Independent Art Fair

Independent was established in 2010, with the aim of inspiring relevant art encounters for a well-informed and devoted Contemporary Art audience. Over the last decade, Independent has created an internationally recognized platform for galleries that prioritizes discovery and context, in contrast to the standard commercial fair. Due to Independent’s unique model, our audience is tailored to connoisseur-based collectors and institutions. Held annually in May at Spring Studios, and in September at the Battery Maritime Building at Cipriani South Street, Independent brings together more than 90 international galleries and non-profit organizations to New York, with consistently fresh and unexpected content for each edition. By supporting a focused range of established, innovative and emerging as well as outsider art and design from 1900 to the present, Independent aims to present a true reflection of the fabric of the global art community.

History

Independent was conceived and initiated in 2009 with a consortium of like-minded commercial and non-profit galleries. The first edition took place in the former Dia Center for the Arts and former home of X Initiative at 548 West 22nd Street. This was the first fair to take place in a former museum, a landmark building in Chelsea’s gallery district. The inaugural edition included 40 international exhibitors in March 2010.

Following the critical success of the first three editions, in 2014 Independent launched Independent Projects—a two-week platform of solo exhibitions during New York’s auction week in November 2014. In 2016, Independent expanded to Europe in a partnership with the City of Brussels with three annual editions to date, incorporating a live performance commission series, that became central to the fair’s model.  That same year in 2016, Independent relocated the New York edition of the fair from Chelsea to Spring Studios in Tribeca. As the founding visual cultural partner of Spring Studios and Spring Place, Independent joins the ecosystem of Tribeca Film Festival as one of two public events to take place annually in this location.

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