Independent Comics
March 9th, 2013
Jack Lavender with UK gallery The approach at Independent 2013
Independent, now in its fourth year, features 40+ galleries, non-profits, and publications representing fourteen countries. Big, established galleries participate, such as Gavin Brown, Andrew Kreps, and Bortolami alongside founder Elizabeth Dee; as do competitive, emerging galleries, like 47 Canal, Bureau, and Broadway 1602.
(l-r) Leo Gabin at Elizabeth Dee, Richard Aldrich at Bortolami, Leo Gabin at Eliz Dee
Jack Lavender at The approach
This year’s edition celebrated the non-profit institutions in New York that suffered worst by Hurricane Sandy. Independent endowed all participating non-profits with the $10,000-dollar Privatus Prize. That includes the Kitchen, Printed Matter, White Columns, and Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.
Alex Dordoy, "Milk and silk" series, 2013 at The Modern Institute
Thomas Bayrle wallpaper with Kerstin Brätsch video at Gavin Brown
Maybe I had inhaled too much snow on Friday morning, but I noticed, among other things, a special place among several galleries for a comic aesthetic. Why so much “cartoony-woony” imagery? Are we that happy? Maybe everyone is relieved that the election is over. Maybe unemployment is down yet again, while the stock market is up. Then again, none of the cartooning imagery is “funny.”
(l-r) Sam Pulitzer at Real Fine Art, Jordan Wolfson
(l-r) Anne Neukamp at Galerija Gregor Podnar and Tom Holmes at Bureau