Informa Acquires Independent Art Fairs in New York

London-based conglomerate Informa has acquired Independent, the company behind two of New York's most respected art fairs, ARTnews reports. The sale closed last year, which means both 2026 editions ran under Informa's ownership.

Independent founder and creative director Elizabeth Dee confirmed the news to exhibitors on Friday and will remain in her current role, continuing to oversee both fairs.

"Independent's future is bright. With Informa as our partner, Independent is redefining what an art fair can be with the spirit of a museum exhibition and the energy of a marketplace," Dee told ARTnews in an email.

The buyer

Formed in 1998 and headquartered in London, Informa is a publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group that runs trade shows worldwide across industries ranging from comic books and aviation to cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fashion, ceramics, tech, energy, and boats. Its portfolio includes the Monaco Yacht Show and Cannes Lions.

The company's report for the first half of 2026 showed $2.7 billion in revenue and an adjusted operating profit of $723.7 million. Informa is listed on the London Stock Exchange as part of the FTSE 100 Index, employs 14,000 people across roughly 42 countries, and counts BlackRock, Newton Investment Management, Lazard Asset Management, Norges Bank, Artemis Investment Manager, and Invesco among its major shareholders.

The acquisition marks Informa's first New York–based art brand. The company also owns South Florida Ventures, operator of Untitled Art, Art Miami, and Palm Beach Modern and Contemporary — but Independent will remain separate from that division.

"The timing was right"

Independent launched in 2010 in a former Chelsea warehouse that had previously housed the Dia Center for the Arts. Dee, then a New York gallerist, cofounded it with White Columns director Matthew Higgs, who continues to serve as curatorial adviser. The fair built its reputation on a distinctive layout that emphasized flow over the boxy booths typical of commercial trade shows.

From the start, Independent positioned itself apart from competitors. Press materials for the inaugural edition avoided calling it an art fair altogether, favoring terms like collective, consortium, and "hybrid model and temporary exhibition forum," as the New York Times noted. Nonprofits exhibited alongside dealers — a combination that has since become standard at many fairs.

The fair ran its first five editions at the former Dia building before moving to Spring Studios in Tribeca in 2016. That period also saw a brief international expansion: Independent Brussels ran from 2016 to 2018 at Espace Vanderborght, a former department store.

In 2022, Dee, Higgs, and Sofie Scheerlink, formerly of TEFAF, launched Independent 20th Century, focused on art made between 1900 and 2000. As ARTnews reported at the time, the new venture had "the stated aim of revising the canon to create a more diverse picture of art history." It spent four years at the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan before moving to the Breuer building for its fifth edition last week.

"On the eve of the milestone 20th anniversary of Independent, we decided that the timing was right to find a partner to support Independent's continued growth while remaining true to our mission," Dee wrote to exhibitors. "We trust that the achievements of Independent in May and Independent 20th Century in September—both realized as part of Informa—speak for themselves and make evident our steadfast commitment to the high quality of the exhibitions."

A year of expansion

Both fairs made news in 2026 for their growth. The original Independent moved to Pier 36 on the Lower East Side, more than doubling its size, and drew attention for presenting fashions by Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo in her first-ever solo art fair presentation.

Independent 20th Century's move to the Breuer building — the Brutalist landmark acquired by Sotheby's in 2023, with the auctioneer joining the fair as a "partner" — allowed the fair to expand to 57 exhibitors, up from 31 at its previous downtown edition. In its report on the 2026 fair, ARTnews wrote: "Despite nearly doubling in size, the fair remains viewer friendly."

Dee struck a note of continuity in her closing remarks to exhibitors. "Both Independent and Informa remain committed to Independent's creative and curatorial autonomy under the leadership of our team," she wrote. "We fully intend to shepherd and grow the organization as an outstanding curated platform for modern and contemporary art, as we always have done. We are confident that this will provide new opportunities for Independent and for our participating galleries."

With Informa's backing and its founder still at the helm, Independent enters its third decade with corporate resources behind a model that galleries have long prized for its curatorial independence — and with its 20th anniversary editions as the first test of the new arrangement.