Independent’s Asian Artist Focus Reflects a Broader Shift in New York
Ahead of the 17th edition of Independent in New York, six galleries are presenting solo booths dedicated to Asian artists, a concentration that founder and creative director Elizabeth Dee says points to a larger change in the art world. The fair, which opens in New York, is shaping up as a place where questions of geography, identity, and power are being staged with unusual clarity.
Dee said the moment reflects a reversal in globalization’s effects across Asia and beyond, as well as what she described as America’s post-empire challenges. In that context, she sees New York as a particularly charged site for working artists — one where cultural references can be debated in greater depth rather than reduced to easy signals.
Several presentations make that argument visible. Tseng Chien-Ying (b. 1987) is making his U.S. debut with Kiang Malingue, showing works created both in Taiwan and during a residency at 99Canal in New York. Tseng has described the residency as transformative, citing the shift in routine, the emotional atmosphere of the city, and the need to source new materials as catalysts for experimentation. His new works continue to engage mythology, desire, power, and the tension between beauty and violence.
Rika Minamitani (b. 1998) is presenting three works with Tomio Koyama Gallery that use cutwork, a technique she has recently begun exploring. By cutting into the surface with scissors and cutters, she says, the paintings gain a subtle dissonance and a slower sense of time.
Pu Yingwei (b. 1989), an artist, writer, and curator known for political conceptual work, is introducing his concept of “ChinAmerica” with Galerie Sator. First proposed in a sociological context around 2010, the idea examines the real and symbolic relationship between China and the U.S. Pu has said he approaches the subject from a Chinese subjectivity, treating it as lived experience rather than nationalism. The project follows earlier frameworks such as “China Capital” and “ChinAfrica.”
Dianna Settles is also part of the fair’s Asian-focused concentration, presenting work with March, New York, drawn from personal experience, historical events, and reference photos.
The result is a section of Independent that feels less like a thematic coincidence than a snapshot of where attention is moving: toward artists working through migration, technique, and geopolitics with increasing precision.
