Richard Nonas installation at McCaffrey Fine Art, NY (Front space); Jessica Warboys at Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (back). Photo: M-KOS
The fifth installment of Independent art fair has once more invested the original spaces of DIA Center for the Arts, on 22nd street in Chelsea, New York City. This cozy location in comparison with other, more expansive fairs, did manage to host a total of 56 galleries from 14 different countries, mixing up big and small-scale commercial galleries as well as non-profit spaces across an interior design conceived by architects Andrew Feuerstein and Bret Quagliara. The most exciting features of this layout included triangular shaped booth to agreeably confuse audiences as to where one gallery presentation ended and another one started. Particularly conducive to opening parties, pop conceptualism and junk fluxus, Independent is the brainchild of Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook, kept in high spirits by creative adviser Matthew Higgs, who also moonlights as director and chief curator of White Columns in New York. All in all, Independent could rightly claim the title of hip alternative art fair within Armory Week.
Many experimental and playful galleries took strides in complying with the angular exhibitor displays, ostensibly bidding against each other with evermore challenging works. Roman Signer’s open top grand-piano at Art : Concept (Paris) accommodated a series of ping-pong balls moving up and down its strings, propelled by fans on each end of the piano’s internal structure. Meanwhile, Kirsten Pieroth at Galeria Franco Noero (Turin) decocted all 30 days of the New York Times newspapers from September 2010, to proffer an equal number of jam jars containing random colored bouillons resembling dishwater or consommé. Even bigger galleries such as Sprüth Magers (Berlin/London), which also simultaneously occupied Armory, had apparently opted for a wild card at Independent, showcasing a piece by John Bock where a performer operated a chain-saw to slice up a wooden male statue. Notwithstanding its edginess, sales at the fair were rumoured to be going pretty well.
The one unfortunate change to mark Independent this year was in seeing a new $20 entry fee for the fair, which has always been free in previous editions. Perhaps the rising rent costs in Chelsea have caught up with the otherwise groovy start up, and hopefully no more cashing-in surprises await us in the coming years. But until then, for the rewarding experience found within, between the cool design booths, zeitgeist art and hip people, the extra expenditure was well worth it.
Roman Signer, Piano, 2011 at Art : Concept, Paris. Photo: M-KOS