CHICAGO — Tens of thousands of art enthusiasts will gather in Chicago this month for the city’s largest art fair, Expo Chicago.
While the 13th annual event brings in artists and galleries from around the world, there will also be a variety of Chicago artists presenting their work, like Black chamber ensemble D-Composed and a Pilsen photographer who’s been capturing images of Chicago Public Schools.
Despite downsizing under new leadership this year, many local nonprofits and artist initiatives can be found in the Expo Projects area, a new addition to the fair. The area is meant “to deepen our relationships with nonprofit partners and institutions” from Chicago and beyond, director Kate Sierzputowski told Block Club.
Expo Chicago runs April 9-12 with curated shows, artist talks and installations at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, 600 E. Grand Ave. Learn more about Expo Chicago and buy tickets here.
Here are four local artists and booths you can see at the fair:
D-Composed: ‘Blk Metropolis Apocalypse’
Chicago Black chamber ensemble D-Composed will perform “Blk Metropolis Apocalypse” — a multi-genre “afro-sonic sermonic suite” composed by Angel Bat Dawid — at Expo next week. Blending free jazz, blues, gospel, classical composition, Afrofuturist electronics and improv, the piece is a “love letter to the city of Chicago,” said violinist Khelsey Zarraga.
“Each movement is about a different part of the city — North, South, East and West,” Zarraga told Block Club. “We’re all string players, but [Dawid] is an incredible clarinetist and multi-instrumentalist, so getting to collaborate with her … you get to hear some of those influences.”
Drawing inspiration from St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton’s “Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City,” the piece reflects “the cultural histories and lived realities of Chicago’s Black communities” across Chicago, per Expo’s website. This work is presented in partnership with the Obama Presidential Center.
“We get to bring Black musicians and Black compositions and composters to all different kinds of spaces around Chicago, whether its on the South Side or at Navy Pier,” Zarraga said. “I think audiences can be really excited to hear something that they might recognize, or something that’s a piece of the community. That’s really what we’re about: playing for the community.”
The eight-piece ensemble first premiered “Blk Metropolis Apocalypse” at Constellation Chicago in October.
Expo visitors can see performances of “Blk Metropolis Apocalypse” at 6:15 p.m. April 9-10. Learn more here.
Artists in Public Schools: ‘Stories Within’
“Stories Within” brings together the work of Pilsen photographer and educator Jonathan Michael Castillo and Spanish born, Chicago-based artist and educator Juan Baños. The two creatives developed their work through Artists in Public Schools, a nonprofit founded in 2017 “that embeds professional artists in Chicago Public Schools to foster collaboration, creative inquiry and student voice.”
The booth will feature Castillo’s photos of everyday educational objects and spaces, like vocational classrooms at Benito Juárez Community Academy, alongside sculptural totems and altar-like structures by Baños, which are composed of found objects and AI-generated imagery from students’ experiences at Lincoln Park High School.
Expo Chicago has also invited students who have worked with Castillo and Baños to visit for a field trip, Artists in Public Schools Artistic Director Aarti Ogirala said.
“For students to see artists that they’ve worked closely with … on such a large world stage of the contemporary art world, it’s just an invaluable experience,” Ogirala said. “We’re so grateful to be a part of it.
“It’s such a pivotal year for schools, especially [as] they’ve been under so much duress, so to have this opportunity to showcase the creativity of both the artists in our residency program in collaboration with students and really offer a platform to student voice just feels so important,” Ogirala said. “So we’re just really excited to share this work with the public.”
For Baños, who moved to Chicago in 2016 and applied for Artists in Public Schools’ residency about two years ago, the exhibition is “a dream come true,” he told Block Club.
“I took drawings and even the artwork of students, and I incorporate them in my real artwork and practice,” he said.
Artists in Public Schools is also co-hosting an Expo panel exploring the impact of having artists in the classroom, Ogirala told Block Club. The panel also features artist and designer Norman Teague — whose furniture anchors the Projects space — among other speakers. The on-site panel is 11:30 a.m. April 12. Learn more here.
The nonprofit has exhibited annually at Expo since 2019, Ogirala said.
Find Castillo and Baños’ work at Booth 409.
Obama Presidential Center: ‘Embodiment’ & ‘Evolution’
Curated by Dr. Louise Bernard, founding director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, this section is inspired by the architecture and commissioned artists of the Obama Presidential Center — like a presentation of paintings and watercolors by Mexican painter Aliza Nisenbaum, who created a sweeping mural for the center. Her work is “rooted in sustained exchanges with immigrant communities, dancers, and healthcare workers,” according to Expo.
This section will also showcase work by other artists, including Hugo McCloud, Idris Khan, Dawoud Bey and others, presented by Sean Kelly that “explore how contemporary practices give form to the human condition beyond traditional figuration.” Presented by Gallery Wendi Norris, works by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Ambreen Butt and Chitra Ganech explore migration, memory and transformation.
Alongside “Embodiment,” an “Evolution” exhibition will feature archival materials from the center’s commissions — including sketches, art historical references, notebooks and other working materials — to showcase the creative process behind the works.
The two programs “offer visitors a compelling perspective on history, identity, and cultural memory, grounded in Chicago and shaped by its global connections” as well as “an early preview” ahead of the center’s opening June 19, according to Expo.
Find “Embodiment” and “Evolution” at Booth 307.
Robert Nava
East Chicago, Indiana native Robert Nava spent his early years exploring Chicago’s museums, according to Night Gallery in Los Angeles, who’s organizing Nava’s booth at Expo this month. Growing up, the painter’s “creative imagination was first ignited by the cultural landscape of the Windy City.” While he now lives and works in Brooklyn, Nava is making a homecoming for the art fair, where he’ll be presenting new work.
His paintings, which call to mind Cy Twombly and Jean-Michel Basquiat, draw from prehistoric cave paintings, Egyptian antiquities, video games and pop culture, per Night Gallery. Demand for his work has surged in recent years, with auction prices for his work reaching $715,000, Cultured Magazine reports.
Find Nava’s work at Booth 209.
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