The Beginning & End of Esther, NYC’s Coziest Art Fair
As the indie favorite returns to Estonian House for one final run, co-founders Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova reflect on their stylish antidote to mega-fair spectacle.
Words by Erin Ikeuchi
Photos by Mathew Sherman
Art fair week is an endurance test. A rare time to enjoy world-class, out-of-town talent, and charting 15,000 steps while you’re at it. In New York, it’s clocking into Frieze, NADA, Independent (or maybe all three), maybe hitting up some openings around town and a handful of afters if you’re still game.
No matter where you end up, all roads seem to lead back to the white cube, be it at a gallery or on the fairgrounds. Clean and controlled, they’re spaces designed to suspend us from the world beyond its walls, and more often than not, whether we like it or not, we submit. But in these labyrinths, the rare moments where we can surrender, truly, are the ones we remember once the weekend’s up.
Esther, an indie alternative to the week’s power players, wants to slow things down, and time stands still in Estonian House, its 19th-century Beaux-Arts venue. Founded by gallerists Margot Samel, of the eponymous New York gallery and Olga Temnikova of Temnikova & Kasela in Tallinn, Estonia, Esther reimagines what an art fair can do, for the galleriest, dealer and collector alike.
Samel likens Esther as closer to a “dinner party” than something overly buttoned-up. It’s not trying to be the next mega-fair so much as addressing a gap in the current ecosystem: to create a more conversational, focused model that trades competition for collaboration. It favors a thoughtful, pared-down experience anchored in the simple pleasures of community and discovery.
“We’re just doing a fair we want to do,” Samel added. “One that makes the art world worth being in.”
Esther, whose name nods to the co-founders Estonian roots, returns to the historic house for its third and final edition with 22 galleries on deck — hailing from New York to London, Ibiza to Shanghai, Riga to Montréal — with a promising line up of well-known names to officially bow out the project.
“We’re just doing a fair we want to do. One that makes the art world worth being in.”
Margot Samel, Co-founder
There’s something very New York about being invited into a stranger’s unusually stylish home. Moving through the House’s four floors, there’s charm in not always knowing what belongs to the exhibition and what’s been there for decades.
Beaded works by Jeff Williams, hung by Kate Werble Gallery, for example, echo the opulence of the ornate wood-carved mantle and arched windows lining the lobby. Upstairs, with Longtermhandstand, Kata Tranker’s delicate paper pulp and smashed stone figurines perch against wall panels with the awkward elegance of generational heirlooms. Shanghai’s Bank cozies up with King’s Leap of New York in a parlor nearby the cafe, mounting works by Alice Gong Xiaowen straight onto a pool table.
Esther is many things, one of which being a masterclass in ambiance, riding the new wave of apartment galleries cropping up around the city. “Instead of trying to hide the quirkiness, we’re highlighting the space. Having those limitations is exciting because, [as gallerists] we have a million opportunities to present works in a white cube.”
“We’re spicing up an already spicy interior,” Temnikova adds. She’s calling from Italy, where one of her artists, Merike Estna, is currently representing Estonia at the Venice Biennale. “We’re adding accents to make it more grotesque in some places, elegant in others.”
The idea behind Esther first sparked during another fair, Independent in 2022, where Samel and Temnikova jointly presented a booth of works by Estna. The Estonian House “lends itself to hosting,” the two explain, and what at first was a vision for a five-gallery pop-up was soon realized as full-on, 26-gallery fair, its inaugural edition in 2024.
Despite being conceptualized as a one-off, after the success of its original run, Samel and Temnikova decided to extend it for Esther II in 2025, and again for a final run this year with the ongoing Esther III. An accessible, affordable fair staged in a stunning, members-only haunt — a paradisal art island miles from the rest of industry chaos — Esther empowered an openness and curiosity that art week largely lacked, winning over tons of new fairgoers in the process.
Porosity is part of its appeal; the airiness of the boothlessness of it all, and witnessing what’s possible when art and architecture don’t put up a fight. Few spaces in the House are left untouched. Samel and Temnikova’s artists — Cathleen Clarke, Thea Gvetadze, Flo Kasearu, Katja Novitskova and Ki Yoong — christen the kitchen and stairwells, making for a sense of wholeness as you wind through the space.
In the Large Hall, anonymous hangs a cinematic slate of photos by Jesse Gouveia, against damask-patterned wallpaper and crystal sconces, bleeding into Kim? Contemporary Art Centre’s showcase of spectral captures by Agate Tūna, housed in tactile, feathered frames. Moving down to the basement showroom, presentations by Christelle Oyiri and Liina Siib from London’s Gathering and Galerina flank “Neanderthal Beauty Clinic,” Darja Popolitova and Madlen Hirtentreu’s haunting study into the self-care industry.
Even the infrastructure is worth taking a minute to marvel over. Visitors are literally welcomed upon entry with a tufted doormat by August Krogan-Roley. The seating used throughout the fair belongs to chairchairchair, a project by Houston Parke and Isaac Haseltine, which turns found materials into functional, one-of-one furniture pieces for gallerists on-site.
Since its founding, collaboration and “friendship,” per the co-founders, has always remained North Star for Esther. It was created as a space where galleries can build lasting relationships, and take home new works from one another. Sure, if you’re working a fair, you get close with your neighbors, but seldom are the physical separators, the walls between booths, nonexistent.
As Temnikova points, “time stops” in Estonian House, a rare feeling for a week where survival hinges on bustle and steep booth fees often driving emerging galleries tens of thousands of dollars deep. Esther’s participation fee sits at around $1,500 USD, which could score you merely an outlet and couple wall hangs at a mega-fair.
The lower barrier to entry, courtesy of a state grant from Estonia, allows international galleries to pursue more “ambitious projects” without fear of being priced out. “The pressure of the market isn’t there. You can relax, have a coffee, meet a friend. You talk to collectors differently,” continues Temnikova. It’s a complete alternative to what’s happening in the rest of the city.”
So then, for all its success, why step away now? The unglamorous answer comes down to state funding, which has since been withdrawn. But as Samel and Temnikova reflect on the evolution of Esther, it’s clear they achieved the symbiotic scene they set out for, and then some. They’ve had their fill and know when to leave the party.
“It’s a communal project,” Temnikova shared. “We never planned it to be a money-making machine. We both run galleries, we have families. This was always a fun experiment, but I don’t want it to be a job, for me at least,” she laughs.
This looks like a wrap for Esther, though the pair teases that another, albeit non-fair, collaborative project is already in the works.
New York will miss Esther, yet part of what makes it so magnetic is Samel and Temnikova’s will to keep it intimate, deliberate against the pressure of “bigger is better,” because sometimes the secret to success isn’t scaling – it’s making sure you’re in good company.
Esther III is currently on view in New York. Head to their website for more information.
