David Zwirner, Maureen Paley and Mary Mary of Glasgow are among the dealers due to take part in Independent Brussels, the offshoot of the New York fair that opens in the Belgian capital next spring (20-23 April).
The inaugural fair will be held at the 1930s Vanderborght building in the historic centre of the city. The Antwerp-based architectural practice HUB will oversee the layout, following “the format and quality of an exhibition rather than a traditional fair”, says a statement. Olivier Pesret, the former director of the Gonzalez y Gonzalez gallery in Santiago, and Liv Vaisberg, the founder of the Poppositions pop-up fair, are the co-directors.
The 35-strong gallery roster so far is mainly made up of European dealers, including the Paris-based gallery Almine Rech, Christian Andersen of Copenhagen and Galerie Emanuel Layr of Vienna. The Los Angeles dealer Marc Foxx and Broadway 1602 of New York are also taking part. In all, there will be around 60 international exhibitors.
Independent New York was founded by the dealer Elizabeth Dee and former gallerist Darren Flook in 2010. The event, heralded as a new model for art fairs structured on gallery cooperation and transparency, has since been held at the building that formerly housed the Dia Art Center in Chelsea but moves next year (3-6 March) to a new location, Spring Studios in TriBeCa.
A related event, Independent Projects, which has been described as a cross between an art fair and exhibition, launched last November; the second edition is due to take place late 2016 at Spring Studios. Dee co-founded Independent Brussels with Laura Mitterrand, the executive director of the Independent stable of fairs.
As in New York, the Brussels edition has been developed through personal invitations. The fair’s creative team, lead by Matthew Higgs, the director of the non-profit organisation White Columns, has invited “eminent galleries from various generations and continents”, says a press statement.
