Expo Chicago is on now

Expo Chicago is smaller this year, not bigger. The 2026 edition opened April 9 at Navy Pier with just over 130 galleries, down from the roughly 170 exhibitors the fair had in recent years, and the organizers are pitching that cut as a way to make the floor easier to navigate and the art easier to notice. (expochicago.com, theartnewspaper.com) That shift matters because this is the first Expo Chicago under director Kate Sierzputowski, who took over after the fair was acquired by Frieze in 2023. Frieze is one of the biggest companies in the art-fair business, so a “more focused” Expo is also a test of what a Chicago fair looks like inside a global events machine. (artnews.com, expochicago.com) Expo Chicago has always sold itself as the fair where Midwestern collectors, museums, and artists meet the international market without flying to Basel, Miami Beach, or Hong Kong. The official site says the 13th edition still leans on that pitch, with contemporary and modern galleries, talks, installations, and public art all packed into Festival Hall. (expochicago.com, navypier.org) The new version is also leaning harder on curators, which is art-fair language for people shaping sections with a point of view instead of just renting out booths. Curator Essence Harden is overseeing the fair’s special presentations, and Katie A. Pfohl is curating Focus, the section for younger galleries and newer voices. (expochicago.com, observer.com) One of the clearest examples is Sarah Nsikak, whose installation is being presented by Sibyl Gallery in Focus. The gallery says Nsikak’s new textile works for the fair are gathered under the title “How could you hold it?,” and Frieze’s press materials say the project pulls from references including Gee’s Bend quilting and Herero dress traditions. (sibylgallery.com, press.frieze.com) Nsikak stands out partly because her work does not read like a neat rectangle hung on a white wall. Textile installations change the pace of a fair booth the way a stage set changes the pace of a store window, and that matters in a room where hundreds of works are competing for a glance that lasts a few seconds. (sibylgallery.com, press.frieze.com) Another big piece of this year’s fair is Chicago itself. Expo Chicago is running an expanded partnership with the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center, including a section called “Embodiment” curated by the center museum’s founding director, Dr. Louise Bernard, which ties the commercial fair to one of the city’s biggest cultural projects. (expochicago.com, thevisualist.org) The fair is also keeping one foot in Asia through a continuing collaboration with the Galleries Association of Korea. Chicago Gallery News says 12 Korean galleries are participating through that initiative, which gives Expo a direct link to the Seoul art market instead of treating “international” as a vague label. (chicagogallerynews.com, expochicago.com) So the story at Navy Pier this week is not just that an art fair is open from April 9 to April 12. It is that Expo Chicago is trying to reset its identity at the same time: fewer booths, more curatorial framing, tighter ties to Chicago institutions, and standout presentations like Sarah Nsikak’s being used to prove that smaller can still feel international. (choosechicago.com, observer.com, press.frieze.com)