Duane Hanson at Karma, all photos via Art Observed

Spanning two separate weekends this November, the Independent Projects fair is an interesting take on the the art fair as an exhibition opportunity.  Rather than rely on an initial rush of collectors, the fair is spread out over two separate weekends, allowing collectors an initial crack at the works offered before they go on public view the next week.  Combining this with a small selection of forty galleries and exhibitors, the Projects fair offers a considerable opportunity to expand the concept and execution of the fair environment.

Independent Projects (Installation View) (more…)

Outside last year’s Armory show, via Art Observed

As March rolls into New York, so too does the art world, as the city prepares for the 2014 edition of Armory Week, capped by The Armory Show on Piers 92 and 94 of Manhattan’s West Side, and complemented by a series of additional events, fairs and openings around the city.

Serge Alain Nitegeka, Exterior I: Studio Study I (2013), via The Armory Show (more…)

2 Works by Mark Flood at Peres Projects, photo by Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

The Independent Art Fair returned to Chelsea this year, taking up three floors of Center548 with work from over 40 galleries around the world, offering a markedly fresh take on the busy sales rush of Armory Week in New York. 

Independent, New York, 2013 (Installation View) Courtesy Independent, New York

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James Shaeffer at Reference Art from Richmond, Virginia.  All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.

The second iteration of the Dependent Art Fair took place on the Saturday afternoon of Armory week, alongside several satellite fairs—including the Independent Art Fair. Dependent organizer Rose Marcus gathered 20 galleries in the Lower East Side Comfort Inn hotel, offering the two night stay for a fair fee of $400. The DIY, tongue-in-cheek fair is geared toward community and dialogue amongst its participating galleries and artists, seeking a sort of humorous—yet rigorous—elegance, leaving the intense marketing focus of other fairs to the back seat. Up and down the six occupied floors (floors 3–8, with a smoking deck on 6), visitors squeezed through the hallways and into the individual hotel rooms to see a variety of contemporary painting, sculpture, video, and installations, including a bed-ridden mini Kawasaki motorcycle at Reference Art, or made-to-order rum-fruit smoothies at Roberto Paradise.

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Gavin Brown Enterprise. All photos on site for Art Observed by Aubrey Roemer.

March 8–11 marked the third edition of INDEPENDENT, the alternative exhibition forum held in the former DIA Center for the Arts on West 22^nd Street in Chelsea. Founded by gallerists Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook in conjunction with White Columns’ Matthew Higgs, Independent has established itself as a thoughtful and ambitious counterpoint to the annual Armory Art Show. This year marked the fair’s largest audience with attendance figures surpassing fifteen thousand. The forty-three participating organizations range from established blue chip galleries to emerging galleries as well as respected non-profits.

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