Galerie Magazine

8 Lesser-Known Artists to Discover at Independent 20th Century

From a self-taught Chicago painter to the artist behind the Caps for Sale children’s book, these are the names worth seeking out at this year’s edition

By Annabel Keenan

There is a particular thrill in discovering an artist who seems to have been hiding in plain sight. At Independent 20th Century, that sensation is part of the premise. Now in its fifth edition, the New York fair has established itself as a destination for stellar examples of coveted blue-chip art, as well as remarkable finds by artists who have fallen outside conventional narratives—or whose reputations are only beginning to catch up with the quality of their work.

Taking place September 24–27, this year’s edition moves into Marcel Breuer’s former Whitney Museum building on Madison Avenue, now home to Sotheby’s headquarters. With a larger footprint than the fair’s previous location at Casa Cipriani, this year’s event brings together around 57 invited exhibitors and more than 130 artists, offering ample opportunity to add new names to your radar.  

Here are eight lesser-known names to seek out at the fair.

1. Reginald Madison at Uffner & Liu and September Gallery

Reginald Madison emerged from Chicago’s Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and ’70s, developing an improvisational, self-taught practice that remained largely unknown in the broader art world.

Uffner & Liu and September Gallery will share a booth devoted to Madison, who died earlier this year, presenting paintings spanning four decades from 1980 onward, alongside a sculpture. Often using rags and makeshift brushes to apply his paint, Madison’s works are remarkable, with intuitive gestures and dense textures. “Reggie was working with an extraordinary amount of freedom and improvisation at a moment when the art world demanded that artists fit within clearly defined movements, narratives, or categories,” says Lucy Liu, partner at Uffner & Liu. “His work resisted that kind of easy classification.”

That resistance may help explain his late recognition. “We are ‘rediscovering’ Reggie’s practice in a sense,” Liu says, “but he was always active in his studio making, and the work was always strong. We’re just finally catching up to it!”

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