Sales Report: The Independent Opens at Pier 36 During New York Art Week

The Independent opened yesterday (May 14) in a new location at Lower Manhattan’s Pier 36, which is more central and more connected than Tribeca, but still worth the trip for the quality of its presentation. The large space allowed the fair’s well-thought-out selection to breathe, which is more important than you might think in a week defined by information overload. The emphasis on one-on-one presentation, which makes up 70 percent of the presentations, and the tightly packed booths make the experience pleasantly digestible—even for those of us trying to visit as many New York art shows as possible.

“The building is beautiful, and I think the quality of the game is very good, so we’re very happy to be here,” illustrator Susanne Vielmetter told the Observer. He presented a three-part booth featuring works by Samuel Levi Jones, Robert Pruitt and Nate Lewis in a shared conversation about paper, material and the tactile power of photography. Jones introduces new conventions that question authority, representation and recorded history by deconstructing books tied to systems of power—from legal and historical documents to institutional documents—and reassembling them into abstract, grid-like compositions. Here, those forms of control and collapse carry over into works that include torn-up American flags and pressed paper, recalling Rauschenberg’s charged reworking of the national symbol while addressing the corruption and crisis embedded in the fabric of the image. Robert Pruitt shows new images in coffee wash, conté, and charcoal and pastel, combining the common and the surreal through the use of figures covered in luxurious fabric, spiritual iconography, references to science fiction and otherworldly decorations, expanding his myth of the Black past, present and future. The third section is dedicated to Nate Lewis, whose hand-carved inkjet prints treat paper as a physical and sculptural surface, drawing layers, highlights, ice and textured textures into moving figures. Drawing from music, capoeira, medical imagery and the flight patterns and structures of butterfly wings, Lewis extends the dialogue of the booth into place, material memory and embodied meaning.

The response, according to Vielmetter, has been very good since early morning, with two works reserved for museums and several others already mentioned. “In this new reality, it’s more than we hoped for, so we’re off to a good start,” he said, admitting that the market is no longer operating at the pace of 2022.

The Brazilian gallery Almeida and Dale has presentations at Frieze (with François Ghebaly) and at the Independent, where it has a booth shared with David Nolan Gallery and makes a dialogue between Chakaia Booker’s wheel sculptures and Miguel Rio Branco’s chromatic images, highlighting what artists can discuss from the perspective of history and disagreement. leaves behind. Booker transforms discarded rubber tires into compressed, moving, shadowy forms that appear almost afterlife—dark totemic creatures whose urban remains are rife with dissonance and the presence of strange rituals. Rio Branco’s images instead give dignity to neglected communities and urban areas through the use of layered composition, subtle mirroring and saturated colors, revealing the inherent density of places that are often considered degraded or outside.

New York dealer Charles Moffett reported strong interest in a gallery presentation of works by the late Swiss artist Silvia Heyden, including seven tapestries dating from 1973 to 2013. Heyden, who died in 2015, found inspiration in nature while trying to disrupt the existing structure of fiber art in the grid, expanding the visual medium, visual medium complexity, subtle movement and infinite color. In the evening, the gallery had sold two: one for $14,000 and the other for $18,000.

Nearby, Kiang Malingue has a booth of works by Taiwanese artist Tseng Chien-Ying, whose paintings on Asian paper transform the body and its fragments into a microcosm of modern life, desire and changing vision. Using ink, gouache and mineral pigments drawn from East Asian painting traditions, gold and silver leaf, black foil and decorative technique—a raised decorative technique often associated with ceramics and murals—Tseng creates spaces where color does not just reside on the paper but seems to breathe through it. Drawing on Taiwanese pop iconography and transcultural pop, classical literature, body politics and idols, Tseng infuses the human form with emotional power and the quotidian with a sensual charge. The gallery set up about half the booth early, with works priced between $12,000 and $27,000.

Italian gallery SECCI has a solo exhibition of works by Lebanese artist Omar Mismar, who many may remember from the last Venice Biennale. The presentation pairs the artist’s ancient mosaics of fragmented bodies with his new works from “Root and Branch (شيل ما تخلّي).” Created from salvaged flexible PVC banners once used for advertising and marked by years of sun, rain and exposure, recent works include landscapes, scars, scrolls and sheets. Across them, appear pieces of graffiti slogans tied to the Lebanese protest of 2019, partially hidden under layers of paint, in the echo of erasure and research in public space. Jobs range in price from $9,500 to $26,000; the gallery reported that a small work was sold and two large mosaics were suspended.

Towards the end of the fair, 12.26, from LA and Dallas, shows the work of Julia Maiuri, whose paintings offer dense psychological views that combine multiple levels of monumental space and emotion in cinematic images. Priced between $6,000 and $10,000, most are sold early. Meanwhile, MARCH features a collection of solo works by Dianne Settles, whose rich narratives on canvas immortalize and celebrate the vernacular, folding multiple memories into single scenes while considering motherhood, community and collective effort. Drawing on Western culture and her father’s Vietnamese folk art history, Settles’ beautiful songs explore what it means to exist as part of a collective, showing the ways culture, politics and ideology intersect in society—a reflection that is timely in a time of separation. All the works are valued at $12,000, and the gallery had sold several by 4 p.m. Everywhere, the dealers we spoke with were hopeful that the next few days would bring more negotiations and sales as shoppers flocked to Pier 36.

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