EXPO CHICAGO, 2019 VERNISSAGE. IMAGE BY CORY DEWALD COURTESY OF EXPO CHICAGO
HELLO EXPO CHICAGO: A FAIR RETURNS TO SPRING By BIANCA BOVA This April EXPO CHICAGO returns to Navy Pier. It is set to be a substantial ninth edition, with 140 galleries representing 25 countries slated for inclusion. As is the case with most public experiences the pandemic forced onto hiatus over the last two years, the version that comes back will inevitably differ in some ways from its former self. The most notable difference, however–the fair being held in April rather than September– is not a radical departure from the old Art Expo, so much as it is a second kind of return. Founded by the print dealer John Wilson, the Chicago International Art Exposition–the city’s first contemporary art fair of note–premiered in the spring of 1980 at Navy Pier. The show established itself quickly, attracting 80 dealers and 10,000 visitors in its first year. In 1982, Wilson’s colleague Tom Blackman took the reins, steadily laying the groundwork for what would become Art Chicago. Under Blackman’s directorship this new fair ballooned to 220 exhibitors by the year 2000, and shortly thereafter it relocated from Navy Pier to Butler Field in Grant Park, where it was held in a purposebuilt tent, still a novel choice of venue at the time. By 2004, however, its exhibitor list had begun to dwindle, and in 2006, days before the fair was to open, construction of the tent at Butler Field was halted and rumors flew about Blackman’s serious financial troubles. Overnight, the fair was relocated unceremoniously to the Merchandise Mart. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. (MMPI) would buy the fair from Blackman. The following years saw Art Chicago subsumed in Artropolis, 34 | CGN | Spring/Summer 2022
a five day long event at the Merchandise Mart that also encompassed versions of the Bridge Art Fair Chicago, The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, and The Artist Project Independent Artist Exhibition + Sale, among others. This carried on with variations until 2011, when MMPI announced it would no longer produce the event. In 2012 EXPO CHICAGO debuted as the latest heritor to the legacy of Chicago art fairs, under the directorship of Tony Karman. It swiftly redoubled Chicago’s reputation as a global contemporary art destination and brought the fair back to its former home, Navy Pier’s hanger-like Festival Hall (a slick space that subtly recalls the industrial charm of the “sheds” that still ran the length of the Pier in its earliest days as a fair venue). EXPO has been, from its inception, a well-rounded fair, introducing in its inaugural edition a robust selection of on-site programming with its /Dialogues series, and the presentation of a slate of curated large-scale installations with its IN/SITU program. In the years between its establishment and its postponement in 2020, EXPO swiftly attracted blue chip galleries (counting among its exhibitors the likes of Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth), and grew to include sections of the fair dedicated to young galleries (Exposure), solo presentations of notable artists (Profile), and books and editions. It has become host to a Museum Directors Summit and a Curatorial Forum, the latter in partnership with Independent Curators International. It began a regular alignment with the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2017, saw satellite fairs pop up (most notably NADA’s inaugural Chicago Gallery Invitational in 2019), and became the central event around which Chicago’s Gallery Week (and art world in general) orbit.
