The resurgence of the Lower East Side as an artists’ hub is being shaped by small, independent galleries; artist-run nonprofits like 99Canal and the Abrons Art Center; blue-chip galleries like Perrotin; and the East Side outposts of Chelsea galleries such as Hollis Taggart. Elizabeth Dee, the founder of Independent — the 17-year-old art fair focused on artists making their New York debut — wanted to embrace the moment. “There’s an incredible renaissance happening on the Lower East Side, and we wanted to be a part of a quickly evolving gallery neighborhood,” she says. After Independent launched at the former Dia Center for the Arts in Chelsea and ran there until 2016, it has now grown out of its home of the past nine years, the 28,000-square-foot Spring Studios in Tribeca. For the first time, it will take place at Pier 36, which stretches off to the west of Corlears Hook Park.
While Spring Studios is essentially seven floors of polished film and photography production studios, the fair’s new home is a sprawling, single-story venue, a 75,000-square-foot building known as Basketball City — a carpeted sports and entertainment facility that feels, for the most part, like a warehouse. It's about a 12-minute walk from Dimes Square, but it’s visually severed from the neighborhood by the FDR — you have to go under the overpass to get there. Dee leaned into the difficulty of the trek and commissioned SO-IL to design the exterior and entrance to the building, and Diogo Passarinho Studio for the exhibition design and visitor experience. “We went all together to the site visit, and we understood this kind of roughness that the space had,” says Passarinho. “There’s awkwardness, weirdness, a bit of angst, anxiety — but we’re claiming it.”
