EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, opens the 2015 fall art season at Navy Pier from September 17 through September 20. In its fourth edition, the exposition presents artwork from 140 leading galleries, representing 16 countries and 47 cities from around the world, and includes EXPOSURE—a section that affords younger galleries the opportunity to participate in a major international art fair.

In the spirit of collaboration and with the intention of further shaping Chicago's greater contemporary art landscape, the University of Chicago has served as a long-standing partner and participant in EXPO CHICAGO. Learn more at the University of Chicago's participation in EXPO Chicago 2014 here.

At this year's EXPO CHICAGO fair, several University of Chicago arts organizatons will exhibit their artists' works, including the Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance Society, and University of Chicago Headquarters 3.0, which fronts Logan Center Exhibitions and the Department of Visual Arts and will the work of MFA DoVA alumni.

For a full list of EXPO CHICAGO programs and participants, visit www.expochicago.com.

Programs

A wide array of University of Chicago arts organizations and artists are showcasing their works at 2015 EXPO CHICAGO. Read on for the full list.

/Dialogues

Museum Models: The Global Impact of Public Collections
Friday, September 18
4:00 pm 

Featuring Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Renaissance Society Solveig Øvstebø and Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art of LACMA Franklin Sirmans. Moderated by Curator of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Jacob Proctor

Art history is one of the most easily identifiable methods of how we visually record history. Whose voices are we listening to through the images we collect and exhibit? Often defined as encyclopedic institutions, museums are responsible for collecting and exhibiting history, while often writing it in the process. How can contemporary museum collections and kunsthalle models change or alter certain histories once they have been written? Looking at both public collecting and non-collecting institutions and exhibitions through the lens of various museum models, each of the panelists will offer the various ways that their associated institution handles the global responsibility of collecting and exhibiting contemporary work.

EXPO Projects

Jason Salavon
The Master Index (Semaphore)
Inman Gallery

The Master Index (Semaphore) consists of two adjacent walls covered entirely in custom wallpaper and one real-time digital video listing every English Wikipedia article by popularity. Jason Salavon composed this massive digital list in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chicago.

IN/SITU 2015

The IN/SITU program provides exhibiting galleries the opportunity to showcase large-scale installations and site-specific works by leading artists during EXPO CHICAGO. Among the artists featured in these exhibiting galleries is Jessica Stockholder, University of Chicago Raymond W. & Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Visual Arts.

Jessica Stockholder: Celestial Season, Kavi Gupta 

Jessica Stockholder’s Celestial Season  is a sculptural installation that adopts and interacts with the unique architecture of art fairs. A luminous “cloud,” composed of translucent plastic baskets, the piece floats just above the boundaries of art fair walls, buoyant and playful in the context of its locale. At once warm and cool, like a breeze on a summer day, the piece stands at odds with the formality of the art fair space, and encourages audiences to interact with it, move around it, and spend time with it as a reprieve from the regimental booth layouts.

Special Exhibitions

The Special Exhibitions program features select regional, national, and international non-profit institutions, museums, and organizations to be included on the main floor of the exposition in Navy Pier’s iconic Festival Hall.

Chicago Artists Coalition

Chicago Artists Coalition’s (CAC) 2015 booth at EXPO CHICAGO presents Artist Resident & Mentor Marissa Lee Benedict, who creates a video and sculptural installation that poses questions about scale and connectivity, from micro-interactions to infinite expansiveness, which impacts climate and information communication. The booth is curated by Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago.

Independent Curators International (ICI)

Independent Curators International (ICI) produces exhibitions, events, publications, research and training opportunities for curators and diverse audiences around the world. Established in 1975 and headquartered in New York, ICI has commissioned artists since 1990 to produce limited edition works. Artists include; John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Olafur Eliasson, Stephen J. Kaltenbach, Jacob Kassay, Joseph Kosuth, Laurie Simmons, Robert Rauschenberg, Kiki Smith, Ernesto Neto, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Marina Abramović and most recently, Chicago based artist Robert Burnier. Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, ICI will showcase a selection of limited edition works by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Robert Rauschenberg, Marina Abramović and Liz Glynn among others, and will feature Jessica Stockholder, a pioneer of multimedia genre-bending installations, as a special artist for the 2015 program.

The Renaissance Society

The Renaissance Society presents a limited edition series by Berlin-based artist Nora Schultz, created on the final day of her solo exhibition in February 2014. In “Metal Mind Model Magazine Parrot,” materials from her site-specific installation were installed into an orchestration of improvised printmaking that spanned almost the entirety of the gallery. Photographs of the process were taken, printed and reincorporated into the flurry of activity, all of which was eventually stapled into eleven objects Schultz refers to as “magazines.” Six unique framed works, along with a performance video of the artist creating the work will be on view.

The University of Chicago Headquarters 3.0

The University of Chicago Headquarters 3.0 will showcase the work of recent Master of Fine Arts alumni. Curated by Department of Visual Arts' academic faculty and lecturer William Pope.L and Zachary Cahill, the artists will respond to a series of curatorial prompts, challenging and intriguing visitors through object creation and performance. Artists include dado, Jinn Bronwen Lee, Tucker Rae-Grant, Nick Raffel, Sophia Rhee, Ramyar Vala, and Danny Volk.

Whitechapel Gallery

Playing a central role in London’s cultural landscape, and a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, Whitechapel Gallery has developed an exceptional portfolio of limited editions and artworks as part of its fundraising initiative to help support the galleries’ educational programming. Leading artists including Georg Baselitz, Theaster Gates, Peter Halley, Rachel Harrison, Linder and Isa Genzken have made beautiful but affordable artworks exclusively for the Whitechapel Gallery that will be on view at EXPO CHICAGO.

Booth Talks, Performances, and Signings

Theaster Gates

Thursday, September 17
5:00–7:00pm
Phaidon | Booth 801

Theaster Gates will be available for book signings of his most recent monograph, published by Phaidon. Available to VIP Guests and Vernissage Ticket holders.

Marissa Lee Benedict and UChicago Curator Jacob Proctor

Friday, September 18
3:00 pm
Chicago Artists Coalition | Booth 121

Marissa Lee Benedict and her collaborator on Dark Fiber, David Rueter, will participate in an artist talk led by Jacob Proctor. Benedict is CAC’s BOLT Artist Resident & Mentor. Her video and sculptural installations pose questions about scale and connectivity.

Gallery

Regards | Chicago

PRINCIPALS
Michael Schuh
Natalie Popovic Schuh

ARTISTS REPRESENTED
Brandon Anschultz
Christopher Aque
Nick Bastis
Aline Cautis
Kristen Van Deventer 
Judith Geichman
Megan Greene
Matthew Metzger
Ethan Rose