Frieze has acquired The Armory Show in New York and Expo Chicago

Frieze, which organizes major art fairs in Los Angeles, New York, London and Seoul, will acquire two of the US’s most important home-grown art fairs: the and Expo Chicago and Armory Show in New York.

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“Let’s start with the fact that the US art market is the biggest in the world by far,” Frieze CEO Simon Fox told ARTnews in an interview about the acquisition. “The opportunity to have a larger fair at a different time of year, in such an important market in New York, was very exciting for us. … Chicago, of course, is a completely new opportunity for us … to become involved in a culturally rich part of the US market that we haven’t been involved with before.”

In addition to its two recent acquisitions, Frieze stages five fairs a year: Frieze London and Frieze Masters in October, Frieze Los Angeles in February, Frieze New York in May and Frieze Seoul in September. The second edition of Frieze Seoul will take place from 6 to 9 September, meanwhile the next edition of Frieze London marks 20 years for the fair. Frieze has since 2016 been majority owned by the Hollywood entertainment company Endeavor.

Both the Armory Show, which is led by executive director Nicole Berry, and Expo Chicago, led by founder and president Tony Karman, will operate as separate divisions under Frieze with their existing teams but will share business services—like sponsorship, finance, legal, HR, digital—according to Fox. Fox said he would not comment on how long negotiations for the acquisitions of both fairs has been in the works.

Both of Frieze’s newly acquired fairs are among the oldest to operate in the US market.