Art Dealers Converge on Art Chicago

Thursday night is the opening preview for Art Chicago at the Merchandise Mart featuring 150 galleries and dealers from around the world. The Southwest and Rocky Mountain region is well represented by the following:

Some, like Riverhouse Van Straaten have been attending this art fair for 30 years. Others, like Eight Modern will be participating for the first time. Jaquelin Loyd, director of Eight Modern is bringing artist Ted Larsen with her to Chicago. She and Margo Thoma, her gallery partner, call this one of their favorite fairs. Its also home base for the gallery, since Thomas parents live in Chicago. Other artists they will show in Chicago: Erik Benson, Teo Gonzalez, Fay Ku, Katherine Lee, Lance Letscher, David X. Levine, Matt Magee and Ramona Sakiestewa.

Linda Durham Gallery has participated in Art Chicago for 25 years. In a recent email announcement she wrote of her process getting ready for the fair.

“Shall I hang the big James Havard “Bourgone” on the wall opposite the entrance or would the Eugene Newmann with the dead Matador be a better choice for that location? Where shall I put Yozo Suzukis 3 large works which we have nicknamed “the stolen identity pieces”? Where will Robert Kellys work fit? And the exquisite oil and gold encrusted cigar boxes by Lawrence Fodor””where will they go? Will the outside wall be the proper place for the large Richard Hogan? Im especially excited to exhibit his classic work from the early 90s!”

Lance Letscher, "Combine 2010" from Eight Modern

Megan Fitzpatrick said that Turner Carroll Fine Art has always done well at Art Chicago. “Its one of the best fairs,” she said, echoing Jaquelin Loyd from Eight Modern. “We meet a lot of people who have never been to Santa Fe before.”

Turner Carroll expects to do well with artists like Hung Lui and Deborah Oropallo and will be showing Rex Ray for the first time.

“We did really well in Miami last December and pretty well in Dallas. We are expecting to do well in Chicago,” Fitzpatrick said. “We are seeing an increase in traffic at the gallery as well.”

Homare Ikeda will be another first time artist to Art Chicago, represented by Van Straaten Gallery.

Lori Grecco at Van Straaten Gallery in Denver was in the midst of sending out a list of the artists that Riverhouse Editions and Van Straaten are bringing to Chicago. Among the secondary market art from big names like Jaspar Johns, Ellsworth Kelly and Kiki Smith, they will also show Riverhouse print editions of work by Sol Lewitt, Louise Fishman, John Walker, Katherine Bowling and Tim Litzmann.

Art Chicago runs through May 3 and is the centerpiece of Artropolis, a citywide celebration of arts, antiques and culture. The NEXT art fair is happening at the same time at the Merchandise Mart. It is part of the MMPI family of art fairs that includes The Armory Art Show, Art Toronto, NEXT, VOLTA and VOLTA NY.

(top photo: Yozo Suzuki “Triptych” at Linda Durham Gallery)