the art collectors

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Artropolis Chicago

Projection For Chicago, 2008 / Merchandise Mart © 2008 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Text (pictured): "The Joy of Writing" from View with a Grain of Sand © 1993 by Wisława Szymborska, Photo: John Faier)

With major fairs taking place in Miami and New York, many enthusaists overlook Chicago’s annual art events. Artropolis previews today, April 29th, and will be open to the public April 30 through May 3. The event boasts three fairs under the the roof of trade show producer MMPI’s massive Merchandise Mart facility. The largest show, Art Chicago 2010, is now in its fourth year since being purchased by MMPI (who also bought  New York’s VOLTAshow from Armory in 2007), and is accompanied by the NEXT Invitational Exhibit of Emerging Art and the Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair.

Art Chicago includes over 150 international exhibitors of contemporary and modern art, with a heavy focus on Chicago and New York based galleries. The fair will present several special exhibitions, including New Insight – an exhibition of top MFA students from some of the country’s most astute graduate art programs, Partisan – which focuses on politically motivated art (participants here), and a display of 27 large-scale sculptures, including works by Dzine, Kiki Smith, Rodney Graham and Florian Graf.