Every July, the East End of Long Island undergoes a quiet but unmistakable transformation. The summer crowd that descends on Southampton is not only drawn by the Atlantic breezes and the white-sand beaches — it is drawn by art. For nearly two decades, the Hamptons Fine Art Fair has served as the cultural centrepiece of the Hamptons summer, gathering galleries, collectors, and curious visitors under one spectacular pavilion complex for four days of discovery, acquisition, and conversation. In 2026, the fair returns with its most ambitious programme yet, celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with a roster of themed exhibitions, spotlight artists, and special events that make a compelling case for planning your summer around it.
Taking place from July 9 to 12 at the Southampton Fairgrounds, the 2026 edition of HFAF brings together more than 140 select galleries from around the world, presenting works by over 500 emerging, mid-career, and blue-chip artists. Whether you are a seasoned collector, a first-time fair-goer, or simply someone who believes that great art deserves to be encountered in person, this guide covers everything you need to know before you arrive.
Why the Hamptons and Why This Fair
The relationship between the Hamptons and the visual arts is not a recent invention. Long before the East End became synonymous with summer luxury, it was a destination for artists seeking light, space, and community. In the 1880s, Hudson River School painter Thomas Moran built a home and studio in East Hampton, and American Impressionist William Merritt Chase opened his Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art in Southampton in 1891 — one of the first plein-air art schools in the United States . By the mid-20th century, the Hamptons had become the spiritual home of Abstract Expressionism: Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner worked in Springs, East Hampton, while Willem de Kooning and Elaine de Kooning maintained studios nearby .
That history is not merely decorative. It is the cultural bedrock upon which the Hamptons Fine Art Fair was built. Founded and produced by Rick Friedman and Cindy Lou Wakefield of Southampton-based ShowHamptons, HFAF has grown over nearly two decades into what Forbes magazine has recognised as one of the twelve most notable art fairs in the world worth travelling to — singling it out for its “relaxed, sophisticated ambience that makes it all more attractive” compared to the more overtly commercial atmosphere of other major fairs . In 2024, the fair set a new attendance record of 13,000 visitors over four days, with over four million dollars in art sold across the weekend .
The fair is staged in a spectacular 70,000 sq. ft. pavilion complex set on 17 bucolic acres along County Road 39 — the main artery connecting the Hamptons — with the two main halls named the Pollock Pavilion and the de Kooning Pavilion in homage to the region’s AbEx legacy. It is, as the fair’s own description puts it, “the deepest selection of primary and secondary market art in the Hamptons.”
Key Dates and How to Plan Your Visit
The 2026 fair runs across four days, with a dedicated VIP opening on Thursday and general admission from Friday through Sunday. Here is the full schedule at a glance:
| Day | Session | Hours | Notes |
| Thursday, Jul 9 | VIP “First-Look” Opening Preview | 12–5pm | Benefits Parrish Art Museum |
| Thursday, Jul 9 | VIP Opening Preview Evening | 5–9:30pm | Benefits Southampton Arts Center; “Red, White & Blue Party” |
| Friday, Jul 10 | General Admission | 11am–7pm | $50 per person |
| Saturday, Jul 11 | General Admission | 11am–7pm | $50 per person |
| Sunday, Jul 12 | General Admission | 11am–6pm | $50 per person |
VIP tickets are priced at $200 per person and include complimentary access for all four days, plus gratis VIP access to the Hamptons Jewelry Show (July 23–26 at the same location). The Thursday VIP evening is the social highlight of the Hamptons summer calendar — a “Red, White & Blue Party” that doubles as a fundraiser for the Southampton Arts Center, with complimentary wine and the kind of crowd that makes art-world conversation feel effortless.
For those planning a first visit, a few practical notes: parking is $15 per car per visit, and the fair strongly encourages car-sharing or car service, given the volume of traffic on County Road 39 during fair week. The fairgrounds are located at 605 County Road 39, Southampton, NY 11968, just minutes from Southampton Village. Guided highlight tours with Gene Seidman run Thursday through Sunday at 11:30am and 3:30pm and can be booked in advance — an excellent option for those who want a curated introduction to the fair’s most significant works.
There is also a Young Collectors Party on Friday, July 10, from 5–7pm in the VIP Lounge ($30 per person, not including general admission), designed specifically for the next generation of art buyers. It is one of the more thoughtful additions to the fair’s programming in recent years, reflecting a genuine commitment to building new audiences for collecting.
What to See: The 2026 Programme
Spotlight Artists
Each year, HFAF designates a selection of artists for dedicated spotlight presentations — deeper, more focused exhibitions within the broader fair. The 2026 lineup is particularly strong:
Julian Lennon (presented by Fremin Gallery, New York) brings his photography practice to Southampton. The son of Beatles member John Lennon, Julian has built a serious and critically recognised career as a fine art photographer, with solo exhibitions at Art Basel Miami Beach, the Leica Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Aston Martin Residences Gallery in Miami. His work spans portraiture, landscape, and documentary photography, and his 2024 book Life’s Fragile Moments has introduced his vision to a wider audience .
Mel Ramos (1935–2018), presented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery, receives a posthumous spotlight that situates him firmly within the canon of American Pop Art. Ramos exhibited at LACMA in 1963 alongside Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, and his work is held in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and the Hirshhorn, among others. His signature female nudes — voluptuous figures emerging from candy wrappers and martini glasses — remain among the most recognisable images of the Pop era .
Bert Stern (1929–2013), presented by The Estate of Bert Stern, is the subject of a landmark exhibition titled The Last Sitting™ — a presentation of iconic photographs from his 1962 session with Marilyn Monroe at the Hotel Bel-Air for Vogue, taken just five weeks before her death. These images have taken on mythic significance in the history of photography, and their presentation at HFAF coincides with the centennial of Monroe’s birth, making this one of the most culturally resonant exhibitions of the summer .
Henry Orlik (b. 1947), presented by Winsor Birch (Wiltshire, UK), is perhaps the most extraordinary rediscovery of the 2026 fair. Born in a displaced persons camp in Germany to Polish parents, Orlik exhibited alongside Magritte, Dalí, and de Chirico at the Acoris Surrealist Art Centre in Mayfair by the age of twenty-five — then walked away from the commercial art world for forty years, painting only for himself. Now seventy-nine, and unable to paint since suffering a stroke in 2022, his work is finally receiving the sustained attention it deserves. His canvases, built from thousands of tiny spiralled brushstrokes he called “excitations,” are unlike anything else at the fair.
Henry Blond (presented by Blond Contemporary, London) and Kim Chesney (presented by Gallery Anderson Smith, Atlanta) round out the spotlight roster with contrasting but equally compelling practices — Blond’s alla prima paintings fusing his background in jazz and graphic design, and Chesney’s luminous encaustic and mixed-media works layering molten beeswax and globally sourced parchments into surfaces of remarkable depth.
Themed Booths and Special Exhibitions
Beyond the spotlight artists, the 2026 fair features an ambitious programme of themed booths that give the event its distinctive character:
“Question Everything: The Shepard Fairey Exhibit” (Booth 205A, presented by One Art Space Tribeca) brings a solo showcase of works personally selected by Fairey himself — one of the most influential street artists and activists of the past four decades, whose HOPE portrait of Barack Obama entered the permanent collection of the US National Portrait Gallery in 2009 and whose work is held by MoMA, the Smithsonian, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London .
“The Trailblazers of Hamptons’ Abstraction” is a display of original works by the pioneering AbEx artists who shaped the movement from their East End studios — including Willem de Kooning, Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner, Perle Fine, and Mary Abbott, among others. The display runs concurrently with a related exhibition at the Nassau County Museum of Art, 250 Years of Art of Long Island (on view until July 12).
“Liberty Enlightening the World” (presented by Modern Fine Art at the fair entrance) is perhaps the most spectacular single object at the 2026 fair: a rare original bronze model of the Statue of Liberty after Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), cast from the original 1878 plaster model under the auspices of the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Standing 9 feet 3 inches tall, this is one of only four artist’s proofs from the limited edition of eight, and it is offered for immediate acquisition. Edition I is classified as a French National Treasure and is currently on loan to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
“The British Are Coming… Again” is a bold showcase featuring six galleries from the United Kingdom, timed to coincide with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations — a witty and well-curated counterpoint to the patriotic programming elsewhere in the fair.
The 2026 Hall of Fame Inductees
The Hamptons Artists Hall of Fame, which recognises artists with deep ties to the East End, announces four 2026 inductees: Carol Hunt, Giancarlo Impiglia, Roy Nicholson, and Helen A. Harrison (Lifetime Achievement Awardee). Harrison, the longtime director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, is a particularly meaningful choice — her scholarship on the AbEx generation has been foundational to the cultural identity of the Hamptons art world.
Beyond the Fair: The Hamptons Art Ecosystem
The Hamptons Fine Art Fair does not exist in isolation. It is the anchor event of a summer art ecosystem that extends across fifty miles of coastline and encompasses some of the most significant cultural institutions in the northeastern United States.
The Parrish Art Museum (279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill) — designed by Herzog & de Meuron and opened in its current form in 2012 — is the institutional heart of the Hamptons art world. Its summer 2026 programme includes Tony Bechara’s An Artist of Many Worlds, a focused presentation of Sean Scully abstractions, and Shirin Neshat’s portrait photography (her first New York-area show in twenty years). The Parrish’s Midsummer Gala on July 18 is one of the most anticipated events of the season, and the museum’s Thursday–Monday hours (11am–5pm) make it an easy addition to any fair-week itinerary .
LongHouse Reserve (133 Hands Creek Road, East Hampton), the 16-acre sculpture garden founded by textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen, is staging SculptureHamptons in tandem with the fair from July 9 to 12 — a satellite outdoor programme featuring works from more than twenty international galleries set across the gardens. Even outside that window, LongHouse is one of the most peaceful art experiences on the East End, with permanent works by Yoko Ono, Willem de Kooning, and Buckminster Fuller among the trees.
Guild Hall (158 Main Street, East Hampton) — the cultural town square of the East End — hosts the 2026 summer programme including Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture and Student Art Festival: Rauschenberg100, alongside artist talks and intimate music events. The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center (830 Springs Fireplace Road, East Hampton), where the studio floor still bears the drips and splatter of both painters, offers reservation-only tours that sell out quickly in July and August — book well in advance.
For those with a taste for the unexpected, the Dia Art Foundation’s Dan Flavin Art Institute in Bridgehampton (23 Corwith Avenue) houses nine permanent fluorescent light installations by the artist in a restored former firehouse — free admission, and one of the most quietly affecting art experiences in the region.
A Note on Collecting at HFAF
One of the things that distinguishes the Hamptons Fine Art Fair from its more commercially pressurised counterparts is the atmosphere in which transactions happen. Rick Friedman has described the fair’s ethos as one of building trust and lasting relationships rather than maximising single-weekend sales — and that philosophy is evident in the range of price points on offer. While the 2024 edition included a $6 million Frank Stella masterpiece, most works are priced in the $10,000 to $30,000 range, making the fair genuinely accessible to collectors at various stages of their journey .
For first-time buyers, the Young Collectors Party on Friday evening is a natural entry point — a lower-pressure environment designed specifically for those who are curious about collecting but not yet sure where to begin. The guided tours with Gene Seidman are another valuable resource, offering context and perspective that can transform a walk through the booths into a genuine education.
The fair’s curation has also expanded in recent years to include a broader range of voices — galleries focused on female artists, artists of colour, and international perspectives from over fifteen countries. The 2026 exhibitor list includes galleries from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Colombia, South Africa, Israel, and the United Kingdom, among many others, giving the fair a genuinely cosmopolitan character that belies its Hamptons setting.
Explore Further
Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2026 — View Event on Art United
FAQ
What are the dates and location of the Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2026?
The Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2026 takes place from Thursday, July 9 to Sunday, July 12, 2026, at the Southampton Fairgrounds, 605 County Road 39, Southampton, NY 11968.
How much do tickets cost for the Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2026?
General admission is $50 per person per day (Friday–Sunday, 11am–7pm on Friday and Saturday, 11am–6pm on Sunday). VIP tickets for the Thursday opening preview are $200 per person and include complimentary access for all four days.
What is special about the 2026 edition of the Hamptons Fine Art Fair?
The 2026 fair celebrates America’s 250th anniversary with a number of themed exhibitions, including a Marilyn Monroe centennial tribute (The Last Sitting™ by Bert Stern), a rare original bronze model of the Statue of Liberty at the fair entrance, a Shepard Fairey solo exhibition, and the Trailblazers of Hamptons’ Abstraction display. The fair also features over 140 galleries from around the world and spotlight presentations by Julian Lennon, Mel Ramos, Henry Orlik, and others.
Is the Hamptons Fine Art Fair suitable for first-time art buyers?
Yes. The fair is widely regarded as one of the most welcoming environments for new collectors. Works are available across a wide range of price points (most between $10,000 and $30,000), guided tours are available Thursday through Sunday, and the Young Collectors Party on Friday evening (5–7pm, $30) is designed specifically for those new to collecting.
What other art institutions can I visit during Hamptons Fine Art Fair week?
Fair week coincides with rich programming across the East End, including the Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill), LongHouse Reserve’s SculptureHamptons satellite fair (East Hampton), Guild Hall (East Hampton), the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center (East Hampton), and the Dia Art Foundation’s Dan Flavin Art Institute (Bridgehampton).
