EXHIBITION Weekend

September 25—27, 2020

Overview

Presented by EXPO CHICAGO, EXHIBITION Weekend was a digital initiative that convened Chicago-based contemporary art galleries and leading institutions, featuring exhibitions, curatorial projects, and artist programs.

Mirroring the structure of Chicago’s art world, EXHIBITION Weekend straddled the commercial, institutional, and alternative facets of artistic practice unique to the city. Engaging the exposition’s local and global audience, the innovative digital platform, developed in collaboration with Hook, was complemented by live streaming public and VIP programs—including intimate glimpses into leading Chicago artists’ studios, convenings for established and aspiring collectors, an edition of the Curatorial Forum in collaboration with Independent Curators International (ICI), and virtual programming with museums and institutions.

The three-day initiative presented a diverse cross-section of galleries and exhibition spaces which showcased local artists alongside Fall exhibitions. Presented alongside the online viewing room for commercial galleries, a series of Chicago-centric programs provided a fresh perspective to those familiar with the Chicago landscape, as well as a comprehensive first-look for new audiences. Visitors had the opportunity to exclusively engage with Chicago’s contemporary art community, composed of the artists, curators, patrons, and gallerists that shape it.

As a leader in rigorous programming within the landscape of international art fairs, EXHIBITION Weekend took place on the historic dates of the exposition, and preceded the Chicago Gallery Open, presented by the New Art Dealers Association (NADA), September 30–October 4, 2020 and Alternate Assembly, presented by EXPO CHICAGO, January 21-23, 2021.

Participating Exhibitors

Programs

EXHIBITION Weekend Kick-Off: Nick Cave & Art For Justice

September 24, 2020 1:00 pm
Panelists | Nick Cave and Bob Faust (Artists; Co-Founders, Facility), Gabrielle Lyon (Illinois Humanities), and Quintin Williams (Heartland Alliance). Introduction by Agnes Gund (Art for Justice).

Artists Nick Cave and Bob Faust joined representatives of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights and Illinois Humanities, grantees of the Art for Justice Fund, for a conversation on issues related to mass incarceration, freedom, advocacy, and structural inequity. The conversation took place in honor of the limited-edition print produced by Cave and Faust, commissioned by EXPO CHICAGO for the last edition of the exposition. Following a tradition of artist-made prints for the Chicago International Art Exposition at Navy Pier during the 1980s and 90s, the work draws upon iconic motifs found in Cave’s practice and sculptural Soundsuits. Hosted alongside these concepts in Cave’s practice, this panel will address contemporary social issues, advocacy, and structural inequity.

Co-hosted by EXPO CHICAGO and Marketplace Partner Artsy, the proceeds from the sale of the work will benefit the Art for Justice Fund, Nick Cave and Bob Faust’s Facility Foundation, and EXPO CHICAGO’s Curatorial Initiatives 2020 fall programming, presented in partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI). The limited-edition print can be purchased here. Presented in partnership with Ocula.

Art Funders Forum: Remake the Model—Leadership and Ethics in the Arts

September 25, 2020 2:00 pm

Panelists | Deborah Fisher (A Blade of Grass), Frederick Janka (Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation), and Lori Fogarty (Oakland Museum of California). Moderated by Melissa Cowley Wolf (Art Funders Forum, MCW Projects).

Presented in partnership with EXPO CHICAGO, the Arts Funders Forum (AFF) hosts this interactive virtual conversation as part of the Remake the Model series, examining how art funders can advance ethical leadership throughout the cultural sector and beyond. As the industry continues to evaluate its commitment to social justice, broaden its audiences, and develop new funding models to survive through the crises of 2020, how can art funders drive positive change at the board level and beyond?

Artist-Led Gallery Tour: Jim Lutes at GRAY

September 25, 2020 4:00 pm

Jim Lutes and Hamza Walker

For over four decades Chicago-based artist Jim Lutes has produced a varied yet unmistakable body of work that explores the specific tensions between figuration and painterly abstraction. Often discussed in the context of Chicago Imagism, Lutes’ distinct style draws from an expansive set of art historical sources that blends elements of West Coast Funk, Abstract Expressionism, and postmodern appropriation. He overlays ribbons of gestural brushstrokes to both reveal and obscure darkly comic tableaux that shimmer in and out of legibility. The suite of works presented in his exhibition Solo, No Solo at GRAY showcases the painter’s most recent works as he pushes his medium—specifically, his distinctive blend of egg oil tempera—to its material limits. Join the artist for a virtual tour and intimate conversation giving the viewer a deeper understanding of Lutes’ recent works. Presented in partnership with Chartwell. 

Art Institute of Chicago Presents Virtual Artists Connect: Angel Bat Dawid

September 25, 2020 6:00 pm

Angel Bat Dawid

Join Chicago clarinetist, composer, and “spiritual jazz soothsayer” Angel Bat Dawid for the premiere of her new composition “Peace: A Suite for Skylanding, A Mended Petal Odyssey.” This program features a recorded performance of the piece in Jackson Park by a seven member intergenerational ensemble of Southside musicians, and a live conversation with Angel Bat Dawid about her work—a musical tribute to Yoko Ono’s landmark for peace and Chicago’s South Side. Hosted by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Screening: LITANY Part II: Issue (of Blood) — Presented by Rebuild Foundation

September 25, 2020 7:30 pm

By Po’Chop aka Jenn Freeman

EXPO CHICAGO partners with the Rebuild Foundation to present Part II of LITANY, a five-part dance film manifested and performed by Chicago Dancemakers Forum artist in residence Po’Chop aka Jenn Freeman. Created in collaboration with Jordan Phelps of VAM Studio, LITANY uses brown paper and imagination to create new worlds full of rumbling anger and playful humor. LITANY is a voyage through a wooden dollhouse. A prayer whispered in grass-lined lots. A leap into the historical pages of Ebony magazine. A collage. LITANY is an exorcism expelling antiquated notions of Blackness, queer identity, spirituality, grace, rage, and healing. LITANY Part II | Issue (of blood) is a prayer performed in a Bronzeville lot. It is the embodiment of Audre’s Lorde’s definition of erotic reimagined as the holy spirit. It is the deconstruction of our ideas of praise and worship. It is the edifying of womanhood & femininity. 

Artist Studio: Barbara Kasten — On Blueness

September 26, 2020 1:00 pm

Barbara Kasten and Stephanie Cristello

Join EXPO CHICAGO Artistic Director and author Stephanie Cristello for this intimate conversation with renowned Chicago-based artist Barbara Kasten. Working for over 40 years, Kasten often uses mirrors, lights, and props for conceptually-based pieces that are inspired by the act of recording a three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional plane. Spanning her work with cyanotypes, and delving into the artist’s lesser-known projects since the 1960s through the lens of the color blue, this talk will focus on the materials and architectures explored in the upcoming book Barbara Kasten: Architecture and Film (2015–2020) published by Skira in 2021 with support from the Graham Foundation. Presented in partnership with Chartwell and Ocula.

A Tale of Today: Nate Young & Mika Horibuchi

September 26, 2020 2:30 pm

Panelists | Nate Young (Artist | moniquemeloche), Mika Horibuchi (Artist | PATRON), Kekeli Sumah (Driehaus Museum), Ann Lui (Future Firm), Ross Jordan (Jane Addams Hull House Museum), and Stephanie Cristello (EXPO CHICAGO, THE SEEN).

This panel will explore how historic house museums can leverage their architectures and legacies to connect the past with the present. The site-specific work of Young and Horibuchi draws on family, history, architecture, and museum practices to examine the way house museums can bridge our understanding of the past to current discourses on representation, truth, and the role of exhibitions. Presented in partnership with Northern Trust.

About the Exhibition

The Driehaus Museum’s contemporary art series, A Tale of Today: New Artists at the Driehaus Museum, launched in 2019. The series takes its name from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, the 1873 book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that gave the era its name. A Tale of Today also includes a fellowship program that engages with Chicago-based emerging artists, promoting their careers and expanding their networks. The second exhibition in the Driehaus Museum’s new contemporary art initiative focuses on two Chicago-based artists, Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi, whose works engage our expectations of the Nickerson Mansion by responding to the design and history of the 1883 building. The newly commissioned artistic additions by both artists consider the interiors and architecture of the building, questioning mainstream historical narratives and inviting the opportunity to reflect on the history of a place from a diversity of perspectives. Presented in partnership with Northern Trust.

Artist-Led Gallery Tour: Brendan Fernandes at moniquemeloche

September 27, 2020 1:00 pm

Brendan Fernandes

The Kenyan-born Canadian artist Brendan Fernandes works at the intersection of dance and visual arts, often addressing issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. Join this virtual walk-through of the artist’s multidisciplinary work on view at moniquemeloche and their EXHIBITION Weekend viewing room, alongside an intimate conversation over Zoom. Presented in partnership with Chartwell.