Mission: Our Vision, History, Commitment

We believe culture is created by communities, and that representation is a step towards inclusivity and justice. Equity in the art field starts with everyone getting a seat at the table, but it does not end there. Our vision is to seek out and offer a platform to artists whose vitality expands and deepens the cultural conversation, especially if theirs is a voice that has been marginalized due to their identity, their social or political perspective, or their aesthetic position.

Our founder Kavi Gupta established his namesake gallery in 2000, in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. Today, we operate multiple museum-quality exhibition spaces at 835 W. Washington Blvd. and 219 N. Elizabeth St. in Chicago, and 219/215 E. Buffalo St. in New Buffalo, Michigan, as well as a large-scale warehouse and conservation center and a dedicated space for research and archives. Our publishing imprint, Kavi Gupta Editions, designs and publishes high-quality monographs, exhibition catalogues, artist editions, and academic texts, while regularly partnering with institutions and such art publishing leaders as Skira, Mousse, Phaidon, and DAP.

In addition to hosting more than a dozen major exhibitions each year, and participating in vital international art fairs such as Frieze New York and London, Frieze Masters, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, EXPO Chicago, and the New York Armory Show, we host artist talks, facilitate special programming in support of philanthropic causes, and foster intellectual discourse by regularly bringing artists, curators, and collectors together with academics and experts in the contemporary art field.

Setting Kavi Gupta’s programming apart is our key interest in discovering underrepresented and underappreciated artists who are deserving of global attention. Sometimes an artist is underexposed within the art world because their work is noncommercial, conceptual, or based on social practice concepts. Other times it is because they originate from a location too far from a major art center. Still other times, an artist is overlooked because of biases related to gender, race, or another aspect of personal identity. Kavi Gupta is intrinsically dedicated to finding such artists, facilitating their work, and promoting their efforts to the international art world.

The gallery has played an integral role in raising the profiles of emerging artists who have grown into crucial influencers within the contemporary art field. We have also shed light on underappreciated art movements that were overlooked because they occurred outside of the traditional narratives of art history, such as AFRICOBRA and the Chicago Imagists. As representatives of founding members of AFRICOBRA and the exclusive representative of the estate of Chicago Imagist leader Roger Brown, we are in a unique position to extrapolate these important movements and bring them much-deserved international attention.

In terms of artistic production, Kavi Gupta encourages the artists we represent to think big. We have proudly helped our artists realize visionary projects at many of the world’s leading contemporary art exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, documenta Kassel, Germany, and Athens, and Prospect New Orleans. We prioritize investing investment resources to enable our artists to realize works through our large-scale production facility that might otherwise be considered too ambitious to be made. Kavi Gupta has also established itself as one of the foremost partners in the realization of meaningful, high-impact, contemporary public artworks.

The Kavi Gupta Collection includes works by some of the most dynamic and influential contemporary artists working today, including museum quality works and installations.  Many of the works hang in the museum-style residence of Gupta & his outdoor sculpture garden,  Others are on loan to museums around the world.

Some of the works in the collection include significnt pieces by Jack Whitten, Ed Clarke, James Little, Sam Gilliam, Richard Hunt,  AFRICOBRA founders Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, Gerald Williams and Jeff Donaldson, Kerry James Marshall, Adrian Piper, Mickalene Thomas, Nick Cave, Glenn Ligon, Jeffrey Gibson, Devan Shimoyama, Lorna Simpson, Firelei Báez, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Titus Kaphar, Cindy Sherman, Sol Lewitt, Jessica Stockholder, Angel Otero, John Giorno, Yeesookyung, Jose Lerma, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Boetti, Richard Prince, Donald Moffett, Roxy Paine, Tony Tasset, Ed Paschke, Ray Yoshida, Roger Brown, Chris Johanson, Deborah Kass, Allen Ruppersberg, Michael Joo, Glenn Kaino, Its wide-ranging focus also includes works from contemporary Indian artists, such as Manish Nai, Zarina Hashmi and Jai Zharotia

For more information about Kavi Gupta, the artists we represent, our exhibitions, our publications, private collection, or any of our past, future, or ongoing projects, please contact a member of our dedicated team at (708) 480-2882 or info@kavigupta.com.