Expo Gets a New Satellite

Collector Mirka Serrato was walking her dog through Chicago’s affluent Gold Coast neighborhood when she met Ramiro Verdugo, the garden caretaker of a grand neoclassical home. They were both Latino and hit it off immediately. She was looking for a place to live and had an apartment available for rent. She ended up living happily there for about three years before moving to Dallas to be closer to her family in her native Mexico. But she’s not ready to give up on the Windy City just yet, not quite.

“Leaving Chicago was not an option,” she told art news in an interview. “After everything it had brought me, it was torture to see this place empty.” Serrato works in public relations by day, but while studying at Sotheby’s Institute, she decided to turn the place into a venue for art exhibitions or events. She then goes off to find the right person to help her. The partnership was born when she met Jonny Tanna, founder of London’s Harlesden High Street gallery (a rare such venture with a manifesto), at a party hosted by the Fondation Beyeler during Art Basel.

“When I met Joni,” she said, “I was like, ‘Now I can pack my stuff.'”

Now, Serrato and Tana are launching a new art fair, Neighbors, a name they feel fully captures the atmosphere they hope to create. The event will debut during Expo Chicago from April 8-12 and will take place in four rooms of the apartment, measuring just 1,200 square feet, about seven minutes from Navy Pier, which the Expo has long called home. There are no booth walls, no white cubes; the whole space feels feminine.

The building once belonged to the Goodman family, who were major patrons of the arts in Chicago, so it was a fitting way for Serrato to extend the time of the place. “Art used to exist in domestic spaces before it was institutionalized,” she said. “I hope this space can accommodate the gallery as much as it accommodates me.”

In addition to Tanna’s Harlesden High Street, Neighbors will include five further exhibitors: Gathering (London), Hans Goodrich (Chicago), Post Times (New York), Tureen (Dallas) and Weatherproof (Chicago).

Tanna has experience organizing art fairs, having founded the Frieze London satellite micro fair Minor Attractions in 2023. He has also participated in more than 50 art fairs, including Frieze London, Independent in New York, Basel Social Club in Switzerland, and Post-Fair in Los Angeles. He also curated the “Nest” portion of Untitled’s 2025 Miami Beach tour.

The test will be to see if Chicago can support continuing a satellite expo. NADA tried this out at the 2019 Chicago Invitational and has been hosting the ultra-tiny, very cheeky Barely Fair since 2019, showcasing miniature art in a tiny gallery mock-up.

“We’re taking it one step at a time,” Tana said of the challenge of maintaining Satellite Chicago. “First, we try to build a strong squad. When I saw this place, I wanted to create something like [the micro-fair] Paris International Music Festival circa 2015 and bringing it to America. Post-show is the closest to what I hope to achieve. “Paris Internationale” has a domestic atmosphere. Most of its works are sculptures and concepts, and less commercial. But I would like to bring in more galleries from the United States. “

He continued, “A strong lineup will attract audiences. We also work with consultants to attract collectors and our local Chicago network to make it as compelling as possible. I want it to be similar to what we do with smaller attractions.”

Tanna has extensive experience as a show organizer and dealer and knows how to work with galleries, while Serrato brings financial knowledge; she also organizes industry conferences, “so I knew I could definitely print the badge,” she joked. They try to keep the cost of participation reasonable for smaller galleries venturing into new ventures.

The larger art fairs are known for their rigorous selection and vetting processes, and Neighbors is doing the same at its own scale, but also to ensure dealer success. They believe that dealer participation fees, transportation costs, accommodation costs, and all other expenses need to be considerable.

“We allow galleries to eliminate as much risk as possible by looking at their previous programming,” Serrato said, thinking about what kind of work the gallery has shown before would fit in the fair’s unique space.

Considering the risks and all the logistics of organizing such an event, Tana made a surprising statement (at least to journalists) when he said, “I really enjoy organizing art fairs.” This was largely based on his desire to differentiate Neighbors from other fairs. “Most shows now are not as well planned as they used to be,” he said. “We did the same thing as TEFAF,” he said, referring to the Maastricht-based fair whose vetting process is legendary. “It’s not going to be just random stuff and people selling their wares.”

Post Times founder Broc Blegen signed Neighbors after meeting Tanna in Los Angeles, where they were both exhibitors at last month’s Post-Fair.

“I first met Jonny after the show and we hit it off,” Brigham told art news By phone. “He took me to places he was invited to go to. He was really generous. I had a car and he got invitations to parties, so we hung out together. We were like working-class kids who had to navigate this art world.”

Brigham added, “I trust Joni, he seems to have a vision for what is needed in this new art world that we are entering, and everything is collapsing and rebuilding as we speak.”