2022 Northern Trust Purchase Prize

Each year EXPO CHICAGO and Presenting Sponsor Northern Trust select artworks from the fair’s EXPOSURE section– featuring galleries ten years and younger– to be purchased for an institution’s permanent collection. Since 2013, the award was gifted to one institution, but in 2022 it expanded to three U.S. institutions located in East, West and Midwest regions. Previous institution recipients include The Art Institute of Chicago; The Arts Club of Chicago; Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University; DePaul Art Museum, DePaul University; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; Pérez Art Museum; Portland Art Museum; Saint Louis Art Museum; Seattle Art Museum; Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago; Speed Art Museum; Walker Art Center. Learn more about the Northern Trust Purchase Prize artists and gallery recipients below.

2022 Northern Trust Purchase Prize Recipients & Winners

The 2023 Northern Trust Purchase Prize has been awarded to three national institutions: Pérez Art Museum; Portland Art Museum; and Walker Art Center. 

"EXPOSURE is a section of EXPO CHICAGO which functions as a thermometer of artistic practices happening around the world with and within young galleries. With a strong focus on art from Latin America, the 2022 section brings to the fore important issues of our time such as labor, technology, social justice, identity politics, environmental concerns, among many others. Northern Trust has been championing young artists and galleries through their yearly purchase prize, which propels artists’ careers and allows for their work to become part of important institutional collections." — Humberto Moro | 2022 EXPOSURE curator & Deputy Director of Program at Dia Art Foundation

Perez Art Museum Miami 

Perez Art Museum Miami acquired the painting Four Corners by Reginald Sylvster II from Maximillian William.

“Thank you to the Northern Trust for this generous support. We are delighted to have acquired the work of Reginald Sylvester II from Maximillian William for the PAMM Collection. In concert with work by Sam Gillian and Ed Clark, his painting dialogues exquisitely with works in our collection, as well as presents the concerns of an emerging generation.” — María Elena Ortiz | Curator, Pérez Art Museum Miami

"We are extremely pleased to have this painting accessioned into such an important museum thanks to the Northern Trust and EXPO CHICAGO." — Maximilian William | Founder & Director, MAXIMILLIAN WILLIAM GALLERY

“It’s an absolute pleasure and honor to be in a collection such as the Pérez. All praises to the Most High!” — Reginald Sylvester II | Artist

Portland Art Museum

Portland Art Museum acquired El Palmar No. 4; and Pintura No. 3, and Pintura No. 1 from the series El Palmar, by Nohemí Pérez from Instituto de Visión.

“The Portland Art Museum is incredibly proud to be awarded the Northern Trust Purchase Prize this year, which has allowed us to bring in an incredible work by Columbian artist Nohemí Pérez. We immediately connected with the beautiful depiction of nature in the work, as well as the way it addresses the environmental degradation and violence happening in her native region. We know that this work will speak to our audiences in Portland, Oregon just as strongly as it does to Nohem’s communities where she lives and works.” 
— Sara Krajewski | Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Portland Art Museum

“We are so happy to see Nohemí’s practice being recognized with this acquisition prize, especially to know that her work will be part of the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum. We also want to thank Northern Trust for making this acquisition possible, prizes like this play an integral role in supporting the work of both artists and galleries.” 
— Omayra Alvarado-Jensen | Executive Director, Instituto de Visión

"I am very excited to be the recipient of the Northern Trust Purchase Prize. Being a part of the Portland Art Museum's collection is a great honor for me and it is extremely important for me to reach a new audience that can connect to my work." — Nohemí Pérez | Artist

Walker Art Center

Walker Art Center acquired Untitled (Forms–dodecagon, evening primrose, flânerie–brought to bear on a Texan landscape–San Antonio) YGB, Untitled (Forms–dodecagon, evening primrose, flânerie–brought to bear on a Texan landscape–San Antonio) GBY, and Untitled (Wander and Errancies–memories within; citrus in Saint Augustine) by Adler Guerrier from Marisa Newman Projects.

“We are delighted to bring Adler Guerrier’s work into the Walker’s collection with the help of the Northern Trust Purchase Prize. In his recent work, he poetically trains his lens on nature. Variously exploring the comforts of domestic gardens while sheltering at home as well as the larger histories of the south, his work finds a rich context in the Walker’s deep holdings in photography and works on paper.”
— Henrietta Huldisch | Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota

“We applied to EXPO CHICAGO with the aim and focus of presenting artworks including Adler Guerrier’s in this context with great connections to institutions and curatorial programs. Walker Art Center's acquisition of Adler Guerrier’s work is incredible and reaffirms our program goals. We are grateful to the fair, The Walker, and Northern Trust.”
— Marisa Newman | Founder & Director

“I am honored that my work was acquired to be in the collection of Walker Art Center. These three works are truly reflective of my interests in plants, notions of liberty, and textures of everyday life. In these works, the arrangements of forms—developed in layers, framed in contextual and inherent views in landscape, and colored by poetic language— permit expressions of place informed by a history of blackness that has linked Haiti and the Caribbean to Florida, the American South, and, for that matter, the United States.”
— Adler Guerrier | Artist