"If Frieze New York feels like an assembly-line salad this year, then the Independent art fair feels like the assembly line. Entering the fair, which continues through this Sunday, May 17, entails batting your way through a grid of flailing sheets of thick yellow plastic dangling from the ceiling, like going through a car wash. Pier 36, where it is being held for the first time, is warehouse-like and vast, with neat little booths ticking all the way down to the end of the sightline."
"Whereas the last edition of Independent felt very New York - even hyperlocal to downtown, set at Spring Street Studios in Tribeca with a strong representation of galleries in that neighborhood - this one feels cosmopolitan, international, even a little no-man's-land. It's set in the Lower East Side, but, like, down to the water "low" and all the way east - I've spent the last quarter century of my life in New York, and I think it's just about the second time I've ever set foot here."
"On Independent's by-invitation-only opening night yesterday, May 14, hundreds of people - a notable number wearing blazers draped over shoulders and long, silk skirts - milled around the 76 booths. Visitors to Independent admiring ceramic works by Yoshikazu Tanaka and Kuniko Kinoto as part of a presentation by Los Angeles-based ATLA gallery."
"On the bright side, the venue is airier - more space to breathe, an environment that allows for a better experience of the work on view compared to the slight claustrophobia of last year's edition. "It feels less hierarchical," writer Hindley Wang, who was gallery-sitting for Galerie Buchmann, told Hyperallergic. "There doesn't feel like there's one booth that's better located, or a better shape than the others.""
Independent art fair is held through May 17 at Pier 36 on the Lower East Side waterfront. The new venue feels older, glossier, and increasingly global, with a warehouse-like layout and many booths arranged in a long grid. The by-invitation-only opening night drew hundreds of visitors, including people in blazers and silk skirts. Compared with the previous edition’s hyperlocal Tribeca setting, the fair now feels cosmopolitan and less distinctly New York. The larger space makes the experience airier and reduces claustrophobia, allowing better viewing of artworks. Booth placement is perceived as less hierarchical, with no single booth seen as clearly better located or shaped.
Read at Hyperallergic
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