The 10th in-person edition of EXPO CHICAGO kicks off today at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, where it will remain open through April 16. In addition to the Galleries platform, which welcomes 170 presenters from 36 different countries, the fair’s programming includes the /Dialogues program of talks, the IN/SITU and IN/SITU Outside presentations of large-scale works, the annual Curatorial Forum, OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project, which stretches across the city, and more.
Julien Creuzet, “cross of the depths pains elsewhere they asked me to swallow my tongue swallow salt water, never to say again what we are going to say in a round Mami Wata (…),” 2021, Plastic, metal, fabric, 108 x 51 x 7 inches; part of EXPO CHICAGO 2023 IN/SITU Program, courtesy of DOCUMENT, Chicago, Lisbon.
“For the past 10 years, the exposition has created a setting for the outgrowth of art and ideas, and our programs have always been a defining strength of our contribution to Chicago and the international arts community,” said Kate Sierzputowski, Director of Programming. “This year’s robust lineup engages local and global partners, addressing universal ideas of institution building and public art through site-specific installations, conversations, and panel discussions that allow audiences to hear from the most exciting and expert voices in the art world today. We hope these programs, which are rooted in Chicago’s cultural landscape, ignite dialogues that extend beyond Navy Pier.”
Derrick Adams, “Funtime Unicorn,” 2022, Installation view, Rockefeller Center, New York; part of EXPO CHICAGO 2023 IN/SITU Outside, photo by Emil Horowitz, courtesy of Art Production Fund.
This year’s presenting galleries include Southern Guild of Cape Town, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery from New York, Casas Riegner of Bogotá, Galerie Max Hetzler with locations in Berlin, Paris, London, and Marfa, Galerie Christian Lethert from Cologne, Sundaram Tagore Gallery with spaces in New York, Singapore, and London, Madrid’s VETA by Fer Francés, San Francisco’s Catharine Clark Gallery,London galleries like Maximillian William, Unit London, Bernard Jacobsen Gallery, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, and Cristea Roberts Gallery; and Chicago locals like Kavi Gupta, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Stephen Daiter Gallery, Aaron Galleries, and M. LeBlanc.
Aïda Muluneh, “To speak in silence,” 2022, courtesy the artist. Artwork a part of “Aïda Muluneh: This is Where I am,” presented by Public Art Fund on over 330 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City, Chicago, and Boston in the United States, and Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire on view from March 1 – May 21, 2023.
This year’s rendition of the IN/SITU platform—curated by Claudia Segura, Curator of Exhibitions and Collection at Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona—features large-scale and site-specific installations indoors and out, conceived around the title “Y el mar tomó la palabra (And the sea spoke).” Installed within Festival Hall and throughout the city of Chicago, the selected works look to the ability of fables to imagine creative perceptions of the future and past. Fairgoers will find indoor installations from artists including Nep Sidhu, presented by Patel Brown, Rosario Zorraquin with Isla Flotante, DOCUMENT sharing work by Julien Creuzet, and Ebony G. Patterson presented by moniquemeloche. Meanwhile, IN/SITU Outside is presenting works like The Floating Museum’s giant inflatable The Garden, an installation of Derrick Adams’s Funtime Unicorn on view at Polk Bros Park, and an augmented reality work titled STONE SPEAKS by Nancy Baker Cahill, which can be found near the water at Chicago Horizons.
Launching the /Dialogues platform today is a conversation between Chance the Rapper and Hank Willis Thomas focused on building community by working with underrepresented artists and public art projects. This will be followed by talks with the likes of the artist Brendan Fernandes, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, LAXART’s Director Hamza Walker, the artist Richard Bell, and more.
/Dialogues panel at EXPO CHICAGO 2022. Textile Artists Now with Gio Swaby, Kimberli Gant, LJ Roberts. Moderated by Michelle Millar Fisher, photo by Justin Barbin.
Also not to miss is the curator-focused programming like the annual Curatorial Forum (presented with Independent Curators International) and the Curatorial Exchange. Finally, fair attendees and the general public alike should be on the lookout for the digital billboards part of OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project, up across the city featuring works by names like Lola Ayuisha Ogbara, Esmaa Mohamoud, Ceargio Bagenda, Rico Gatson, Pelle Cass, and Max Sansing.
