In one of my favorite movies,
Zoolander, Ben Stiller plays a famous fashion model who has gotten a lot of publicity because he is about to reveal his new "look," his signature facial expression. An eccentric designer named Mugatu is the only one not falling for the hype and finally screams to the audience of his fashion show, "Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"
And that's kind of how I feel about Expo Chicago. To me, despite all the hype that the Expo Chicago art show would be so different from anything we have ever seen before in Chicago, it was
a lot like SOFA, only with more two dimensional art and less furniture. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I enjoyed it just as much as
I have enjoyed the SOFA show. But perhaps because I am not an art world insider and don't know all the behind the scenes events surrounding these shows, my perspective is limited.
Anyway, back to the Expo. As I said, it was like SOFA. Not just because it was in the same space, the Festival Hall at Navy Pier, but also because of the participating galleries. They were, for the most part, well-known galleries from around the world, showing works by famous artists, both rising stars and deceased modern masters, like the
Gordon Parks: At 100 retrospective. What it didn't have very much of was controversial art, or work by emerging artists. That was one of the things I enjoyed about the NEXT show at Art Chicago. I liked the getting a chance to see work by art students as well as new galleries that were just getting started. There was not very much of that at Expo Chicago. But I was glad to see nonprofit galleries like The
Hyde Park Art Center represented, along with university galleries from
Columbia College and
University of Chicago, and
Bad At Sports showed off their 3D printers and drew a crowd of fascinated onlookers. Of course, I never attended Art Chicago during its Navy Pier heyday, so I can't make a comparison between the two. But here are some artists I liked. You can click the photos to go to their websites to see more of their work:
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| Scott Reeder - New Kinds of Music |
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Enrico Castellan - Superficie Blanca
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Gunther Veder- Nagelecke
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| Allan D' Arcangelo - Marilyn |
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Michael Reafsnyder - Big Red
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Craig Norton - White Picket Fences
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Jennifer Bartlett - House, Dots, Hatches (detail)
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Arch Connelley - The More
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Julie Hefferman- Self Portrait Dressing Wounds
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| Norman Bluhm - Circus |
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| Polly Apfelbaum - Love Park 26 |
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| Ivelisse Jiminez - Detour #1 |
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| Jim Lutes - Little Worlds |
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| Tony Cragg - Round the Block |
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Judy Pfaff - Enter The Dragon
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HC Berg - Visual Vortex
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Joseph Raffael - New Moment
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Rosana Castrillo Diaz - Untitled 2012
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Lorna Simpson - Jet #11, '58
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| Jules de Balincourt - We Regret To Inform You There Is Currently No Space Or Place For Abstract Painting |
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Tony Tasset keeps it weird
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| Louise Nevelson |
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| Lauren Adams - We The People |
One rare political piece was the
We the People installation in the
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis space by
Lauren Adams, with walls covered in Revolutionary War era wallpaper updated with slogans from Occupy and The Tea Party. Visitors were invited to paint their own political messages on plates, which were displayed on shelves on the walls. Sadly, by the time I figured out what I wanted to say, they had run out of plates. I guess people have a lot to say since it's an election year.
Also take a look at video art by
Gregory Scott and
Tony Oursler on their galleries' websites. If you've been reading this blog for a while you know it's rare that I find video art that I actually like, but I think what these two artists have done is very innovative and engaging.
I think Expo Chicago was a success and look forward to attending it again next year.
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