TEFAF New York 2026 Brings Ancient Egypt, Modern Masters, and New Work to the Park Avenue Armory
TEFAF New York will return to the Park Avenue Armory from May 15–19, 2026, with an invitation-only preview on May 14, assembling 88 international exhibitors from 14 countries across four continents. The fair’s 2026 edition is built around a deliberately wide lens, placing contemporary art, antiquities, design, and high jewelry in close proximity.
Leanne Jagtiani, director of TEFAF New York, said the fair’s exhibitors remain its core strength, pointing to a mix of longtime participants and newcomers across disciplines. That breadth is visible in the works on view, which range from a new abstract canvas, Story (2026), by Minjung Kim at Robilant and Voena to The Hour Glass (2025), a glass mosaic by Shahzia Sikander presented with Sean Kelly.
The fair also reaches deep into art history. David Aaron Ltd. will show Stele for Thutmose IV, an ancient Egyptian work made about 3,300 years ago during the reign of Thutmose IV. Galerie Chenel will present Helmeted Athena, a Roman sculpture dating to the 1st–2nd century C.E. Together, the objects underscore TEFAF’s long-standing interest in connoisseurship as a form of comparison: not simply old against new, but one visual language set against another.
That dialogue continues across the 20th century. Jean Dubuffet’s Le Commodore (1971), Martin Kippenberger’s Ohne Titel (Händchen) (1996), and works by Pierre Soulages, Barbara Hepworth, John Chamberlain, and Cecily Brown extend the fair’s range from postwar experimentation to more recent contemporary practice. Design and jewelry deepen the picture further, with exhibitors including Galerie Marcilhac, Gomide and Co., Modernity Stockholm, Forms Jewelry, and Hemmerle.
The result is less a single market category than a compressed history of visual culture. For collectors and visitors alike, TEFAF New York is positioning itself once again as a place where centuries meet on equal footing, and where discovery depends as much on juxtaposition as on rarity.
