Independent 20th Century Contemporary Art Fair

The Independent 20th Century contemporary art fair recasts the last century with a New York state of mind. That’s important because we are in a moment of great social change. The New York art world was the first place we saw this change. The community used to be very White, Male, and Eurocentric, but has been reorganizing itself around the recognition that great art is made by every culture, including by women, around the world. Formerly unrecognized artists are becoming a collector’s diamond mine.

4th Independent 20th Century 2025

Casa Cipriani

The 4th Independent 20th Century 2025 contemporary art fair presents over 50 artists at 31 exhibitors with a focus on installations, self-taught, Arab women, and Latin American artists; at Casa Cipriani in the Battery Maritime Building in Manhattan’s Financial District; from September 4-7, 2025. From $45. It’s also online from August 28 to September 12. 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇻🇪

Latin Artists

Nahmad Contemporary and Skarstedt are showing the spiritual-minded French modern artist Georges Rouault. 🇫🇷
Galerie Lelong is showing Elda Cerrato, an Italian who worked in Argentina and Venezuela. 🇦🇷 🇻🇪
Weinstein Gallery is showing Argentine surrealist Leonor Fini. 🇦🇷
Galeria Danielian is showing Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias whose bright paintings document Afro-Brazilian carnival and religious practice. 🇧🇷
Jeremy Scholar is showing African American collective Florida Highwaymen. 🇺🇸
Calvaresi is showing Argentine landscape artist Luis Ouvrard. 🇦🇷
COSMOCOSA is showing Argentine artist Luis Frangella who was a key figure in the iconic 1980s East Village art scene. 🇦🇷

Latin Galleries

Calvaresi is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. 🇦🇷
COSMOCOSA is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. 🇦🇷
Galeria Danielian is from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. 🇧🇷
Galerie Lelong is a New York and French gallery that represents many Latin artists. 🇫🇷

The strong Argentine presence this year is striking. The show also leans into Spiritualism, which may be a sign of the emptiness of the present moment in history.

3rd Independent 20th Century 2024 Highlights Previously Unrecognized Black, Indigenous, Latin, and Women Artists

Financial District, Manhattan

The 3rd Independent 20th Century 2024 contemporary art fair presents previously unrecognized Women, Black, and Indigenous (Latin) artists, and revisits the 1990s; at Casa Cipriani in Manhattan’s Financial District; from September 5-8, 2024. From $45. 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇵🇾

One of the influences is reappraisals from the influential Venice Biennale. Most of the galleries are New York galleries, but this season includes galleries from Brazil and France.

Ryan Lee gallery shows Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richmond Barthé’s Black figures cast in a classical style, and Emma Amos‘ works inspired by Black athletes and dancers in the 1980s. 🇺🇸
Galatea and Simóes de Assis are jointly showing works by Heitor dos Prazeres, the pioneering samba school founder who painted scenes of everyday life in Afro-Brazilian Rio de Janeiro. 🇧🇷
Galeria MaPa is showing work by Abdias do Nascimento, the Afro-Brazilian scholar and statesman, including iron ritual objects from Brazilian Candomblé religious ceremonies. Candomblé is one of the three main African Diasporic religions that rooted in the Americas. It’s a beautiful religion, like all other religions, but has suffered terrible repression just because it is African descendent. 🇧🇷
Gomide&Co is showing Indigenous influences in the animal vessels of Paraguayan Guarani sculptor Julis Isídrez, and the mineral paintings of imaginary animals by southeastern Brazilian Maira Lira Marques. 🇧🇷 🇵🇾
OSMOS is showing works by Australian Aboriginal artist Richard Bell whose practice criticizes colonial legacies in solidarity with the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter movements. 🇦🇺
Venus Over Manhattan is showing early work by New York artist Brad Kahlhamer which he used to reconnect with his Native American heritage. 🇺🇸
Salon 94 is showing life-cast sculptures by American South Bronx artist John Ahearn. 🇺🇸

2nd Independent 20th Century 2023

The 2nd Independent 20th Century contemporary art fair is at Cipriani South Street in the Battery Maritime Building in Manhattan’s Financial District; Thursday-Sunday, September 7-10, 2023. From $45.

This season brings more Latin artists to the forefront from the Caribbean, South America, the African Diaspora, including women and self-taught artists.

There is also a focus on Italian abstract and pop art. 🇮🇹

This is a buying opportunity for artists who might not have been exhibited in the actual 20th Century. It is part of the trend of curators and art historians shedding the blinders of the outdated euro-male-centric point of view. We are in a gold rush for Latin art. Now its relatively easy to find great work, but as the contemporary Latin canon becomes more established, collectors will have to dig ever deeper for the best work.

Dont’ Miss These Exhibits

From the Caribbean and Latin America, Corbett vs. Dempsey shows Cuban-American artist Emilio Cruz (1938-2004). 🇨🇺

Diane Rosenstein Gallery is showing Trinidad artist Kenwyn Crichlow (1951). 🇹🇹

Donald Ellis Gallery shows Native American artist Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee, 1829-1925), an acclaimed Washoe basket weaver. 🇺🇸

S94 Design shows beautiful ceramics by Myrtle Williams (1955) that give presence to African Diaspora women. 🇺🇸

Fridman Gallery shows work by Dindga McCannon (1947) who contributed to the influential Black Arts Movement of the 1960s-70s. 🇺🇸

Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel shows work by Brazilian painter Wanda Pimentel (1943-2019) who created Pop Art during the Brazilian military dictatorship. The Brazilian women artists are interesting for their conceptual ideas and focus on the community itself. 🇧🇷

Other exceptional women artists include Zürcher Gallery’s exhibition of Regina Bogat (1928) who worked with legends like Mark Rothko and other Abstract Expressionists in the Bowery Studio on 10th St in the 1960s. She’s now 95 and still works across the river in New Jersey.

Nahmad Contemporary is showing Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) who was one of the few Cubist women. 🇫🇷

In the self-taught arena, James Barron Art is showing Winfred Rembert (1945-2021) who learned leather work from a fellow prisoner on a Georgia chain gang. 🇺🇸

Galatea presents the US debut of Brazilian artist Miguel Dos Santos (1944) who draws on the mix of African Diaspora and South American traditions of northeastern Brazil. 🇧🇷

French international gallery Perrotin shows masterpieces by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Joan Miró (1893-1983). 🇪🇸

It’s wonderful to see how the definition of fine art has become much more inclusive. If we could speak with 1980s Haitian Puerto Rican art star Basquiat today, we’d have to tell him that “Samo©” is no longer. New York and The Independent get it. Great art can be made by anyone, anywhere.

Go see the show!

International Galleries

Galleria Tommaso Calabro is from Milan, Italy. 🇮🇹
Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is from São Paulo & Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 🇧🇷
Galatea is from São Paulo, Brazil. 🇧🇷
Galerie Lelong is from New York & Paris. 🇫🇷
Perrotin is an international French gallery. 🇫🇷
1/9unosunove is from Rome, Italy. 🇮🇹
Zürcher Gallery is from New York & Paris. 🇫🇷