Chicago is benefiting from a new generation of innovative collectors and a rich cultural ecosystem
Chicago dealers say the Midwestern art capital is undergoing something of a renaissance as events like Expo Chicago raise the profile of the city’s experimental art scene and its connection to other local cultural traditions—like music, architecture and food—both within Chicago and beyond.
The 2023 edition of Expo Chicago, its tenth, will feature stands from more than 170 galleries, the largest number of participants in the fair’s history. (Its predecessor, Art Chicago, drew more than 200 exhibitors at its peak.) Last year’s edition marked Expo’s return to Navy Pier after two years of postponements and virtual programmes due to Covid-19.
Expo will feature stands from familiar galleries including Kavi Gupta, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Monique Meloche, Rhona Hoffman and Gray, which have been mainstays in the Chicago market for decades. But dealers say that a new generation of galleries is exerting its influence in both the local market and the wider culture.
“There’s a movement that’s been happening in Chicago in many cultural circles and is reaching a very nice place within the art world,” says Kavi Gupta, who founded his gallery in 2000. It now has three locations in the city and one in the Lake Michigan beach town of New Buffalo. “There’s a freedom that artists have here that is interesting compared to the very commercialised art markets because here there’s nobody looking over your shoulder.”
