Pace Prints is bringing works by Chase Hall, Petzel is featuring Isabella Ducrot and Roberts Projects will showcase works by Suchitra Mattai. The 2024 edition introduces a new initiative titled “Spotlight On…” that will shine a light on the art scene in a city with a critical mass of ADAA members. This year, it’s Houston, and there will be a panel discussion led by prominent local art collectors and leaders of Houston cultural institutions. As per usual, ADAA The Art Show is a philanthropic affair, and all admissions proceeds will go to Henry Street Settlement.

DEFINE SEOUL 2024

October 30 – November 3

Last but not least, premium design and art fair DEFINE SEOUL is returning to S-Factory in Seongsu-dong. With Teo Yang at the helm as artistic director and host Art Busan Co. (the organizer of the premium Korean art fair, Art Busan), DEFINE SEOUL is mounting an ambitious event with a complex theme: Understanding Simplicity – Attitude towards life in a Rational Era. This year, Yang said in a statement, the fair, which aims to promote the artistic vitality of Korea, will “focus on the value of simplicity, symbolizing purpose and clear philosophy. We aim to create a space where we can understand the essence conveyed by objects created by artists and designers who work based on this value and contemplate a lifestyle that pursues simplicity.” Forty exhibitors will mount displays, and DEFINE SEOUL will host several public programs during the fair week, including Define Talk, which invites prominent people from the worlds of art and design to share insights.