EXPO CHICAGO, the international exposition of contemporary and modern art, today announced the ninth edition of EXPO ART WEEK, April 4 – 10, 2022. With the exposition as its centerpiece (April 7 – 10), EXPO ART WEEK — presented in conjunction with Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism and marketing organization and Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) — highlights the vast cultural opportunities Chicago offers collectors, dealers, art enthusiasts and visitors through select aligned programming, including museum exhibitions, gallery openings and more. As part of EXPO ART WEEK, Art After Hours invites EXPO CHICAGO visitors and Chicago community members to visit exhibitions at participating galleries during extended hours on Friday, April 8 from 6:00 – 9:00pm.
EXPO ART WEEK alignment highlights include The Peninsula Chicago’s historic presentation of groundbreaking AFRICOBRA artists, a preview of Nick Cave’s new projection for Art on theMART, the group exhibition Skin in the Game at 400 N. Peoria and Barely Fair, the international miniature art fair from artist-run space Julius Caesar. Notable South Side openings and events taking place during EXPO ART WEEK include curatorial remarks at The Renaissance Society for the exhibition Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS, a performance by renowned Blues musician Katherine Davis and others on the occasion of Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine at The Smart Museum and a guided tour of Art at the David Rubenstein Forum, a new program showcasing works from the collection of University of Chicago Trustee Kenneth C. Griffin in tandem with historical documents from the collection of David M. Rubenstein.
“At its core, the goal of the fair has always been to galvanize the City of Chicago’s creative community and provide an infrastructure that brings global curators, collectors, and art enthusiasts to experience all that the city has to offer,” said Tony Karman, President | Director. “The diverse roster of events and programs at this year’s EXPO ART WEEK speaks to Chicago’s uniquely collaborative approach, and it is incredibly heartening to see such a robust welcome back for the fair and the city.”
Featured 2022 EXPO ART WEEK alignments include:
The Peninsula Chicago x AFRICOBRA: I Am Somebody
April 7 – Mid-May
The Peninsula Chicago is proud to present AFRICOBRA: I Am Somebody, an exhibition of works by AFRICOBRA founders Sherman Beck, Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell and Gerald Williams, along with additional early members of the pioneering collective. AFRICOBRA was an artist collective founded on the South Side of Chicago in 1968. Known for creating art to address social and cultural challenges affecting the Black community, AFRICOBRA is one of the most significant arts movements of the second half of the twentieth century. The exhibition will feature a selection of works from AFRICOBRA’s groundbreaking early exhibitions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as key insights into their aesthetic explorations before the group came together, and subsequent developments in the following decades. AFRICOBRA's contributions to the history of art have been highlighted in such exhibitions as the 2019 Venice Biennale and the critically-acclaimed Soul of a Nation, which debuted at the Tate Modern in 2017 and traveled to five other museums. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Kavi Gupta, EXPO CHICAGO and The Peninsula Chicago.
Nick Cave Preview at Art on theMART
Friday, April 8, 8:00 – 10:00pm
Viewable along the Chicago Riverwalk, between Wells and Franklin Streets
In partnership with Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Art on theMART is presenting a newly commissioned projection by acclaimed American artist Nick Cave. A preview of this projection will be viewable as a pop-up installment at Art on theMART during EXPO ART WEEK on Friday, April 8 from 8:00 – 10:00pm. The projection of Cave’s video work, made specifically for Art on theMART, is a reimagination remix of Cave’s original film Drive-By (2011) with new footage as part of the Summer 2022 programming to be shown twice nightly from May 5 through September 7, 2022. Cave’s projection will coincide with his first career-spanning retrospective, Forothermore, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Skin in the Game
Curated by Zoe Lukov and produced by Abby Pucker
April 7 – 24, 400 N. Peoria St.
Skin in the Game is an exhibition of painting, sculpture, video, site-specific installation and performance works by over 40 diverse artists, including, for this edition, several from Chicago. The exhibition will explore touch, transmission and skin—the potential, vulnerability and risk contained therein—as a boundary to protect from danger or as a porous border to receive. Establishing a dialogue with the erotic, the works on view hold the tension between pleasure and violence, the taboo and voyeurism, with through lines that touch on game, color, the hunt, sport, religious iconography, performance and competition. Free and open to all, Skin in the Game is located in Fulton Market and its public programs will form an inclusive space for the cross-pollination of diverse opinions and ideas crucial to a multiplicity of sectors of the city. Among the artists included are Derrick Adams, Isabelle Albuquerque, Tosh Basco, Carlos Betancourt, Lynda Benglis, Rashayla Marie Brown, Zoe Buckman, Nick Cave, Raúl de Nieves, Jen DeNike, Jane Dickson, Amir H. Fallah, Brendan Fernandes, Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Nicholas Galanin X Merritt Johnson, Theaster Gates, Clarity Haynes, Micol Hebron, Camille Henrot, Rashid Johnson, Jesse Krimes, Yvette Mayorga, Marilyn Minter, Maynard Monrow, Carlos Motta, Ebony Patterson, Paul Pfeiffer, Cheryl Pope, Erin M. Riley, Florencia Rodriguez Giles, Sheena Rose, Gabriella Ruiz, Kathleen Ryan, Moises Salazar, Soo Shin, Hank Willis Thomas, Jake Troyli, Juana Valdes, David Wojnarowicz, Agustina Woodgate, Kennedy Yanko and Jwan Yosef. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Alec & Jennifer Litowitz and Shapack Partners. A press preview will take place on April 6 beginning at 4:00pm, with a reception from 6:00 – 9:00pm and a performance at 7:00pm.
Senju’s Waterfall for Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago | On view now through June 26
Under a combination of white light and UV lighting, the works evocatively express the force and motion of falling water. These enchanting painted screens are the work and a gift of Senju (b. 1958), a contemporary proponent of Nihonga, traditional Japanese painting. Known for his signature Waterfall works, Senju created the panels on view at the Art Institute specifically for the museum’s Gallery 109, the space designed by architect Tadao Ando. Thinking of the exhibition as a collaboration between himself and the architect through time, Senju tailored the scale and lighting to best suit this distinctive space.
Barely Fair
Color Club | 4146 N Elston Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618
Friday, April 8, 6:00 – 10:00pm
Barely Fair is a miniature art fair operated by the artist-run project space Julius Caesar. The invitational fair presents a tiny peek inside the programming of 30 contemporary art galleries, project spaces and curatorial projects from around the world. Included spaces exhibit works in 1:12 scale booths built to mimic the design of a standard fair. Barely Fair opens with a vernissage on April 8 and runs through April 24. Located at the arts and events space Color Club, the fair will run with daily hours through the first weekend, and be open for weekly gallery hours and by appointment through April 24.
Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art
21c Museum Hotel Chicago | March 21, 2022 – March 1, 2023
The multi-media exhibition illuminates the intersection of celebrity, commerce, technology and the media, including notable works by Nick Cave, Titus Kaphar, Hank Willis Thomas and Kehinde Wiley, among others. Spanning all 10,000+ square feet of the 21c Museum Hotel Chicago’s gallery space, Pop Stars! features over 90 works of art by 55 artists from around the world. The artists exhibited in Pop Stars! examine recent shifts in how culture is being created and consumed, demonstrating the dominance of the popular as today’s ubiquitous culture. Curated by Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites. A guided docent tour will be available on Friday, April 8 from 5:00 – 6:00pm.
Theodora Allen: Saturnine
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum | March 29 – July 10, 2022
The Driehaus Museum presents Theodora Allen: Saturnine as part of their 2022 contemporary exhibition program, A Tale of Today. Drawing upon the museum’s focus on ornamentation and exquisite craft, the exhibition—previously on view at the Kunsthal Aarhus (Denmark), curated by Stephanie Cristello—resonates with specific histories and motifs within the Nickerson Mansion and Driehaus collection, and installed within select period rooms of the Gilded Age mansion. An opening reception will take place April 6, 7:00 – 9:00pm. A monograph published by Motto Books in Berlin accompanies the traveling exhibition.
Spektral Quartet: ENIGMA
Adler Planetarium | Friday, April 8, 6:00pm & 8:00pm,
Performed live by the multi-GRAMMY-nominated Spektral Quartet, ENIGMA is a hypnotic collision of music and film, tempting audiences to investigate the secret alcoves of their own minds. Distinguished on 2021 Best of lists by NPR Music and The New York Times, ENIGMA combines the mysterious sounds of internationally-acclaimed composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir with the cryptic visuals of video artist Sigurdur Gudjonsson (Venice Biennale 2022) – debuting in Chicago this April at the Adler Planetarium’s iconic 360-degree dome theater.
For a full list of additional EXPO ART Week Exhibitions and Events including dates, times and locations, visit https://www.expochicago.com/expo-art-week.
EXPO ART WEEK Museum and Institutional Highlights:
The Art Institute of Chicago | Senju’s Waterfall for Chicago, Igshaan Adams: Desire Lines, Morris and Company: The Business of Beauty, Subscribe: Artists and Alternative Magazines, 1970-1995, The Golden Age of Kabuki Prints
Art on theMART | Nick Cave
The Arts Club of Chicago | Kamrooz Aram
Block Museum of Art | A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence
Blanc Gallery | Brandon Breaux: BIG WORDS
Chicago Artists Coalition | Paul Taul: 7-7-94 For my babe
Chicago Cultural Center | An Instrument in the Shape of a Woman: Leslie Baum, Diana Christiansen and Selina Trepp with Annie Morse, Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, Jin Lee: Views & Scenes
DePaul Art Museum | Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture & Reparations | Chicago to Guantánamo
Graham Foundation | Barbara Stauffacher Soloman: Exits Exist
Iceberg Projects | Austin Osman Spare: Psychopathia Sexualis
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum | Theodora Allen: Saturnine
Elmhurst Art Museum | Houses of Tomorrow: Solar Homes from Keck to Today, Jan Tichy: Reflectance
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection + Archives, John M. Flaxman Library, Special Collections, School of the Art Institute Chicago | Right Here Where the Line is Born: A Brief Evolution of Visual Poetics
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art | The Life and Death of Charles Williams
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago | Based on a True Story . . ., Caroline Kent: Chicago Works, Alfredo Jaar: The Structure of Images, Bani Abedi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared
Museum of Contemporary Photography | Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part
Millennium Park | Edra Soto: Screen House, Christine Tarkowski: When we call the Earth…
Mana Contemporary | Michael Heizer: HOLLYWOOD 24
National Museum of Mexican Art | Frida Kahlo: Her Photos, Rubén Aguirre: Tectonic Reflections
Poetry Foundation | Monica Ong: Planetaria
Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center | Azadeh Gholizadeh & Elnaz Javani
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art | Wanting it Both Ways: Bill Conger, Tanya Gill, Mie Kongo, Jennifer Mannebach
South Side Openings & Events - Tuesday, April 5, 2022
The Renaissance Society
Extended Hours & Curatorial Remarks, Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS
6:00 – 8:00pm | Curatorial Remarks at 7:00pm
Smart Museum of Art
Extended Hours & Performance, Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine, Special Art After Dark: Songs of Protest | 7:00 – 9:00pm
Logan Center for the Arts: Logan Center Exhibitions
Open Hours, Department of Visual Arts BA Thesis Exhibition | 5:00 – 9:00pm
Hyde Park Art Center
Extended Hours, Wheel of Life | 5:00 – 8:00pm
Reception, Malika Jackson: Whisper of a World Without Words | 5:00 – 8:00pm
Sneak Peek, Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger: Loving Repeating | 5:00 – 8:00pm
Oriental Institute
Extended Hours, Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings | 7:00 – 9:00pm
Neubauer Collegium for Culture & Society
Arnold J. Kemp: Less Like an Object and More Like the Weather | 7:00 – 9:00pm
Rubenstein Forum
Extended Hours & Guided Tour*, Art at the David Rubenstein Forum | 5:00 – 7:00pm
**Pre-registration required. Visit http://t.ly/TXa2 for more info. Additional tour on Saturday, April 9.
L1 Retail Store, Arts + Public Life
Extended Hours | 7:00 – 9:00pm
DuSable Museum of African American History
Extended Hours, Equiano | 5:00 – 9:00pm
Art After Hours – Chicago Gallery Openings
A highlight of EXPO ART WEEK, Art After Hours is a free, citywide open gallery night inviting EXPO CHICAGO visitors and the Chicago community to experience the city's vibrant art scene during extended hours on Friday, April 8 from 6:00 – 9:00pm.
EXPO CHICAGO 2022 Galleries Participating in Art After Hours include:
- ANDREW RAFACZ
- Corbett vs. Dempsey
- Catherine Edelman Gallery
- DOCUMENT
- Kavi Gupta
- M. LeBlanc
- Mariane Ibrahim
- moniquemeloche
- Volume Gallery
- Western Exhibitions
For a full list of Art After Hours participating galleries, visit expochicago.com/expo-art-week.
Travel and Hotel Information
For discounted airfare and hotel accommodations, travel arrangements can be made through Turon Travel, an agency dedicated to creating an expedient and fully accessible travel network for the global arts community. Guests may stay at any of EXPO CHICAGO’s partner hotels including The Peninsula Chicago, Aloft Chicago Mag Mile, Ambassador Chicago, Loews Chicago, Chicago Athletic Association, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago and Sable at Navy Pier
About EXPO CHICAGO
EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art features leading international galleries alongside a leading platform for contemporary art and cultural programming. Hosted within historic Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, EXPO CHICAGO presents a diverse and inventive program, including /Dialogues (presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Exchange by Northern Trust: An Interactive Conversation Around the Art of Collecting, unrivaled programs for both public and VIP audiences; IN/SITU, dynamic on-site installations highlighting large-scale sculpture, film, and site-specific work; and major public art initiatives, including IN/SITU Outside, with works installed throughout Chicago Park District locations, and OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project, a curated selection of international artists throughout the city’s digital billboard network. The EXPO CHICAGO program also features an unprecedented commitment to host curatorial initiatives during the exposition, including the Curatorial Forum in partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI), and the Curatorial Exchange, which partners with foreign agencies and consulates to expand the exposition’s global reach. EXPO CHICAGO is the publisher of THE SEEN, Chicago’s only international journal of contemporary and modern art criticism, distributed throughout the United States and Europe.
EXPO CHICAGO is presented by Art Expositions, LLC. Under the leadership of President and Director Tony Karman, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and inspiring its collector base. For more information on EXPO CHICAGO visit expochicago.com.