Kavi Gupta is proud to be an integral sponsor and participant in EXPO Chicago 2018!
Our booth will spotlight select works by several of the most influential contemporary artists working today, including:
Jessica Stockholder, who was just elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Glenn Kaino, whose new work is the subject of a major solo exhibition opening in September at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; Young-Il Ahn; whose work was the subject of a recent retrospective at LACMA, and is featured in the cover spread of the current issue of Western Humanities Review; Beverly Fishman, whose first public mural recently debuted in Detroit, whose work was a highlight of Aspen ArtCrush 2018, and whose recent solo exhibition in our Elizabeth Street gallery received glowing reviews from Artforum, Hyperallergic, and several other important publications; Richard Hunt, whose work was recently featured in a retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and whose “Eternal Flame” sculpture was just unveiled in front of Soldier Field; Nick Cave, whose recent performance “The Let Go” at the Park Avenue Armory was one of the top-rated summer art experiences in New York City this year; Manish Nai, whose work was recently celebrated at the 2018 Dhaka Art Summit, the Center for Contemporary Art Singapore, the Fondation Fernet-Branca, and is included in the inaugural exhibition of the Jaipur Sculpture Park, the first contemporary art sculpture park in India.
We will also be featuring works by AfriCOBRA co-founders Gerald Williams and Wadsworth Jarrell, whose works are the subject of an upcoming retrospective at the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art during Art Basel Miami Beach 2018, as well as an upcoming group exhibition at Kavi Gupta.
Additionally, we will feature works by groundbreaking mid-career artists Clare Rojas, José Lerma, Roxy Paine, Michael Joo, Angel Otero, and Irena Haiduk, and emerging artists Basil Kincaid, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Patrick Chamberlain, Alfred Conteh, Devan Shimoyama, and Manuel Mathieu.
Expo Programming:
AfriCOBRA: Chicago in the Age of Black Power panel discussion at EXPO Chicago
Panelists | Jae Jarrell (Artist, Member of AfriCOBRA, SAIC 1959-61), Wadsworth Jarrell (Artist, Member of AfriCOBRA, SAIC DIP 1958), and Gerald Williams (Artist, Founding Member of AfriCOBRA, SAIC BFA 1951). Moderated by Franklin Sirmans (Director | Pérez Art Museum Miami). This panel is presented in alignment with Art Design Chicago exhibitions at the Smart Museum of Art and the DuSable Museum of African American History, South Side Stories: Rethinking Chicago Art, 1960–1980 and South Side Stories: Holdings, which focus on the Black Arts Movement—from the Civil Rights Movement to AfriCOBRA. A solo exhibition of the late member Barbara Jones Hogu entitled Resist, Relate, Unite 1968–1975 took place at the DePaul Art Museum earlier this year.
-Friday, September 28 at the /Dialogues Stage at EXPO Chicago (Navy Pier), 2:00-3:00pm.
Book Signing | Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
In the period of radical change that was 1963–83, young black artists at the beginning of their careers confronted difficult questions about art, politics and racial identity. How to make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as black Americans? Soul of a Nation surveys this crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of 20th-century black artists—including Sam Gilliam, Melvin Edwards, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, Howardina Pindell, Barkley L. Hendricks, Senga Nengudi, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Charles White (SAIC 1937 – 38) and Frank Bowling, among others. This book explores both the art historical and social contexts, with subjects ranging from black feminism to AfriCOBRA and other artist-run groups, to the role of museums in the debates of the period and visual art’s relation to the Black Arts Movement. Over 170 artworks by these and many other artists of the era are illustrated in full color.
-Friday, September 28 at the /Dialogues Stage at EXPO Chicago, 3:00pm.
Creative Chicago Interview Marathon with Hans Ulrich Obrist featuring Gerald Williams
“Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon” will be the first US-based marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of London’s Serpentine Galleries, and one of the world’s leading curators, critics, and art historians. In 2005, Obrist hosted his first interview marathon—a 24-hour conversational exploration of art, ideas and creativity. The marathon format has become a central part of his practice ever since.
“Creative Chicago” will take a multi-dimensional, multidisciplinary look at creativity in the city—past, present, and future. Bringing together artists, authors, activists, architects, historians, musicians, philosophers and scientists, the “Creative Chicago” marathon will examine the numerous sparks that make the city a center for art, design and architecture. Among the notable figures slated to participate in the Marathon are Virgil Abloh, Theaster Gates, and Jeanne Gang.
The Chicago Humanities Festival will present this four-hour interview marathon as part of Art Design Chicago at Navy Pier in collaboration with EXPO CHICAGO 2018.
-Saturday, September 29, Navy Pier, 1:00-6:00pm
Book Signing | José Lerma: Pintor Interesante
José Lerma: Pintor Interesante is the first monograph of the contemporary artist’s work. Focusing on work created between 2007–2017, the publication highlights José Lerma’s (Associate Professor, Painting and Drawing | SAIC) breadth, inventiveness and his constant interweaving of history, politics, economics and the personal. The book features essays by art critic Christian Viveros-Fauné, critic and poet Barry Schwabsky and an interview with curator Kristin Korolowicz.
-Saturday, September 29 at the /Dialogues Stage at EXPO Chicago, 1:00pm.