Dealers Doing Brisk Business at ‘More Intentional’ Fair

Tears of joy aren’t the first thing you hear at an art fair, but they were the most common occurrence at Tennessee artist Annie Brito Hodgin’s VIP preview at Expo 13 Chicago (April 9-12), where she displayed her paintings with Red Arrow Gallery.

“This is the artist’s first time showing outside of Nashville and her first time showing at an art fair where she’s with us,” gallery director Ashley Layendecker told us art news. The artist, who grew up in a Southern Baptist fundamentalist Christian culture, paints surreal modern interpretations of biblical passages, filled with her own versions. “She worked in the kitchen and raised three children,” Leanderker added.

She shed tears when she learned that one of her paintings had been donated to the Bennett Collection (founded by Steven Allen Bennett and Elaine Melody Schmidt, who retired from corporate law and education). The collection has established a fund to purchase works from the fair by female-identifying artists who depict women in a realistic style; the acquired works will be displayed at the Muskegon Art Museum in Michigan. “She started crying, and then we started crying,” Leanderker said. By noon on the first day, Red Arrow had sold about half of the paintings for $4,500 to $5,800 and was excited about the new connections they had made.

If selling art on day one of an art fair is impressive, selling art on day 0 is even better, especially in a slow art market. New York’s Half Gallery is exhibiting seemingly abstract paintings that, upon some inspection, may resolve into floral images, by China-born Hao Wenhui, who just last year received an MFA from the Royal College of Art and currently lives in London. Of the eight paintings on display that day, the gallery has sold six forward Thursday’s VIP preview, with prices ranging from $6,000 to $18,500, was aimed at European and American buyers, as well as some repeat customers. “People have been waiting for this show,” said director Erin Goldberger.

The number of exhibitors at the show has shrunk from about 170 in previous years to about 130 this year; part of the huge hall at Navy Pier has been enclosed to form a smaller sales floor. Dealers are very excited about this change. “It feels great,” said John Corbett, co-director of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery in Chicago. art news. “The reduction in size improves the overall quality of the presentation. It’s a more manageable size.” At some major fairs, he said, collectors later apologized for not coming to their booth but explained that they couldn’t find it.

This year, Corbett & Dempsey features uninhabited paintings and drawings of suburban homes by New York artist Gabrielle Garland, whose canted perspectives and wild colors are the only hints of the personalities of those who might inhabit them. The paintings were priced at $10,000 to $20,000 and the drawings at $2,000, and by noon Thursday, the gallery had sold one painting and a few drawings and was satisfied. “Here, people like to kick tires,” Corbett said.

Prominent market figures in attendance include Art Intelligence Global’s Matt Bangser; New York and Chicago consultant Erica Barrish; Los Angeles consultant Victoria Burns; New York consultant Wendy Cromwell; and Sotheby’s specialist Gary Metzner. Chicago collectors flocked to the site, including David Frej and Nancy Lerner; Josh and Megan Green Rogers; and Gwen Karans and Biff Rutenberg. Other Chicago royals include former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and at least one bona fide celebrity, musician Chance the Rapper.

The fair is also known for attracting curators and leaders from museums and nonprofit organizations. Those present Thursday included Robyn Farrell of The Kitchen in New York, Alison Gass of the San Francisco Institute of Contemporary Art, Madeleine Grynsztejn and Jamillah James of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, DJ Hellerman of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Adam Levine of the Toledo Museum of Art, Aram Moshayedi of the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, Amy Artistic Director of the Smith-Stewart Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut and Julian Zugazagoitia of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Some galleries reported six-figure first-day sales.

Los Angeles’ Night Gallery has sold several paintings by East Chicago native Robert Nava for up to $200,000. “Our presentation is a homecoming for Robert Nava,” senior director Brian Faucette said in a statement. “He grew up outside of Chicago and was formatively influenced by visits to the Art Institute (which now houses many of his paintings) and the Field Museum. These institutions provided him with his earliest exposure to ‘art.'”

Secrist Beach in the Windy City has been sold open framework (2025), created by the duo Luftwerk of Petra Bachmeier and Sean Galero, Head to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The asking price is $150,000.

Karma (New York and Los Angeles) has installed sculptures from Kathleen Ryan’s “Bad Fruit” (2018-present) series, including Bad Lemon (Drift) (2026) $150,000 and bad orange (dark blue) (2026) $135,000.

San Francisco-based Jonathan Carver Moore is offering small pieces by Demond Melancon that represent colorful masks reminiscent of classic African examples made with glass beads and rhinestones on canvas, priced at $8,000. By noon Thursday, he had sold some of them. The pieces were inspired in part by the history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, where black people were once banned, Moore explained, leading to a separate masking tradition. Also on display are photographs by Adrian Burrell, a third-generation resident of Oakland, California, whose images are inspired by his family history of enslavement from Senegal to Louisiana. One depicts a family elder, the other a sugar cane field on fire. One was sold to a New York collector before the fair opened; the works sold for between $10,000 and $12,500.

“This is one of my favorite fairs,” said Carver Moore, who had purchased items from the fair when he came here to do research before he opened his gallery.

San Francisco dealer Jessica Silverman attributes her return to the show after several years away in part to recently hired show curator Essence Harden, who is a good friend of mine. Besides, “I’m from the Midwest,” Silverman said during a conversation at her booth, so she was happy to be back. Is there another reason? “I met Abby Pucker, who was a firecracker.” Pucker is a well-known collector and philanthropist in the Windy City, a member of the Pritzker family, whose prize is the highest honor for architects. “Chicago has always had great collectors.”

Silverman is focusing this year on Bay Area artists, including Sadie Barnette, David Huffman, Lava Thomas and Koak, who is newly represented by the gallery. By the end of the VIP day, Silverman has sold Cork’s 2026 paintings Everything is connected to everything else and open book/embossed Priced at $50,000 each, and three works by Sadie Barnette, including fancy flowers (2026) Priced at $24,000.

Los Angeles dealer Megan Mulrooney and her associate director Isabella Pigoni Miller celebrated with champagne in the early afternoon, as Kate Zimmerman Turpin’s booths of floral landscapes ranged from $16,000 to $18,500 and Maria Szakats’s small mohair floral paintings sold for $4,000. to $6,000. Pigoni Miller said they went to several Chicago collectors.

Also sold out on the first day was London’s Public gallery, which showcased work by New York artist Taylor Simmons, currently artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The pieces sell for between $3,000 and $20,000.

Chicago’s Good Weather Gallery shared a small booth with Detroit’s What Pipeline, which caught Pucker’s attention (his organization, Gertie, does a few shows around town). Sculpture by Dylan Spesky, girls (2026), is a life-size interpretation of the four main characters sex and city Materials include rattan and wicker; its title follows a later show girls As a way of thinking about different generations in popular culture. It’s unclear whether Carrie Bradshaw and her castmates will be happy with the performance, but Pook is excited about it. It sells for $40,000.

By late afternoon, Chicago’s Patron gallery had sold nearly everything on its walls, including a Lindsay Adams painting for as much as $32,000, said director Emanuel Aguilar.

Of the streamlined show, Aguilar said, “It feels more intentional,” adding, “It’s a good road map for any show in this climate.”