The Best Art and Design Fairs and Biennials Around the World This March

Twenty-five years after its first iteration at the Gramercy Park Hotel, the Armory Show will kick off in New York City on March 7. Founded in 1994 by four gallerists seeking to champion emerging artists, the show has expanded into one of the city’s premier art fairs. Despite the recent controversial headlines—the fair had to relocate 60 galleries (roughly one-third if its exhibitors) from Pier 92 on Manhattan’s west side to an adjacent pier and cancel its sister fair, Volta, after an inspection found that the pier was structurally unsafe—collectors are looking forward to seeing the top-notch work brought by some of the world’s best galleries. For a more manageable and less traditional fair experience, if no less ambitious in terms of the work, collectors will head to Independent at Spring Studios. And for discovering emerging talent that’s still a little wet behind the ears, Spring/Break Art Show is the place to be.

Kehinde Wiley at Sean Kelly. Photo: BFA / Courtesy of the Armory Show.

Dubai Art Week, planned for mid-March, will again bring an extensive program of fairs, festivals, and special performances and installations to the UAE. The week will orbit around the region’s preeminent art fair, Art Dubai. If you’re there, don’t miss the Sharjah Biennial, taking place in Sharjah, just an hour’s drive from Dubai. Themed “Leaving the Echo Chamber,” it will include over 60 new commissioned works that comment on culture, society, and political systems, with a focus on fictionalized history and the monopolization of news sources. Located in the charming European town of Maastricht in the Netherlands, the European Art Fair (TEFAF) will cover some 7,000 years of European art history.

Galerie Downtown’s booth at TEFAF Maastricht 2018. Photo: TEFAF

Later in the month, the art world will descend on Hong Kong for the first Art Basel of the year. Instrumental to developing the marketplace for international art in Asia since it launched its first iteration in that city seven years ago, Art Basel in Hong Kong now has some 240 galleries in its lineup for this year, 14 of which are New York spaces making their Hong Kong debut.

“Living Nature” installation at Salone del Mobile, 2018, in Milan. Photo: Salone del Mobile

The theme of this year’s Triennale di Milano, an art and design exhibition that had 13 iterations between 1936 and 1996 before taking a 20-year hiatus and starting up again in 2016, is “Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival.” And making things even more exciting in Milan, the triennial is set to overlap with the highly anticipated design fair Salone del Mobile in April.

Keep reading for Galerie‘s curated list of the best art and design fairs, biennials, and triennials around the world in March.

NORTH AMERICA

Spring/Break Art Show, New York
March 5–11

The Armory Show, New York
March 7–10

Independent, New York
March 8–10

Art on Paper, New York
March 7–10

Asia Week, New York
March 15–24

SXSW, Austin, Texas
March 8–17

EUROPE

Triennale di Milano, Milan
March 1–September 1

London Design Week, London
March 10–15

Collectible Design Fair, Brussels
March 14–17

TEFAF Maastricht,  The Netherlands
March 16–24

ASIA

Art Basel in Hong Kong, Hong Kong
March 29–31

Art Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong
March 27–31

Art Dubai, Dubai
March 20–23

Dubai Art Week, Dubai
March 16–23

Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
March 7–June 10

Singapore Design Week, Singapore
March 5–18

AUSTRALIA

Melbourne Design Week, Australia
March 14–24