Independent, New York, 2025, Spring Studios, Matthew Higgs and Maureen Paley, photography by Leandro Justen. Courtesy of Independent.
Independent opens next week in its new home at Pier 36 on the Lower East Side. To accompany the presentations by 76 invited galleries that feature more than 100 artists, a series of live conversations will take place during the show, in partnership with Puck. Hear some of Independent’s artists, dealers, and collectors, and other artworld movers and shakers in dialogue with each other, speaking about the art and ideas that drive them.
All talks are free with your admission to Independent; purchase tickets here.
Free Champagne with Jarrett Earnest: A Live Talk Show at Independent from Montez Press Radio
Thursday, May 14th, 11AM-2PM
Noted curator, author, and host of the weekly podcast “Private Life” from The New York Review of Books, Jarrett Earnest presides over a three-hour program broadcast live from Independent. His guests include artists, curators, gallerists, and many others, making for a lively inside look at the myriad thoughts and voices shaping the show. Pop in and out in person at Independent or listen online at Montez Press Radio.
Attention in Time: Painting, Media, and the Image-World
Saturday, May 16th, 2PM
Curator, critic, art historian, and Harvard professor David Joselit talks with artist Janine Iversen, whose work is presented at Independent by The Meeting and David Petersen Gallery. Taking Gretchen Bender’s TV Text & Image series as a point of departure, Joselit and Iversen consider how time and attention are framed across different media, with a particular focus on painting, including Iversen’s own practice. Bender’s work is on view at Independent with Sprüth Magers.
The Shapes of Painting
Saturday, May 16th, 4PM
Artist Eleanor Conover speaks with artist, curator, critic, and co-founder of The Suburban and The Poor Farm, Michelle Grabner about abstraction and materiality. Coinciding with Abattoir Gallery’s presentation of Conover’s new works at Independent, her New York solo debut, this talk will touch upon everything from formal abstraction and modernist theory to rural community building and maintaining studio practices in non-urban areas. This program is produced in collaboration with IMPULSE Magazine.
Fair Location:
Pier 36
299 South Street
New York, NY 10002
Located on the Lower East Side at the intersection of Montgomery Street and South Street
Fair Dates:
May 14-17, 2026
Fair Hours:
Thursday, May 14: 11 AM – 5 PM (By Invitation),
5 PM – 8 PM (Henry Street Settlement Gala)
Friday, May 15: 11 AM – 7 PM
Saturday, May 16: 11 AM – 7 PM
Sunday, May 17: 11 AM – 6 PM
About Puck
Puck is a new media company dedicated to the power centers of our culture—Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood—as well as the businesses of fashion, art, and sports. The apexes of these worlds, after all, coalesce into one rarified inner sanctum where global agendas are set, inside information is exchanged, and pendulum-swinging influence is amassed. Puck is a news brand focused on the inside story. It’s the community where insiders go to read about their world.
About Montez Press Radio
Montez Press Radio is an experimental broadcasting and performance platform. It was founded in 2018 with the goal of fostering greater experimentation and conversation between artists, writers, and thinkers through the medium of radio. This platform invites different corners of the art world to interact with each other in person and on air—a place where media finally meets flesh. They’re drawn to art that exists in the unexpected, the authenticity of sharing without a script, the sounds of ideas in the making, conversation that forgets there’s an audience. All of their in-studio broadcasts are free and open to the public.