Expo Chicago 2026 Opens With a Leaner Fair and a Sharper Curatorial Focus
Expo Chicago has returned to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall with about 130 galleries, roughly 40 fewer than in recent years, in a first edition shaped by new director Kate Sierzputowski. The smaller roster has allowed the fair to open up physically, giving the aisles a less compressed feel while also signaling a more deliberate editorial direction.
Sierzputowski, who previously served as the fair’s artistic director for five years, has made institutional partnerships a central part of her approach. One of her first moves was to bring in Essence Harden for a new curatorial role. Harden, who recently co-curated the latest Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum and the Focus section at Frieze Los Angeles, organized Expo’s Profile section, which brings together solo and thematic presentations from 47 Canal, Geary Contemporary, Mindy Solomon Gallery, and four Lagos-based galleries: Adegbola Gallery, Affinity Gallery, Soto Gallery, and Yenwa Gallery.
That emphasis on structure and scholarship extends across the fair. Sierzputowski has said she wanted the institutional dimension to be felt not as a side note, but as part of the visitor experience itself. The decision to create a curatorial role rather than appoint another artistic director reflects a broader shift in the fair’s identity: one that favors partnerships, thematic coherence, and a more explicit public-facing argument for why the fair matters.
The general galleries sector offers a strong Chicago and Midwest presence. Local exhibitors include Gray, McCormick Gallery, Document, Patron, Secrist Beach, and Les Enluminures, alongside international participants such as Galería Artizar from Spain, Ebony Curated and Gallery Momo from South Africa, and Wizard Gallery from Italy. Through a partnership with the Galleries Association of Korea, 12 Korean galleries are also taking part. New York galleries Karma and Magenta Plains are making their Expo debuts, while Bockley Gallery and Weinstein Hammons Gallery bring Minneapolis into the mix, joined by Detroit’s Matéria, Buffalo Prescott, and What Pipeline.
Monique Meloche Gallery’s booth underscores how closely the fair is tied to the wider exhibition calendar. The gallery is showing Ebony G. Patterson, who appears in the central exhibition at the Venice Biennale, and Lavar Munroe, who is representing the Bahamas in Venice. It is also presenting Yvette Mayorga, Candida Alvarez, and David Antonio Cruz, all included in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s new survey, Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way.
The Obama Presidential Center is another major presence at the fair. Louise Bernard, director of the center’s museum, organized Embodiment, a presentation featuring artists commissioned for the campus, with additional commissions to be announced during VIP day. Expo’s annual curatorial forum, meanwhile, brings together more than 60 participants, reinforcing the fair’s effort to position itself as more than a marketplace. In Chicago this year, the message is clear: the fair is not simply smaller, but more intentionally framed around the institutions, artists, and regional networks that give it weight.
