Independent New York 2020

Featured Artists: Jessie Homer French, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Sam Pulitzer, Barthélémy Toguo, Arjan Martins, Daiga Grantina, Vikky Alexander, Robert Bittenbender, Amélie Bertrand, Joseph Kosuth, Peter Kennard, Awol Erizku, Shahryar Nashat, Stella Zhong, Matias Faldbakken, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Max Hooper Schneider, Scott Myles

Venue: Independent New York, New York, US

Featured Galleries: Various Small Fires, Garth Greenan Gallery, Galerie Francesca Pia, Galerie Lelong & Co., A Gentil Carioca, Galerie Joseph Tang, Downs & Ross, LOMEX, Semiose, Richard Saltoun, Night Gallery, David Kordansky Gallery, Chapter New York, STANDARD (OSLO), Maureen Paley, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, iscp international studio & curatorial program

Date: March 6 – 8, 2020

Photography: © Kiki Petratou / all images courtesy of the artists and galleries

Post Armory, Post Independent
by Kiki Petratou

Few days ago I got asked by a journalist from the culture desk of Spanish newspaper El País to comment on our participation in ARCOmadrid, if participating in Arco has affected us, our staff or our gallery in any way. This question came as a result of the Spanish Health Minister’s announcement that a big amount of the contagions of coronavirus that have occurred in Madrid happened during the last week of February. That is when ARCO took place. The journalist’s task was to write an article evaluating whether or not it was a good decision to celebrate this event.

ARCO however was not the only fair that was realized during the coronavirus outbreak. Several weeks have passed since the last art fair that happened kissed us (currently not such a good idea) goodbye and already many reviews are written and published worldwide. Nonetheless now that the jet lag left me finally alone and the Covid19 measures have forced everybody to stay at home and the subsequent scheduled fairs to be cancelled or postponed I decided to reflect on the most recently realized ones namely The Armory Show and The Independent NY that took place in New York simultaneously. My reflection will not follow the journalist’s line on how a good or less good idea was the celebration or non-celebration of the fair now that we have more information about the spreading of the virus. Since we cannot undo the past I prefer to look on the bright side and give it a more buoyant and in this case a mere artistic approach. That this approach will be of a more personal, more subjective, more idiosyncratic and deeply contemplative nature goes without saying!

Trending in New York, in the street, at the fairs and everywhere else, the ‘elbow bumping’ greeting method had replaced traditional kissing and handshaking habits for nothing but the coronavirus spread’s sake, just to be on the safe side.

On the safe side were the art fairs as well with a few distinct themes, twists and shakes; with lots of painting, historical presentations, lots of dead artists; no surprise there. But then again there were curated sections (an increasingly fashionable practice we see in every bona fide art fair), there was activist and political art on display, there was performance art (in some occasions the presence of the performer was continuous through the whole duration of the event), there was an apparent interest on African and Native American art.

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INDEPENDENT NEW YORK

March 6-8 2020

Spring Studios at 50 Varick Street, New York

Ironically enough one of the first works that caught my attention, a painting by Arjan Martins presented by A Gentil Carioca, depicts a man with a mask. Who would have expected this to be the most allusive accessory of our coronavirus ridden times!

Colorful painting took up the eighty percent of the fair’s presentations and as I am sure it has already been spotlighted and reviewed I will – with few exceptions included – focus mainly and plainly on what was not painting. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against painting, it is more that I get the kick when I am confronted with more complicated installation proposals and technology related works.

Many galleries brought work by often overlooked and underrepresented contemporary Native American, First Nation, and other indigenous artists. I was very happy to see that these artists and works are currently drawing more serious institutional interest as well. An example, the exhibition “Vida Americana” at the Whitney Museum of American Art that discusses politically and aesthetically revolutionary art was one of my most delightful experiences. Coming back to the fair one of my personal favorites in this context was Cannupa Hanska Luger ‘s ceramics and installations presented by Garth Greenan Gallery.

Many booths were displaying older work like Barthélémy Toguo’s, Urban Requiem presented by Galerie Lelong & Co., which was first presented at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Even older but all time classic was Vikky Alexander’s photographic work from 1983 presented by Downs & Ross and Peter Kennard’ s photographs from the 90’s at Richard Saltoun.

As I was scouting for more recent angles what caught my attention was Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s dioramas “Disputed Utterance, Can / Can’t” (2019) at MAUREEN PALEY and the sculptural installation of Awol Erizku with the most playful title “Oh, what a feeling, fuck it, I want a Billion (2018) at NIGHT GALLERY.

And last but not least the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) was present with a selection of editions by several artists including Joseph Kosuth’s “Comparing-compiling-classifying-contradicting” (2017).