Jory Rabinovitz, Through 4, 2015. Melted pennies, unmelted pennies, Verdigris Green fabric, pedestal. 84 x 46 x 42 in. Photo: Courtesy of Martos Gallery, New York.

Jory Rabinovitz continued a series in which he uses pennies as material to create custom pieces for Martos Gallery's booth. Creating forms from melted pennies, he then stamps them with the coin to create texture, and oxidizes copper to dye the fabric-tube components. As this year is the last time that Independent will be at Center548, Rabinovitz designed a tribute: a piece on the wall echoes the window it faces, and the work pictured matches the measurements of Center548's stairs.

John Giorno, Life is a Killer, 2015. Screenprint and enamel on linen. 40 x 40 in. Photo: Courtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York.

Rising to prominence in Andy Warhol's New York, poet John Giorno (b. 1936) has led an exceptional life, throwing himself into the center of the art, literary, and social worlds of the city. Influenced by visual artist friends, including Warhol, he began making text paintings inspired by his poems in the 1960s. When the AIDS epidemic hit in the 1980s, Giorno became an activist, expressing views and sometimes mourning through his work. Like this recent example, they are short, sweet, and poignantly true. 

Egan Frantz, Diagram Painting: Concrete Poem... #3, 2015. Ink, paper, dry-mount tissue, and acrylic on linen (+ eggshells, latex paint). 61 1/2 x 47 x 1 in. Photo: Courtesy of Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin.

Brooklyn-based artist Egan Frantz (b. 1986) created a series of canvases covered with Regina-brand toilet paper, so the "R" pattern runs across the painting, evoking high-fashion designer logos. In a move inspired by Franz West, the artist arranged that buyers of the canvases also receive an empty egg and packet of paint. The owner should throw the egg and paint "wherever you'd like," says gallerist Christian Nagel. At Indepedent, Frantz chose to smash these eggs on the floor. 

Marjorie Strider, Come Hither, 1963. Acrylic on epoxy coated styrofoam, mounted on masonite and wood panel. 63 x 42 x 9 in. Photo: Courtesy of Broadway 1602, New York.

Marjorie Strider (1934-2014) was one of the most prolific female pop artists, closely associated with Claes Oldenburg and more. In this work, a spin-off on pin-up posters, the woman's breasts stick out almost a foot from the canvas. However, it's not a criticism of pin-ups. Rather, "It's from a female perspective," says gallery owner Anke Kempkes. "She presents the image of exploitation as a great pleasure, as an image of joy." 

John Baldessari, Nose Peak, 2015 (Three Star Books). Edition: 12 copies. Photo: Courtesy of Three Star Books, Paris.

Based in Paris, Three Star Books is an artbook publisher only in the most general sense; the company asks artists to create limited editions that often elevate the book format to a piece of art in itself.

For his book, John Baldessari was inspired by the satirical short story "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogal, a 19th century Russian writer. As a viewer flips the pages, a resin cast of Gogal's nose is revealed. Baldessari being Baldessari, the title, Nose Peak, is intended to be an amusing homophone.

Left: Lionel Maunz, Mother, Your Body Disgusts Me, 2015. Cast iron, concrete, steel. 72 x 29 x 25 in. Right: Lionel Maunz, Valve, 2015. Cast iron, steel. 66 x 23 x 29 in. Photo: Courtesy of Bureau, New York.

Delving into dark psychological realms of myth and parental relationships, the scultpor Lionel Maunz (b. 1976) devised these two sculptures as a mother and father figure. At left is the mother, who is depicted as a deformed Pietà in a tomb. Below her are disembodied baby feet hovering above adult-size shoes. At right is the father, in a pose modeled after the Baroque painting Saturn Devouring His Son by Peter Paui Rubens. The face is after Maunz's own father's. 

Stefan Tcherepnin, Cuddle Monster, 2014. Faux fur fabric, black fabric, wood base structure. 74 x 59 x 73 in. Photo: Joerg Lohse. Courtesy of the artist and Real Fine Arts, New York.

This terrifying, albeit cuddly beast is one of four from "Hypocrisy Ladders," a solo show of Stefan Tcherepnin at Real Fine Arts in 2014. Inspired by Cookie Monster, they represent an existential void or fear, which plays out in a trippy 30 minute video that accompanied the exhibition.

Hitoshi Nomura, Time Arrow: Oxygen - 183 Degrees C°, 1993. Three dewar flasks with liquid oxygen. Each: 19 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. Installation view at Independent New York. Photo: Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey, New York.

For its booth at Independent, Fergus McCaffrey Gallery presented work by Japanese artist Hitoshi Nomura. These vessels seem innocuous at first, but at the fair they are holding liquid oxygen as it boils and evaporates in room temperature air. Periodically, the gallery owner himself wheels out a bulky metal tank of liquid oxygen, cooled to -183 °C (-297.4 °F), the temperature at which oxygen condenses to a liquid, and refills the flasks, which begin bubbling furiously. The concept builds on experiments with materiality Nomura began in the 1960s. "On a philisophical level, this is the origin of all life on the planet," says McCaffrey. "You never get to see it in this state. What you come to understand is that the blue of the sky and the blue of the ocean is coming from the presence of oxygen."

Isabelle Cornaro, Homonymes III (#1, Pink spray), 2015. Onyx powder and resin, pink acrylic spray. 100 x 100 x 25 cm. Photo: Courtesy of Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles. 

French artist Isabelle Cornaro (b. 1974) cast identical resin canvases in different colors to make her Homonymes series. These shapes may represent plinths or bases from other works, and demonstrate the artist's tendency towards geometric styles.