{"id":1877795,"date":"2026-04-10T12:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1877795"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:48:06","slug":"expo-chicago-dealers-doing-brisk-business-at-more-intentional-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1877795","title":{"rendered":"Expo Chicago: Dealers Doing Brisk Business at ‘More Intentional\u2019 Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Annie-Brito-Hodgin-The-Creation-of-Eve-2026_red-arrow_0019.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tTears of joy are not the first thing you expect to hear about at art fairs, but that was the order of the day for Tennessee artist Annie Brito Hodgin at Thursday\u2019s VIP preview at the thirteenth edition of Expo Chicago (April 9\u201312), where she is showing her paintings with Red Arrow Gallery. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s the artist\u2019s first time showing outside Nashville and her first time showing at an art fair, and she\u2019s here with us,\u201d gallery director Ashley Layendecker told ARTnews<\/em>. Raised in a Southern Baptist fundamentalist Christian culture, the self-taught artist paints surreal modern interpretations of Biblical passages, populated entirely with versions of herself. \u201cShe works out of her kitchen and is raising three children,\u201d Layendecker added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tears came when it was revealed that one of her paintings went to the Bennett Collection (founded by Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt, retired from careers in corporate law and education), which created a fund to buy works from the fair by women-identifying artists painting women in a realist style; acquisitions will go on view at Michigan\u2019s Muskegon Museum of Art. \u201cShe started crying, and then we started crying,\u201d Layendecker related. By midday on day one, Red Arrow had sold about half of the paintings it brought at prices in the range of $4,500 and $5,800, and was thrilled with the new connections they had made.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf selling pieces on day one of a fair is impressive, selling art on day zero is even better, especially in a slow art market. New York\u2019s Half Gallery is showing seemingly abstract paintings that after some looking may resolve into floral imagery, by Chinese-born Wenhui Hao, who earned an MFA just last year at the Royal College of Art and lives in London. The gallery had sold six of the eight paintings on view by the day before <\/em>Thursday\u2019s VIP preview, at prices from $6,000 to $18,500, to both European and American buyers, some repeat clients. \u201cWe had people waiting for this fair,\u201d said director Erin Goldberger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Paintings by Wenhui Hao on display at Half Gallery\u2019s stand at Expo Chicago 2026.<\/span>Half Gallery<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe fair slimmed down from about 170 exhibitors in past years to about 130 this year; part of the massive hall at Navy Pier was walled off, creating a smaller sales floor. Dealers were thrilled with the change. \u201cIt feels fucking great,\u201d John Corbett, co-principal at Chicago gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey, told ARTnews<\/em>. \u201cThe scaling down in size allowed for a raising of the bar in terms of the overall quality of presentations. It\u2019s a more manageable size.\u201d At some megafairs, he said, collectors have later apologized for not coming to their booth but explained that they couldn\u2019t find it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gabrielle Garland, Have You Ever Been in Love <\/em>(2026).<\/span>Corbett vs. Dempsey<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThis year, Corbett vs. Dempsey is showing unpeopled paintings and drawings of suburban homes by New York artist Gabrielle Garland, whose skewed perspectives and wild colors are the only suggestions of the personalities of those who might live in them. Paintings are tagged at $10,000 to $20,000, drawings at $2,000, and by midday Thursday the gallery had sold a painting and some drawings, and was satisfied. \u201cAround here, people like to kick the tires,\u201d said Corbett.<\/p>\n

\n\tNotable market figures were in attendance at the fair, including Art Intelligence Global\u2019s Matt Bangser; New York and Chicago advisor Erica Barrish; LA advisor Victoria Burns; New York advisor Wendy Cromwell; and Sotheby\u2019s specialist Gary Metzner. Chicago collectors were out in force, including David Frej and Nancy Lerner; Josh and Megan Green Rogers; and Gwen Callans and Biff Ruttenberg. Other Chicago royalty included former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett and at least one proper celebrity, musician Chance the Rapper.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fair is also known for its draw of curators and leaders from museums and nonprofits. Among those on the scene on Thursday were Robyn Farrell of New York\u2019s\u00a0The Kitchen, Alison Gass of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, Madeleine Grynsztejn and Jamillah James of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, DJ Hellerman of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Adam Levine of the Toledo Museum of Art, Aram Moshayedi of Mexico City\u2019s Museo Tamayo Arte Contempor\u00e1neo, Amy Smith-Stewart of Connecticur\u2019s Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, and Juli\u00e1n Zugazagoitia of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome galleries reported day-one sales into the six figures. <\/p>\n

\n\tLos Angeles\u2019s Night Gallery sold several paintings by East Chicago native Robert Nava at prices as high as $200,000. \u201cOur presentation is very much a homecoming for Robert Nava,\u201d said senior director Brian Faucette in a statement. \u201cHe grew up just outside Chicago, and visits to the Art Institute (who now hold many of his drawings in their collection) and the Field Museum were formative. These institutions offered his earliest exposure to \u2018Art.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Windy City\u2019s Secrist Beach sold Open Frame<\/em> (2025), by Luftwerk, the duo of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero,to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The asking price was $150,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKarma (New York and Los Angeles) placed sculptures from Kathleen Ryan\u2019s \u201cBad Fruit\u201d (2018-) series, including Bad Lemon (Adrift)<\/em> (2026) for $150,000 and Bad Orange (Deep Blue)<\/em> (2026) for $135,000.<\/p>\n

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Demond Melancon, Ashanti Edu (Ten)<\/em>, 2024.<\/span>Jonathan Carver Moore<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSan Francisco\u2019s Jonathan Carver Moore is offering small pieces by Demond Melancon representing colorful masks that recall classical African examples, created in glass beads and rhinestones on canvas, priced at $8,000. He had sold a number of them by midday Thursday. The pieces were inspired partly by the history of New Orleans Mardi Gras, where, Moore explained, Black people were once banned from appearing, leading to a separate tradition of masking. Also on view are photos by Adrian Burrell, a third-generation resident of Oakland, California, whose photos are inspired by a family history of enslavement that threads from Senegal to Louisiana. One shows a family elder, another a field of sugar cane on fire. One was sold before the fair opened, to a New York collector; the pieces are priced between $10,000 and $12,500.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is one of my favorite fairs,\u201d Carver Moore said, relating that before he opened his gallery, when he came here for research purposes, he was already buying from Expo.<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Franciso dealer Jessica Silverman credited her return to the fair after several years away partly to the presence of a recent hire, fair curator Essence Harden, who is a good friend. Also, \u201cI\u2019m from the Midwest,\u201d said Silverman in a conversation in her booth, so she was happy to return. Another reason? \u201cI got to know Abby Pucker, who is a firecracker.\u201d Pucker is a prominent collector and philanthropist in the Windy City, and is part of the Pritzker family, who created the Pritzker Prize, the most distinguished honor for architects. \u201cChicago has always had great collectors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Koak, Sun Dour<\/em> (2022).<\/span>Jessica Silverman Gallery<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSilverman focused this year on Bay Area artists, including Sadie Barnette, David Huffman, Lava Thomas, and Koak, who is newly represented by the gallery. By the end of VIP day, Silverman had sold Koak\u2019s 2026 paintings Everything Touches Everything Else<\/em> and Open Book \/ Pressed Flowers<\/em> for $50,000 each as well as three pieces by Sadie Barnette, including Fancy Flowers <\/em>(2026) for $24,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tLos Angeles dealer Megan Mulrooney and her associate director Isabella Pigoni Miller were celebrating with champagne by early afternoon, having sold out their booth of floral landscapes by Kate Zimmerman Turpin, priced from$16,000 to $18,500, and small floral paintings on mohair by Maria Szakats for $4,000 to $6,000. They went to multiple Chicago collectors, said Pigoni Miller.<\/p>\n

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Kate Zimmerman Turpin, Last Night <\/em>(2026).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAlso sold out by day one was London gallery Public, showing New York artist Taylor Simmons, who is currently an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The works were priced between $3,000 and $20,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tA small booth shared by Chicago\u2019s Good Weather Gallery and Detroit\u2019s What Pipeline attracted attention from Pucker (whose organization Gertie has some shows on view around town). A sculpture by Dylan Spaysky, Girls <\/em>(2026), is a life-size rendition of the four main characters from Sex and the City<\/em> in materials including rattan and wicker; it\u2019s titled after the later show Girls<\/em> as a way of thinking about different generations in pop culture. Whether Carrie Bradshaw and company would be pleased with the rendition is unclear, but Pucker was excited about it. It sold for $40,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Dylan Spaysky, Girls<\/i> (2026).<\/span>Good Weather\/What Pipeline<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBy late afternoon, Chicago\u2019s Patron gallery had sold almost everything on the walls, said principal Emanuel Aguilar, including paintings by Lindsay Adams at prices ranging as high as $32,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding the trimmed-down fair, Aguilar said, \u201cIt feels more intentional,\u201d adding, \u201cThat\u2019s a good road map for any fair in this climate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/expo-chicago-sales-vip-day-report-1234780810\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Annie-Brito-Hodgin-The-Creation-of-Eve-2026_red-arrow_0019.jpeg?w=1024″] Tears of joy are not the first thing you expect to hear about at art fairs, but that was the order of the day for Tennessee artist Annie Brito Hodgin at Thursday\u2019s VIP preview at the thirteenth edition of Expo Chicago (April 9\u201312), where she is showing her paintings with Red Arrow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1877795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1877795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1877795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1877795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1877795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}