After a general chilling during COVID, the global arts scene is cascading back. Art sales have rebounded, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and art fairs have emerged from hibernation with events popping off around the world. Last month, Frieze New York returned to The Shed at Hudson Yards; Art Basel is happening now; and The Armory Show hits Manhattan’s Javits Center in September.

Understandably, the art world today looks different from the way it did two years ago. Before the pandemic, art fairs accounted for 43 percent of all global art sales. This plummeted during the pandemic, supplanted by online sales of both physical and digital art. While business has rebounded with the return to in-person events, art fairs are less profitable than they once were. And while this may spell trouble for the events in the long term, extravagant, celebrity-filled art fairs, at least for now, are back. Gwyneth Paltrow, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Abel Tesfaye were all glimpsed at Frieze LA in February.

Lest the presence of actual art at these events fool you, art fairs are fundamentally financial ventures. Their unconcealed purpose is to connect galleries directly with buyers in a convivial, fashionable setting. Collectors (and the curious public) tour booths, network with gallerists and artists at dinners, and mingle at various sponsored events.