Akeem Smith, Women at a basement in Waterhouse, Kingston. Image from the OUCH Archive, bequeathed to Akeem Smith. Chromogenic print, date and photographer unknown. Courtesy of Akeem Smith and Red Bull Arts.
At the Entrance
As you arrive at Independent Art Fair from its entrance on 50 Varick Street, take a look at the façade window south of the entry way. A site-specific revival of the 1985 New Museum installation will accompany the Vikky Alexander career survey curated by Downs & Ross on the ground floor. The presentation aims to reintroduce the broad scope of Alexander’s work to US audiences, who are mostly familiar with her early work from the 1980s, when Alexander was an emerging artist and member of the Pictures Generation.
Special Projects
Red Bull Arts returns with an installation of new media, sculpture and social experimentation by newcomer Akeem Smith. Smith’s debut presentation at Independent Art Fair draws on his childhood in Jamaica and will focus on the artist’s extensive video and photo archive from 1985-2000, capturing the dancehall community in 1990s Kingston. Smith is best known for creating alluring and challenging images of youth culture, and shaping the underground fashion industry. A book including contributor essays and first-person narratives will be published for the occasion.
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects will present an immersive installation by Saya Woolfalk, including performance, sculpture, light projection and new media. Woolfalk’s work, which questions the utopian conversation around cultural hybridity, is inspired by her Japanese cultural background, and references Afrofuturism, feminist theory, Japanese textiles, African masks, and more.
Both Saya Woolfalk's and Akeem Smith's projects will be located in the 5th floor skybox.
Feature Project: Object & Thing
Object & Thing reimagines the art and design fair concept by bringing together both disciplines through a focus on the object. The fair serves as an agenda-setting platform for both the art and design communities. Participating Independent Art Fair galleries include: Air de Paris, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Galerie Hervé Bize, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Chapter NY, Cooper Cole, Derek Eller Gallery, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Garth Greenan Gallery, Karma, the Landing, P·P·O·W, New Museum, Night Gallery, New Museum, Soft Opening and Various Small Fires.
Independent Art Fair | March 5-8, 2020
Spring Studios
50 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
For more information, please contact:
US: Arthur Peña, press@independenthq.com
UK & EU: Sam Talbot, sam@sam-talbot.com