Art Chicago Part 2? Navy Pier To Host Juried Art Fair in 2012

By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 14, 2011 6:40PM

Most Chicagoans spend the summer avoiding tourist traps like Navy Pier, save the prerequisite trip with the friend from college that's in town for the weekend, but now we may have a very good reason to make the trek up there. Just announced yesterday, a juried art fair dubbed Exposition Chicago will debut in September 2012 according the the Tribune.

Tony Karman, former Art Chicago vice president and director, is leading the exposition, which hopes to give better known, more lucrative galleries a better location to exhibit as well as expanding on the type of art presented to the public. It is Karman's hope more "Tech Art," large-scale installations, large public works, performance art, design, and other “blends” of things will be displayed in the Exposition next September according to Chicago Art Magazine. The concept seems to hope to capture the sense of awe and wonderment that the World's Fair did in the '30s.

Karman, who left his post with Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. and Art Chicago behind in 2011, founded a partnership with Mark Lyman and Michael Franks of The Art Fair Co. Inc., producer of the SOFA International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art to bring 80-100 galleries worth of modern art and design pieces to a space the size of several football fields. Yes, this space will be a giant asset to the Exposition, but curatorial challenges remain. Do we really want to see Chippendale chair next to a sculpture of Brittney Spears giving birth? The lack of divisible space, which is far more apparent in the Merchandise Mart's exhibition, may prove problematic to both critics and art collectors alike.

Though this fair may be larger and more edgy than springtime's Artropolis at the Merchandise Mart, we really don't foresee one eclipsing the other. With Chicago being one of the nation's hubs of art and antique collectors, in addition to the timing of each exhibition, we firmly believe there is room for both.