New Alternative Art Fair Esther to Launch in May During Frieze New York

Esther, a new alternative art fair, will launch this spring, with its first edition to take place May 1 through May 4 in New York during the run of Frieze.

Founded by Margot Samel, of the eponymous Tribeca gallery, which opened in 2022, and Olga Temnikova Tallinn, of Estonia’s Temnikova & Kasela, the fair will feature presentations by 25 international galleries at the New York Estonian House, a four-story Beaux-Arts building designed by Brooklyn architect Thomas A. Gray in 1899. It is located at 243 East 34th Street.

Esther enters a crowded fair landscape both globally and in New York, with Frieze and NADA fairs set for the same dates as Esther in New York and TEFAF and Independent set for the week after. However, the new entrant said in a press release that it aims to differentiate itself by encouraging potential exhibitors to apply with projects that respond to the unique architecture and history of the Estonian House.

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The building’s entrance hall, meeting rooms, grand halls, and clubrooms will house artworks, site-specific intallations, performances and events, all free and open to the public.

“We’ve always been interested in alternative models for gallery collaboration beyond the traditional art fair,” Samel and Temnikova said in a statement. “Coming from Estonia, it’s been especially important for us to rely on collaboration to expand our community and the ways we can share and enjoy art. We have both been to and appreciated Basel Social Club in Basel and Condo in London, and felt that New York was missing this sort of experimental approach—where galleries can afford to take risks while benefiting from the broadened networks and ideas of the international gallery community.”

The galleries participating in the inaugural edition of Esther are: