EXPO CHICAGO gets closer every day, and the closer it gets, the more this upcoming edition takes shape.  As is typical of the fair, they continue to build their programming lineup and to expand their international ties. 

Yesterday the art fair announced that for its seventh annual exhibition, taking place again on Navy Pier September 27–30, 2018, they are rolling out some major programmatic expansions here at home as well as in Europe. The biggest announcement was about an onsite panel and performance at the U.S. Pavilion of the 16th Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. Participants from Chicago will include Niall Atkinson, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, panelists Amanda Williams, Andres L. Hernandez, and Shani Crowe and moderator Stephanie Cristello, EXPO CHICAGO Director of Programming and Editor-in-Chief of THE SEEN.

They also trumpeted the third annual /Dialogues Symposium, Present Histories: Art & Design in Chicago, that will address select art and design legacies produced in the city and take place during EXPO CHICAGO in conjunction with the Terra Foundation for American Art’s initiative Art Design Chicago, presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Additional details from the April 11 EXPO press release are shared below. –GV

EXPO CHICAGO at the U.S. Pavilion 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2018

For the first time ever, the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale will be curated by a joint team led by Niall Atkinson, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago. Their vision, Dimensions of Citizenship, will challenge architects, designers, artists, and critics to respond to transformative modes of belonging at radically different scales, from the citizen to the cosmos. EXPO CHICAGO will partner with SAIC and the University of Chicago to present a program as part of the official Vernissage for the U.S. Pavilion on Sunday, May 27, 2018.

10:45–11:30am
Panel Discussion
Location | U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Panelists | Amanda Williams (Chicago-based Artist and Architect, Participant in the U.S. Pavilion), Andres L. Hernandez (Chicago-based Artist and Architect, Participant in the U.S. Pavilion) and Shani Crowe (Chicago-based Artist). Moderated by EXPO CHICAGO Director of Programming and Editor-in-Chief of THE SEEN, Stephanie Cristello.
 
Tackling questions of citizenship status, gender and race at the intersection of history, theory and practice of art and architecture, this panel will explore the unique ways in which black women have historically navigated and shaped space to advance their position in American society. Highlighting the historical figures of Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Tubman as muses, this conversation will trace the impact of American history on Williams and Hernandez’s practice, complemented by a performative element by Shani Crowe, preceding the conversation. 

For more information, click here.
 
Presented in partnership with the commissioners of the U.S. Pavilion, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.

/Dialogues at EXPO CHICAGO

Symposium | Present Histories: Art & Design in Chicago

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

A curated component of the full /Dialogues program, presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the third annual Symposium will feature a day-long series of discussions open to all EXPO CHICAGO visitors, presented in alignment with Art Design Chicago and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Entitled Present Histories: Art & Design in Chicago, the Symposium will trace select artistic and design legacies produced in the city, spanning from 1968–2018, as well as their impact on the larger social, aesthetic, and cultural movements from the twentieth-century to the present. 

For more information, click here.
 
Presented in partnership with the Terra Foundation for American Art and Art Design Chicago.

      

 

Full Schedule: /Dialogues Stage

Sept 28, 11:30am
Performance: Révérence 

Artist Brendan Fernandes (Artist | Monique Meloche Gallery) stages a site-specific iteration of his performative work Révérence (2015), featuring a series of choreographed dancers to both welcome and confront the audience. Using his training in classical ballet, alongside his unique cultural background as a Kenyan-Indian-Canadian, the performance features classically-trained dancers from the Joffrey Academy of Dance to question identity and power dynamics.

12:00pm – 1:00pm
Brendan Fernandes | In Conversation with Sarah Thornton

This discussion, between author and sociologist of culture Sarah Thornton with Chicago-based artist Brendan Fernandes, will trace the impact of Fernandes’ work, as well as the role of performance in his practice, which questions positions of power, control and ‘queering space.’

Sept 28, 2:00–3:00pm
AfriCOBRA: Chicago in the Age of Black Power 
Featuring | Gerald Williams (Artist | Kavi Gupta Gallery, Founding Member of AfriCOBRA)

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 focuses on the Black Arts Movement—from the Civil Rights Movement to AfriCOBRA. 

Sept 28, 4:00–5:00pm
Alterity and the Exhibition Environment: Feminist History of Alternative Spaces in Chicago 

Panelists | Lynne Warren (Adjunct Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), Torkwase Dyson(Artist | Rhona Hoffman Gallery), and Kay Rosen (Artist | Alexander Gray and Associates, ARC Member). Moderated by Jenni Sorkin (SAIC BFA 1999), (Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara).

Alternative spaces are often discussed within the canon of Chicago’s exhibition history. Yet, these spaces also played a parallel role in the activities that defined feminist art and social practice in the city’s scene. This conversation will trace the histories and roles of feminism in Chicago's alternative spaces from the 1970s to the present.
 
Sept 28, 5:00pm
Publication Launch | Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire to Now
Published by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this newly launched publication will be available for a book signing at the /Dialogues Stage through the University of Chicago Press.

Screening | Designers in Film: A Glimpse into the Goldsholl Archive
A screening of select films and reels produced by Goldsholl and Associates—whose films, televi-sion ads and other moving image work innovated “designs-in-film”—will be on view at the /Dialogues Stage, as an inter-lude to the final conversation in the Symposium on Chicago’s Mid-Century impact on the adve-rtising and commercial industry at large.

Sept 28, 5:30–6:30pm
Making the Modern Image: Mid-Century Commercial Industry in Chicago
Panelists | Theaster Gates (Artist | Rebuild Foundation), Corinne Granof (Curator of Academic Programs, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University) and Lara Allison (Lecturer, Art History, Theory and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago). Moderated by Michael Golec (Associate Professor, Art History, Theory and Criticism, SAIC).

Through recent exhibitions that relate the advertising and commercial publications industries to the context of contemporary art, this discussion will trace Chicago’s contribution to the glossy image that defined the Mid-Century aesthetic. Examining the political, social and cultural impact of these design philosophies, this panel will look at the national impact of firms and companies whose work pushed industry boundaries through avant-garde approaches. 

Top image: Gerald Williams, Portrait Y, 1970–2007. Acrylic on linen. 24 x 18 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago.