2025 - Frieze Art Expo Chicago
A tour of Art Expo Chicago 2025 - in its first iteration as a Frieze Art Fair.
Zoe Schweiger, Miami , B. 2000, A Warm Stare
Used to complain there was not enough observational figurative art
at the annual Art Expo Chicago.
(and since that's all that used to interest me,
my expo posts were quite short)
Believe me - that is no longer an issue. Collectors love figurative these days, though rarely if those figures are not people of color. Now I better understand why Kerry Marshall wanted to see more black people on the walls of art museums. He felt as left out there - just as do I now at Navy Pier.
For every white person depicted,
there are at least twenty black ones in this year’s Expo.
Looking back at what I posted in previous shows - here's the chronology:
2006 - began to blog about Art Expo
2010 -- first historic black artist (Charles White) depicting a black person
2011 -- first contemporary depiction of a black person (by a white artist, Paul S. Brown)
2013 - a flurry of historic black artists: White, Motley, Traylor, Lawrence
2017 - first contemporary Latino figure by Latino artist
2018 -- breakthrough year: many black figures by many contemporary black artists
(note: the above is only based on the pieces that I liked enough to shoot)
It's good that people who can afford to collect high-end art want to look at black people. As individuals, just like everyone else, they have a variety of backgrounds, problems, opportunities, characters. As a group, the story of their rise from oppression is inspiring. But why don't collectors want to look at white people just as much ? Are they any less human? Is the challenge of being human even an issue now worth addressing?
That's what is so troubling about this trend.
Despair for humanity has been one of the ongoing threads in Euro high culture ever since WWI - so there is less and less need to visually identify with the hero, sage, saint, prophet, lover, patriot, citizen, builder, healer, caretaker, warrior. As Surrealism proclaims, everyone is crazy, deluded, self absorbed, silly, alienated - yet apparently collectors don’t even want to look at that any more. ( can’t recall seeing any Chicago Imagism in these booths)
Unless their eyes need to regularly see a certain artwork - collectors just want to see themselves - as socially aware ( black identity art) or clever and hip ( conceptual art) or successful (corporate showpiece art)
There is a thriving genre of American art that accentuates the positive, but scorned as middle-brow. Its exclusion is partly what defines the elitism of Art Expo. Above is one of the few positive images of color-less women I found. It looks like an intense, compassionate interaction. We can always use more of those - from everyone.
And here is another - though more erotic.
Jack Whitten (1939-2018), untitled watercolor, 1968
I can see why Whitten is now recognized as an art star.
This youthful piece is feverishly delightful.
A rather crude fuck-me pose is cleverly concealed
among small explosions of intense color.
Reminds me of some 19th C. erotica from India
as well as Renoir.
The sensuality comes from ambient color rather than the drawn figure.
Ai Wei Wei, 1984
Done in the years he was at the Art Students League,
this is one great quick sketch.
Could be the best he ever made.
(Nothing else on the internet)
Sure wish he’d gone on to become an obscure figurative painter
instead of a super star of conceptual art.
Dana Digiulio, b. 1978, There’s no place like home, 2025
A strong design gives
such a sharp, real, even haunting sense of character
to such deceptively careless marks.
It feels like some kind of miracle.
Rembrandt’s self portraits come to mind.
Though this is much more about defiance than curious self regard.
Seems to say "I am what I am, and I see what you are"
Nicholas Africano
Racial identity is a bit puzzling here.
Bronze figures are usually colored bronze regardless of subject,
but here the clothing, but not the skin, is painted white.
And usually this artist casts in glass.
As usual, he models gentle, alluring figures
of young people.
They work at the Commedia del Arte,
and their friend Watteau has invited them over.
Alfonso Ossorio (1916-1990), Young Moses, 1941
Moses as a pin-up boy?
A young dude is stretched out in a pre or post coital position
emanating energy from his lower chakras.
Not sure what this has to do with the Abrahamic tradition,
but why not push the envelope?
Not surprised to find it featured on a LGBTQ website.
BTW, Ossorio went on to join his NYC friends in the Hamptons
as an abstract expressionist.
Ossorio (not in this show - but sure wish it was)
Emil Alzamora, (b. 1975), Shield, 2024
(Large plaster piece to the right)
Something sepulchral about it,
like a curled up corpse from Pompeii.
But I like the cool, strong inner feeling of the forms.
Olivia Musgrave ( born Ireland, 1958) Horse 2009
Horses are a time honored symbol of status.
The artist is the Baroness Gardiner of Kimble, and married to a peer of the Realm.
here’s a much better photo from the gallery
Stong, quiet, elegant
compares well with Tang Dynasty ceramic horses
at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Regrettably, this very complex piece is goofy.
But the Baroness deserves credit for challenging herself.
Andrew Holmquist, Ocean Bathers, 2025
An update on Renoir where we see slim dudes instead of zaftig ladies.
Even more intense when backlit on a computer screen.
Book of Hours, 15th C., Bruges
No - this sort of thing really does not belong here.
But I’m glad it was included.
It reminds me of the intensity of sincere, loving devotion
that is absent from contemporary art.
It was brought here by a shop on Michigan Avenue
owned by a professor at Northwestern.
It’s selling for $130,000, which looks like a bargain to me
since you get an entire book of calligraphy and miniature painting.
An effusion of joy
Edgar Degas
The 19th C. ‘s greatest sculptor was a painter,
at least as American museums would have it.
Beautiful silhouettes, empty on the inside.
Sense Elangwe, Cameroon, b. 1994
Moving on to the Afro identity art,
these pieces are much more impressive life size.
Those big eyes really lock on
with a don’t-forget-about-me stare,
Sense Elangwe, Cameroon, b. 1994
Sense Elangwe, Cameroon, b. 1994
Benny Andrews,(1930-2006), Viola Andrews teaching Sunday School,1959
Sophisticated folk art
This one feels both well designed and authentic.
Just saw a piece by him at the huge Pan-African exhibit at AIC.
Bob Thompson(1937-1966), Adoration, 1962
An interaction between Hindu deities?
I love Bob Thompson.
He was a genre all by himself.
I've written about him here
Lilian Martinez (b. 1986, Chicago), Parque , 2025, woven tapestry edition of 25
Affordable decorative art
by an artist who evidently loves Matisse.
Azola Kingston, South Africa, The Swankas, 2025
A young artist, apparently at the onset of her career.
She likes jazzy old guys, and I like her.
Wallace Pato, Brazil
A young self taught artist dedicated, we’re told, to depicting life in his corner of Brazil.
Fresh and lively.
Wallace Pato
Ryan McMenamy, b. 1973
At first I thought this was gay art - showing off the dude’s long languorous legs. But no - the artist is a fashion illustrator - so he specializes in showing off pants and shoes. He’s also white, by the way.
Fashion illustration is meant to be light, superficial, elegant, and breezy This piece qualifies. Gay or not - I do wonder who else would collect it.
Peter Stichbury, b. 1979 New Zealand
A strong and beautiful presence,
Illusional surfaces feel as finely cut and sanded as Botticelli.
Though I’m not sure the artist is black or that his subject is a real human.
Feels like a character in a virtual reality game.
Zanele Muholi, b. 1972, South African
SiquSami, Silver Beach Hotel, East Mauritius, 2019
An intriguing photograph that feels so much like graphic design.
A barely discernible identity pokes out from the blackness.
A girl who can do nothing but meekly stare out from her circumstances,
Perhaps she works this hotel as a sexworker
public or private.
As a viewer, alone in the hotel room with her,
I feel uncomfortable.
Katlego , South Africa, b. 1993, The Collector VI
Nicely done aspirational art. Sure wish this was my crib - especially for the art on the walls. This is the only Kerry Marshall at the Expo.
Tlabela, 2pm at St. Moritz
It’s lonely at the top.
And isn’t that a Tlabela painting up on the wall?
Building a brand calls for product placement.
Heitor Dos Prazeros (1898-1966)
Reminds me of the dancing frescos from ancient Minoa.
This Chinese perspective (parallel lines never meet) thrusts the background forward.
Heitor Dos Prazeros was once better known for his music.
Here’s his big Samba hit:
..and it feels just like his painting
Y
Wangari Mathenge , b. 1973 Kenya,
Re-Membering (Folded In Time)
2025 oil on canvas 58 x 82 in (PH12640)
One of those Chicago based artists whose galleries are elsewhere.
I thought this was ABX until I finally noticed the figure.
Francisco da Silva (1910-1985)
This Brazilian indigenous artist reminds me of an American one in Minnesota I read about recently. Discovered by the art world, he hired others to make his paintings, withdrew into a drunken fog, and finally got dumped as a fraud.
Silva, however, has been rediscovered and posthumously resuscitated as a national hero.
Whoever actually painted these - they do seem to connect to a strange compelling inner vision beyond the world of time, space, and straight orthogonal lines
Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) Mahalia, 2002
Tense though mellow, sexy though proper,
Domestic though monumental
Halfway between Euro-Modern and ancient Mexican
I’d sure like to see a retrospective some day.
KWAKU OWUSU
ACHIM , b. 1991, Ghana
WAITING FOR SUN, 2024
Oil on Canvas
91cm x 61cm
Arms emerging from heads?
He says that shows how people communicate with gestures.
Strong figuration - though goofy.
Hope this furtive Chicago gallery will eventually reopen somewhere.
John Grillo
Plaza de Spagna, 1953
Oil on canvas
12 1/4 x 49 3/4 in
Now we move on to the non-figurative paintings,
and I certainly liked quite a few
both historic and contemporary.
Probably best viewed close-up piecemeal - like a Chinese scroll
John Grillo, untitled, 1960 (not at this show)
this piece, however, would reach across a room
Herman Cherry (1916 - 1992)
San Francisco Grey, 1958-59
Oil on canvas
53 5/16 x 67¼ in
That’s similar to what I wrote about Chicago artist, Anna Kunz.
Color has a life of its own - very non-conceptual and unpolitical
Mary Abbott (1921-2019), untitled 1951,12 x 14
A bit more angst
Though nothing out of the ordinary
Sam Francis, Daemon, (1923 -1994,) 72 x 36”, 1989
Colorful, exciting, claustrophobic.
God is certainly within us.
But He/she is outside of us as well
if only we can escape our voracious selves.
Could not live with this investment grade painting.
The gallery has been hauling it around to artfairs for several years now.
Sam Francis, Santa Monica I, 1972, 64 x 45
This piece, however, I could look at every day,
a gelato-like explosion of flavor
and yes, it got sold
Ngalpinka Simms
Wayiyul, 2023 acrylic on linen
90 x 78 in
Ngalpinka Simms is one of the leading women painters at the Spinfex Arts Project. Born in Spinifex country in 1945, but removed in the 1950s, she was able to return to her ancestral lands in the 1980.
Her paintings depict the complex interrelation of waterholes and landscape features across her country with a graphic richness.
Her 2017 work, Minyma Tjuta, is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
This is another piece I could look at everyday. There seems to be some method to its madness - but it’s way beyond my comprehension.
And so far, all her pieces have that effect on me.
(Above were found online)
Strange and gorgeous and unfamiliar.
Winnie Weiyun Szu, B 2001 Taiwan, 2024 MFA SAIC
Belongs in a book about Spirituality in Art.
Found this one on her website.
She’s now going in many directions,
this cosmic spirituality is my favorite.
Robert Natkin, 1930-2010, Hitchcock series,1989, 48 x72”
Tension with a tangible sense of mystery - as if you should know what’s going on, but it was just as much a mystery to the artist. So it’s a clever game - like a Hitchcock film
Natkin was a serious writer - and his essay on this series begins with thoughts of redemption - though that does not appear to be at stake here.
Theodoros Stamos - 1953, Greek Rug Mountain Laurel, 37. X 48
the two disparate parts of the canvas joined by a sagging thread.
Not too surprising that a man with this aesthetic would betray a friend ( the Rothko case)
Youngwok Choi, b. 1964 Korea, from the Karma series, 2024
All the peacefulness of a well-lit ceramic jar - and it doesn’t even take up any floor space. Brilliant idea.
An artist who seems shamelessly dedicated to pleasing the eye.
Here’s her 35 foot magnum opus found online
yikes!
It is wonderful.
Jean Dubuffet, Bolero , 1984, 39 x 52
Donald Kuspit undermined the naive pretensions of Dubuffet’s work from this period as follows:
I really despise the Dubuffet sculpture outside the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. I salute all those citizens who have used it as a urinal over the years - while the above quote is the first time I have ever agreed with Donald Kuspit.
And yet - my eye likes this painting. It really does have the energy, verve, and excitement of good graffiti. It simultaneously implodes and explodes with a rollicking good time.
Diana Remeikyte, Lithuania, b. 1996, Weed,
Hand tufted painting. Wool (approx. 50%), cotton (10%). The rest - synthetic and mixed thread.
And as we learn on Instagram, she’s also good at pole dancing:
Lindsay Adams , b. 1990, Jazzy Boy Blues, 48 x 48
Reminds me of the musical paintings of William S. Schwartz
Like the wind and brass instruments, colors seem to be carried by the breath.
Elisa Strada, Argentina, b. 1979, There is nothing you can do that can’t be done.
The above, which is what attracted me, is just one part of an entire installation:
seems to be presenting a great city,
at its busy commercial street level,
and an austere elegant apartment high in the urban canopy.
Caroline Kent, b 1975
I wrote about her MCA show here
Above is how she is presented on the website of Northwestern University where she is on the faculty. It includes the required academic gibberish about "language, translation" and "expand the discourse". Don't hold your breath for any kind of "translation" ever being published.
The above piece is charming -- but her special ability is flavoring the space of an entire room:
She's an amazing decorator
full of life, mystery, passion
a breathtaking sense of change and arrival.
Gommaar Gilliams , Belgium, b. 1982
Gommaar Gilliams , Gentle Gales, . 2025
oil, oil stick, acrylic on painted and stitched fabrics 48 x 36 inche
As the Night Breezes, 2025
My favorite piece at Expo?
Could be.
It seethes with wonder
Without stretchers, a canvas becomes a tapestry
And these wall size pieces feel medieval visionary.
I want one for my castle.
Alma Thomas, untitled, 1962, 22 x 30, acrylic on paper
A beautiful, cosmic work on paper- if only it wasn’t selling for about 400 times what I could pay.
Zheng Lu, b. 1978 China Mongolia, Water in dripping winter rain, stainless steel
More of a gimmick than an enduring sculpture but..
I’m intrigued by contemporary Taoist art.
Richard Hunt (1935- 2023), untitled, 18 x 8 x 12, 1961
A fine early piece
Disruptive in every dimension, including time
Here's my review of his 2014 show at the Cultural Center.
If there was one direction he took in his career, it was refinement.
Adolph Gottlieb, Period 2, 1963,90 x 84
Not a piece I ever wish to see again.
Only of interest in the context of Gottlieb’s career and perhaps explaining why the artworld was then leaving ABX and moving on to something more fun and less self centered.
Hans Hofmann, Frolicking, 1965, 72 x 60
Well … here’s something that’s more fun from 1965, the last year of the artist’s life. Not self centered - but it does feel a bit like a classroom demonstration of shape and color.
BTW - here’s a blurry shot of the gallerist, Rhona Hofmann. She closed her gallery last month, so this may be her last expo. She is indefatigable, however, so don’t count her out.
Her interests have always been way more conceptual than mine,
but like Floria Tosca, she well could proclaim "Vissi d"arte"
Esther Stocker, Italy, b. 1974
A prolific grid master,
I feel sucked into infinite space.
It’s dizzying.
Caio Fonseca, American, b. 1959
Tenth Street #72, 1985, 50 x 62
Those terse, chisel-like little marks really make the surrounding space ebb and flow.
An early work by someone I’d like to see more of.
He also composes classical chamber music,
and that attracts me as well
JAMES BROOKS AMERICAN, 1906-1902
ERGET,1980
Acrylic on canvas
Feels so fresh - could have been made yesterday as well as 45 years ago
GENICHIRO INOKUMA JAPANESE. 1902-1993 HUNTING (RIO),
1956-57 Oil on canvas 49 ½ × 69 ½/ inches
Done soon after this Japanese artist moved to NYC.
Jane Piper,Miles, c. 1950
More direct and brash back in her 30’s
Jane Piper, 1969, 28 x 36
Jane Piper (1916-1981), 1961, 33 x 40
Though inspired by Cezanne,
these still-life’s feel Mandarin to me -
Elegant expressions of a fleeting, sumptuous life.
Andy Moses, American, b. 1962
Belongs in the headquarters of a multi national corporation.
Otherwise pointless.
Ed Moses, 2000
I prefer the work of Andy's father, Ed.
( not in this show)
Native Art Department International, 2024, tufted wool
A married couple who gave themselves an official sounding name
Almost exceeds being decorative.
Feels machine made.
Perle Fine (1905-1988), Gabon, early 1940’s, 6 x 4.5”
Similar to the pictographs of Gottlieb of those years.
Perle Fine, untitled, 1960, 13. X 13
Maybe a little less aggressive - but not by much
Perle Fine, untitled, 1957
Just plain nasty
Mary Abbott,(1921-2019), 1957, mixed media on paper, 17 x 14
Michael Loew (1907-1985),Cubic still life #2, 1946, watercolor, 11 x 14
Feels a bit academic - in a Modernist way.
He and DeKooning did a mural together for WPA.
Melville Price (1920-1970), Castle, 1962, 20 x 16
Gritty - joyful - happy
Morris Barazani, (1924 - 2015), untitled collage, 1958, 12 x 11
Admirable more than enjoyable,
a struggle to emerge from the mud
He moves upward - but never soars
Failed to record the name of the artist,
but it’s a beautiful floral
In a Chinoiserie manner.
The moment is always on the verge of oblivion.
Michael Goldberg (1924-2007), untitled, 1959, 10 x 15
A grim bit of existentialism.
First saw his more colorful work at expo 2012
Scott Wolniak, Light Eaters, 2025, 20 x 17
Way more goofy than the piece that I bought from him last year.
This is like what ends up under the Christmas tree.
Gerben Mulder, Dutch, b. 1972
I like the energy
but it’s on the verge of the annoying pop art he usually does.
Grace Rosario Perkins, b.1986
Exciting ABX
regardless of her queer Native American identity.
Chelsea Culprit, b. 1984
Anneke Eussen , Dutch, b. 1974
So heavy and brittle my teeth hurt.
How could it possibly be moved?
Wonderful arrangement.
Would love to see it as a background behind a slender female nude.
Freidel Dzubas (1915-1994), untitled 1980, oil in paper, 34 x 34
Shared a studio with Helen Frankenthaler?
Not surprising
Martha Tuttle, b. 1989, Silk, dye, pigment
Backward paintings always fascinate me.
These enhance the mystery.
Victoria Fu, b. 1978
Gillian Ayres 1930-2018
Has a strong, meandering inner flow - like a flash flood that suddenly deposits things in places you would not expect to find them. Each brush stroke feels that way too.
Feels like my life.
Zhao Zhao, b. 1982, China, embroidery on silk , Constellations
more art for a corporate lobby
Kim Young Hun, Korea, b. 1964
Can’ t get enough of this guy.
The reverberations of a gentle force.
David Ryan, American
Paint Container #9, 2015
Acrylic, flocking on paper and pvc 26 × 23 3/16 in / 66.04 x 58.88 cm
Remy Hysbergue, b. 1967, France, Truculence
Marc Reynard, b. 1963, Belgium
Many of the painters found at Expo
(Hysbergue, Ryan, Kim Young Hun, Van Genderen, Renard)
come from Galerie Richard, Paris. This was not their first trip to Chicago, but it was the first time I noticed them.
Above are four more whom they did not bring.
Lee In-Soeb, Korea, b. 1952, Blossom in Light, 35 x 51, 2024
Lee In- Soeb, Still Blue, 2025, 19 x 25
Lee In- Soeb, From Nature Grains In Time
Lee In- Soeb, Cradle of Stillness, II
Seeking the quiet flow of nature
so characteristic of
a Mandarin East Asian aesthetic
But not quite as lofty, austere as in earlier centuries.
Ian Rayer-Smith, British, b. 1970, We Are Dreamers, 75 x 75
Less beauty, more angst than the previous painter
but I did enjoy its presence.
Kind of refreshing
*************
Cityscapes and interiors
Leon Kossoff (1927-2019)
Dalton Junction, 1972 June, 38 x 60
Kossoff , Dalston Junction
(another variation found online)
Manuel Lopez, Highland Park Vista (empty blue skies) 2025
Mixed media on paper, 24 x 18
Love it when small areas could be paintings by themselves.
This careful sense of placement on a barren desert reminds me of Mughal painting.
Manuel Lopez, Backyard Sunday Afternoon (thinking of you)
Acrylic, 69 x 48, 2025
Manuel López, Backyard composition
(Box, cubes, and circles)
Acrylic on canvas 28 x 22 inches 2025
What's in that box is irrelevant.
Manuel Lopez, City Terrace view , 28 x 22
Acrylic on canvas
love how the space between the poles is so different
from what's outside them
Andrey Rossi ( Brazil, b. 1987)
Through the Window Frame, oil on canvas, 2025, 25 x 18
You probably need to stand in front of the actual piece to get the intended effect.
You’re invited to step into another world -
though I’m not sure why you’d want to.
It does not appear to be happy or well kept.
You have to buy into the mystery.
Brian Maguire, Ireland, b. 1951, Syria.
A gut wrenching depiction of social dysfunction.
Echoes of Goya.
Euan Uglow (1932-2000). Lake Lugano, 1976, 9 x 13
Certainly is indebted to Cezanne, but quite distinct.
Calm yet obsessively tense in its orderliness.
Always look forward to seeing him at Expo,
but sometimes he doesn’t make it.
A wall of William Staples, born c. 1970 ?
Wish I had seen his shows here in Chicago. We’re both fond of the bold Arcadian fantasies of early Modernists like Cezanne, Matisse, Derain, and Picasso.
William Staples
Picasso, Goat and Fauns
Feels like the same territory
(not in this show)
William Sraples, Bathers, 2024
As it turns out, this post ends as it began: with the depiction of some white people. In this case a pair of gays cheerfully au natural. That gender issue is the only thing distinctively contemporary about this work - everything else is early Modern. Will lustful heterosexuality ever return to high end contemporary painting? Maybe not in my lifetime - but the 3.48 billion years of heterosexual attraction among lifeforms on planet earth cannot be suppressed forever.
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