黑料不打烊

Chicago, May 18, 2011鈥� Art Chicago and NEXT kicked off with the annual preview night on Thursday, April 28 and culminated on Monday, May 2, drawing in nearly 53,000 art enthusiast as well as pleasing exhibitors who reported a steady and lively stream of sales throughout the five day fair.
听
The aisles filled early on Thursday鈥檚 First Focus, which benefited The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), collectors from Larry and Marilyn Fields, Jim and Angie Dahl, Bob Neiman, Carol Prins, Victor and Faye Morgenstern, Michelle and Glen Holland, Bob Mollers, Susan and Lew Manilow, Michael Alper, Patty Sternberg, Jim and Wendy Terman, Dori Sternberg, Martin Zimmerman, Dan Dallas and Penny Pritzker attended the exclusive Preview.

Also in attendance were Sotheby鈥檚 Midwest Chairperson Helen Goldenberg, Curators Lela Hersh and Carol Ehlers, Art Consultant Joan Arenberg and former art dealer Marian Deson. Artists Theaster Gates, Angel Otero, Rashid Johnson, Juan Angel Chavez, Bernard Williams, Michael Velliquette, Curtis Mann, and Nina Bovasso joined the MCA鈥檚 celebration.
听
Shepard Fairey鈥檚 prominent mural installation in the Mart's grand Lobby set the tone as Art Fair attendees entered the building. His solo-showing at Santa Monica鈥檚 Robert Berman Gallery featured Fairey鈥檚 鈥淩evolutions,鈥� a series of 72 faux album covers, sold quickly on Opening Night and fair goers danced in the aisles once Fairey took to the turntables to DJ the opening night party.听 The artist鈥檚 team and the gallery were also responsible for the numerous 鈥渙ff-site鈥� works throughout the city, for which dealer Robert Berman noted "Many thanks to the city of Chicago for supporting us in the booth and on the streets.鈥�
听

Paul Morris, Vice President of MMPI Art Shows & Events noted that 鈥淭he 2011 edition of Art Chicago was a great success on many levels. The strong sales of our loyal dealers and the generosity of local collectors that opened their homes to the Art Chicago VIP program illustrated why Art Chicago is a go-to art destination for collectors in the Midwest and the larger US, while our new dealers, those who exhibited at The Merchandise Mart the first time, offered a new and expansive dimension to the fair. As Interim Director, I am very pleased with not only the reported sales from all our Art Chicago and NEXT exhibitors, but also the public's reception of the fair, as once again we broke our attendance with well over 50,000 attendees over the fair鈥檚 duration.鈥�
听
Ken Tyburski, the Curatorial Director of NEXT noted, 鈥淓verything was great: from the Shepard Fairey Opening Night set, the at-capacity on-site discussions at the Art Chicago | NEXT Talk Shop, to the Special Projects throughout the fair. The energy of Opening Night was sustained throughout the entire fair - we are very happy with the turnout of museum groups and trustees throughout the country attending NEXT.听 Many notable sales were reported all the way through the end of the fair on Monday.听 The combination of NEXT and Art Chicago on the same floor proved to be a successful model for the collecting audience.鈥�
听
Exhibitors, collectors, and the international art press noted that combining both fairs on one floor boosted attendance, morale and sales. While both fairs maintained their unique identity, visitors were able to navigate the more established Art Chicago and the emerging NEXT with greater ease.

The fair was filled to capacity over the weekend, with attendance at record setting numbers. These included hundreds of visitors from museum groups including the MoMA Junior Associates; Walker Art Center trustees and donors; Society for Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago with Curator James Rondeau; Miami Art Museum donors with Director Terrance Riley; Oakland Museum of California Art Guild with Chief Curator Phillip Linhares; St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum donors with Director Paul Ha; Milwaukee Art Museum trustees with Director Dan Keegan; Baltimore Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Society led by Curator Helene Grabow; Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids) donors; Krannert Art Museum donors lead by Curator Tumelo Mosaka; Evening Associates from the Art Institute of Chicago and Grand Rapids Art Museum donors.

听
Also of note was the fourth edition of New Insight, the celebrated exhibition of students in leading MFA schools, curated and installed under the direction of Susanne Ghez, director of The Renaissance Society. New Insight allowed fair-goers unparalleled access to the most recent generation of young artists from some of the country鈥檚 most selective graduate programs, and an opportunity to meet the selected artists and collect their works.
听
听鈥淭he fair was a great success for us!听 With this being our first experience with the Chicago arts/collecting community we were thrilled to see such excitement and enthusiasm for not only the gallery and our program, but the fair overall.听 The general feeling, for us anyway, was that people were excited about seeing great art, but more importantly, bringing that great art home with them," noted Sloan Schaffer of 101/Exhibits.
听
Dmitri Gershengorin from the Art-Kvartal Moscow said, 鈥淲e were impressed by the fact that people would be so eager to know about each and every detail that the artist tried to implement in his artwork. And in many cases, they would see exactly the main idea of the painting, even if the art that we showed was not decorative, but very conceptual. We were referred to John David Mooney Foundation to show Max Bashev's works in their program next year. Another art foundation purchased a drawing of Alexey Alpatov for their corporate collection and this was a big achievement for our gallery as well as the artists鈥�Our gallery will try to be a part of your wonderful event for many years to come.鈥�
听
"I was excited to have Causey Contemporary at the NEXT art fair in Chicago for the second year.听 We saw our sales double from the previous year and met many new collectors who came to the fair as part of the Milwaukee Art Museum's, the Miami Art Museum's, the Grand Rapids Art Museum's and the Chicago art museum's collectors groups.听听 We also have a number of pending sales as a result of this year's fair which if concluded will be the icing on the cake so to speak," said Tracy Causey Jeffery.
听
鈥淲e definitely enjoyed exhibiting at NEXT again this year. Between the dynamic group of exhibitors and the move to the 12th Floor it seemed there was extra energy in Chicago this year. We did very well with Matthew Craven's work, placing a number of his collage drawings with Chicago as well as New York collectors for prices between $650 and $1500,鈥� said Amanda Schneider of Brooklyn based Dunham Place Salon.听
听
Bob Bills noted that 鈥淩obert Bills Contemporary had a large presence at NEXT 2011. We were excited to show many of our artists at the fair and were particularly proud to present both video and sculpture by Anindita Dutta. The fair proved very remunerative for the gallery. We sold a total of nine works, have follow-up interest on a couple of other pieces, and have museum interest in some of Anindita's performance video work. Nathan Vernau and Hao Ni proved very popular and sold nearly all of their work brought to the fair. I am particularly grateful to Ken Tyburski for the many accommodations he made for the gallery prior to and throughout the fair.鈥�