TEFAF New York spotlights five gold jewelry exhibitors for 2026

Five jewelry exhibitors at TEFAF New York are making a clear case for gold as the fair’s sharpest collector language, not just its brightest surface. At the Park Avenue Armory, Didier Ltd., FD Gallery, Forms, Hemmerle and Ana Khouri are set to anchor the fair’s jewelry offering with pieces that lean sculptural, rare and strongly material-driven, from an 18k yellow-gold Lucio Fontana bracelet to a Bulgari long necklace with gold-bead links and Khouri’s textured brown-gold ring.

That focus matters because TEFAF New York has become less about a social calendar stop and more about where serious taste is moving. The fair’s 10th edition runs May 15 to 19, with an invitation-only collectors’ preview on Thursday, May 14. TEFAF is bringing 88 exhibitors from 14 countries across four continents, and ARTnews said the 2026 roster includes nine new exhibitors, 78 returning participants and four galleries rejoining after an absence. In other words, the jewelry stands are part of a much larger market test, one in which returning names and fresh entries are being weighed side by side.

The mix also shows how collectors are reading gold now. Ana Khouri entered jewelry after studying Fine Arts with a specialization in Sculpture, a background that explains why her work so often feels built rather than simply made. She opened her New York salon in 2013, and her presence at TEFAF underlines the demand for contemporary pieces that treat gold as form, not ornament. Hemmerle signals the opposite end of the spectrum: a house making about 200 creations a year, with some pieces taking more than 500 hours, and jewelry represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. That museum footprint gives Hemmerle’s work a kind of institutional gravity that vintage and contemporary dealers alike now leverage.

FD Gallery adds another layer by placing jewelry inside a broader world of collecting. Its TEFAF presentation extends beyond jewels to vintage Chanel and Hermès accessories, photography, prints, furniture, sculptures, books and other objects with provenance, a reminder that the strongest gold pieces increasingly travel with context, authorship and documented history. TEFAF says the fair spans about 7,000 years of art history and remains the only art fair at the Armory to activate its 16 historic period rooms. Leanne Jagtiani put the emphasis plainly: “the heart of the fair lies with its exhibitors.” At TEFAF New York, that heart is beating hardest in gold, where sculptural design, signed vintage and museum-caliber craftsmanship are setting the tone for 2026.