When Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. unceremoniously canceled the 30-year-old fair Art Chicago in February, the company seemed to be sending a message. “The majority of the art fair market in the United States has gravitated toward the coasts,” it said in a statement. But someone forgot to tell Tony Karman. The former director of Art Chicago left MMPI in 2010 to begin his own event, Expo Chicago, which runs September 20 to 23. Today, ARTINFO got an early peek at the exhibitor list for the Windy City's newest fair.
“Our institutions are collecting, our collectors are active and vocal, and the city is having a moment where we can show people what is happening here,” Karman said in an interview. The exhibitor list is a mix of blue-chip secondary market dealers (like James Goodman Gallery and Alexander Bonin of New York) and emerging powerhouses (Los Angeles’s Cherry and Martin, Chicago’s Kavi Gupta Gallery, New York’s Leo Koenig) with a healthy mix of design thrown in. Most pointedly, more major contemporary galleries from ourside Chicago have signed on for Expo than have participated in a fair there in years. Some, like Luhring Augustine, are exhibiting in the Second City for the first time in two decades.
“Many dealers who had done a Chicago fair for years in the 1990s and early 2000s realized that a fair in Chicago can still touch on a Midwest and international collector base,” said Karman. “A blended contemporary and modern fair in Chicago has always been the magic formula in our city.”
The most marked difference between Expo Chicago and its predecessor is location: Rather than fill the Merchandise Mart, Karman’s fair will take place at Art Chicago’s former Navy Pier home. At 100 booths, Expo will also be a fraction of the size of Art Chicago, which by the end of its run had ballooned to over 400 exhibitors. Local names like Rhona Hoffman and Richard Gray, who had defected from Art Chicago in previous years, have thrown their support behind this new homegrown fair.
Asked how Expo Chicago expects to stay afloat in an increasingly crowded sea of art fairs, Karman emphasized local support. A number of Chicago collectors are investors in the fair, he noted. “There is a concerted effort from all of our institutional leaders, our mayor, and our top collectors to make sure the art world visits our city to see what is happening here.” Indeed, two years ago, mayor Rahm Emanuel seemed to presage the arrival of the new fair before it was even announced, when he said in an interview with Time Out Chicago (speaking of Art Chicago and Art Basel Miami Beach respectively) that "we should restore the Chicago Art Expo’s rightful place next to the Basel Expo in Miami."
Below, we offer the full list of exhibitors who will show at Expo Chicago 2012:.
1301PE Los Angeles
Alexander and Bonin New York
Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe New York
Gallery Paule Anglim San Francisco
John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard Copenhagen
Daniel Blau Munich
Russell Bowman Art Advisory Chicago
Galerie Buchholz Cologne
Valerie Carberry Gallery Chicago
Cardi Black Box Milan
Cernuda Arte Coral Gables
Chambers Fine Art New York, Beijing
Cherry and Martin Los Angeles
James Cohan Gallery New York, Shanghai
Corbett vs. Dempsey Chicago
CRG Gallery New York
D'Amelio Gallery New York
Stephen Daiter Gallery Chicago
Maxwell Davidson Gallery New York
Douglas Dawson Gallery Chicago
Catherine Edelman Gallery Chicago
Fleisher/Ollman Philadelphia
Galerie Forsblom Helsinki
Forum Gallery New York
Fredericks & Freiser New York
Barry Friedman, Ltd. New York
Friedman Benda New York
The Suzanne Geiss Company New York
Gering & López Gallery New York
Galerie Gmurzynska Zurich, St. Moritz
James Goodman Gallery New York
Richard Gray Gallery Chicago, New York
Galerie Karsten Greve AG Cologne, Paris, St. Moritz
Carl Hammer Gallery Chicago
Haunch of Venison New York, London
Hill Gallery Birmingham
Nancy Hoffman Gallery New York
Rhona Hoffman Gallery Chicago
Honor Fraser Los Angeles
Vivian Horan Fine Art New York
Leonard Hutton Galleries New York
Bernard Jacobson Gallery London, New York
Annely Juda Fine Art London
Paul Kasmin Gallery New York
James Kelly Contemporary Santa Fe
Sean Kelly Gallery New York
Robert Koch Gallery San Francisco
Michael Kohn Gallery Los Angeles
Leo Koenig, Inc. New York
Alan Koppel Gallery Chicago
Yvon Lambert Paris
Landau Fine Art Montreal
Christian Larsen Stockholm
Galerie Lelong New York, Paris, Zurich
Locks Gallery Philadelphia
LOOCK Galerie Berlin
Diana Lowenstein Gallery Miami
Luhring Augustine New York
Robert Mann Gallery New York
Lawrence Markey San Antonio
Matthew Marks Gallery New York, Los Angeles
Barbara Mathes Gallery New York
Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie Paris
Galerie Hans Mayer Düsseldorf
The Mayor Gallery London
McCormick Gallery Chicago
Anthony Meier Fine Arts San Francisco
Nicholas Metivier Gallery Toronto
Mitchell-Innes & Nash New York
Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz Pamplona
Carolina Nitsch New York
David Nolan Gallery New York
Nyehaus New York
P.P.O.W. New York
Franklin Parrasch Gallery New York
Ricco / Maresca Gallery New York
Yancey Richardson Gallery New York
Roberts & Tilton Los Angeles, New York
Rosenthal Fine Art Chicago
Salon 94 New York
Marc Selwyn Fine Art Los Angeles
William Shearburn Gallery St. Louis
Manny Silverman Gallery Los Angeles
Carl Solway Gallery Cincinnati
Hollis Taggart Galleries New York
Tandem Press Madison
Galerie Daniel Templon Paris
Paul Thiebaud Gallery San Francisco
Cristin Tierney New York
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects New York
Van de Weghe New York
Washburn Gallery New York
Daniel Weinberg Gallery Los Angeles
Weinstein Gallery Minneapolis
Max Wigram London
Stephen Wirtz Gallery San Francisco
Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery New York
David Zwirner New York