Expo Chicago Puts Curators at the Center of Its Latest Edition
At Expo Chicago, the curatorial framework is no longer confined to side programming. More than half of the fair’s stands this year are part of a curated section or thematic selection, a shift that reflects how firmly the Midwestern fair has positioned itself as a meeting point for museums, curators, and collectors.
The change is closely tied to Kate Sierzputowski, the fair’s new director, who previously served as artistic director for five years. She said the goal was to make the fair’s institutional relationships visible on the floor, not just in conference rooms and panel discussions. Expo Chicago has long hosted a directors summit and curatorial forum, but Sierzputowski wanted that energy to shape the aisles as well.
To that end, the fair brought in Essence Harden, who co-curated the most recent edition of the Hammer Museum’s Made in LA biennial, as curator. Harden oversaw the Profile sector, which includes 21 solo, dual, or thematic presentations. The Focus section, curated by Katie A. Pfohl, an associate curator of contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, brought together 52 galleries that are 12 years old or younger. A smaller section, Embodiment, was curated by Louise Bernard, founding director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, and highlights galleries showing artists commissioned for the Obama Presidential Center, which is set to open to the public in June on Chicago’s south side.
That institutional emphasis is also shaping sales. Gallery Wendi Norris, based in San Francisco, devoted a large part of its Embodiment stand to three works by Cuban-born artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons (b. 1959), who was named on Thursday as one of the artists selected for the final round of commissions for the Obama Presidential Center. The presentation included a 1991 triptych sculpture, a 2007 group of 12 large-format Polaroids, and a 2024 mixed media work on paper. By the end of the preview, the paper work had sold for $22,000.
The gallery also sold two works by Pakistan-born, Texas-based artist Ambreen Butt (b. 1969) for $8,000 and $38,000; the higher-priced work went to an unspecified U.S. institution. Elsewhere in Embodiment, the Chicago gallery Gray showed works by artists connected to the Obama Presidential Center, including Rashid Johnson, Theaster Gates, and the late sculptor Richard Gray, alongside a substantial focus on Chicago-born artist Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973). Gray sold Dyson’s Scalar 2 (Hypershape) (2024) for $55,000, as well as works by Johnson, MacArthur Binion, and Candida Alvarez priced between $25,000 and $100,000.
Sales in the general galleries also pointed to the fair’s institutional pull. Secrist Beach sold Open Frame (2025) by Luftwerk to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for $150,000, while Red Arrow sold seven paintings by Annie Brito Hodgin during the VIP preview, with prices ranging from $4,500 to $5,800.
For Expo Chicago, the message is clear: curation is not an accessory to the market here. It is part of the market’s architecture, and increasingly, part of the reason institutions and collectors keep returning.
