Expo Chicago lights up for the first time in years, drawing dealers from near and quite far:
Paul Mpagi Sepuya , Sara Greenberg Rafferty , and Claude Viallat .“I wouldn’t call this week a selling bonanza, but it’s an educational spread on what Chicago can offer,” he said.
It’s true: the Windy City was humming with just enough energy, despite grey skies and some occasional hail. At the Renaissance Society on the South Side of Chicago, Meriem Bennani’s new film,, has debuted, while Theodora Allen’s knockout Driehaus Museum exhibition was on seemingly everybody’s lips.
sold a painting by Jeffrey Gibson for $200,000, a Beverly Fishman to a private collector for $85,000, and an Allana Clarke sculpture for $30,000. by Gerald Williams, installed in the heart of downtown.Over at the booth for Karsten Schubert, in town from London, were occult-like figurative works by Northern Irish artist“We were thinking about opening ourselves up to the market here with one artist we thought would appeal to the audience,” gallery director CeCe Manganaro said.
But Thursday morning is still early days in Chicago: the traffic, dealers said, doesn’t really pick up until collectors stroll in after getting off work. But not even that matters to everyone. “I’ve found in years past that the best relationships we [make here] are less with big collectors,” said Gent, the Document gallery director, “but actually with a curator that we’ll end up doing shows with.”