A Familiar Fair’s New Approach: EXPO CHICAGO 2025
EXPO CHICAGO returns to Chicago this April at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, featuring over 170 leading galleries from 36 countries and 93 cities. Now firmly part of the Frieze network of fairs, all eyes will be on EXPO’s retrenched role as the region’s premier cultural destination in the spring, as well as the sincere expectation that it remain a steadfast tide that lifts all boats (or galleries) even amidst the churning waters of the current global art market. Dozens of local institutions and stakeholders are committed to fostering meaningful dialogue through both contemporary and modern art and to showing off the city’s cultural street-cred.
Highlights of this year’s fair include the debut of CONTRAST, a new section curated by Lauren Haynes, as well as a special collaboration with the Galleries Association of Korea (GaoK), alongside the core Galleries section, EXPOSURE and PROFILE. Following are just a few programming highlights to watch for this April.
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VIP Preview: Th, April 24, 2025. By Invitation Only.
General Admission
– Friday, April 25, 2025 | 11:00am – 7:00pm
– Saturday, April 26, 2025 | 11:00am – 7:00pm
– Sunday, April 27, 2025 | 11:00am – 6:00pm
More highlights:
• A dual-artist exhibition of Kwaku Osei Owusu Achim and Tariq Oliver, two emerging artists with a shared reflection on language, meaning, and memory, presented by Omenai Gallery.
• A selection of iconic early photographs by Rashid Johnson alongside works by Ebony G. Patterson, presented by moniquemeloche.
• A re-imagination of the 1946 art brut installation at Galerie Rene Drouin, inspecting Jean Dubuffet’s relationship to Chicago and Chicago’s relationship to ‘outsider’ art, presented by The Gallery of Everything.
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Pictured: KIM Tschangyeul, PK95002, 1995, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 162.2x130.3cm. Courtesy PYO Gallery
* In a significant new partnership, EXPO CHICAGO introduces a collaboration with the Galleries Association of Korea (GaoK), to present a selection of 20 leading Korean galleries within the fair’s core Galleries section. PYO Gallery will present The Stillness of Water: Tschang-Yeul Kim’s Final Reflections on the Flow of Life, prominently featuring the artist’s images of water droplets and the contemplations on the concept of water itself.
Pictured: Lauren Haynes, Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
* Curated by Lauren Haynes, Head Curator, Governors Island Arts and Vice President for Arts and Culture at the Trust for Governors Island, CONTRAST brings together eight contemporary galleries each presenting artists whose work explores contrasts in culture, identity, and experience.
“CONTRAST will include a vibrant selection of galleries featuring work by artists, including Devan Shimoyama, Esther Mahlangu, Wangari Mathenge, Fahamu Pecou and Chico da Silva, whose work highlights diverse perspectives through visual storytelling” said Haynes. “This special section seeks to explore contrasts in culture, identity, and experience, with each artist contributing their unique voice to the dialogue. CONTRAST is designed to spark conversation around the artists and artworks on view.”
* GRAY will mount a special presentation, So Be It! Asé! Photographic Echoes of FESTAC ‘77, featuring photographs by members of Chicago’s Black Arts Movement: Roy Lewis, Bob Crawford and K. Kofi Moyo. The presentation is curated by Chicago-based art historian Romi Crawford and unveils documentation of the U.S. delegation to FESTAC ‘77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, held in Lagos, Nigeria.
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