EXPO CHICAGO Announces Curators for 2017 Exposition

For Immediate Release: January 18, 2017 

CHICAGO—EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, is proud to announce the selected curators for the IN/SITU and EXPO VIDEO programs, in addition to the inaugural curator for the EXPOSURE section. Showcasing large-scale installations and site-specific works throughout Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, IN/SITU will be curated by the Centre Pompidou Foundation Curator of American Art and the Centre Pompidou Curator-at-Large Florence Derieux. EXPO VIDEO, a dynamic screening program for film, video and new media works, will be selected by Adjunct Curator at the Hammer Museum Ali Subotnick. Director of Exhibitions and Senior Curator at Dallas Contemporary Justine Ludwig, will curate the EXPOSURE section—highlighting emerging work from galleries eight years and younger. The extended five-day, sixth edition of EXPO CHICAGO runs, Sept. 13–17, 2017 at Navy Piers Festival Hall.

“We are extremely proud to be working with these renowned curators on our major programming initiatives, each of whom will bring a global perspective to this year’s exposition,” said President | Director of EXPO CHICAGO Tony Karman. “These influential curators each have a long history of working with established and emerging artists, while representing renowned institutions from distinct areas of America and Europe,” he added. “I am confident that their impact on the 2017 exposition will be profound.”

In addition to the on-site program Curators, Katell Jaffrès of the Palais de Tokyo will curate the first US-based iteration of the “Hors Les Murs” exhibition program, opening as an official satellite of EXPO CHICAGO (Sept. 12–Oct. 29, 2017). The exhibition inaugurates a global partnership with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Institut français and will run concurrently with the Chicago Architecture Biennial (Sept. 16–Dec. 31, 2017).

“The diverse interests of our 2017 Program Curators aligns with EXPO CHICAGO’s focus on initiating new opportunities to experience one of the highest quality platforms for art and culture,” said EXPO CHICAGO Director of Programming Stephanie Cristello. “With the expansion of EXPOSURE joining IN/SITU and EXPO VIDEO as one of the exposition’s core programs, in addition to an official satellite exhibition by one of the world’s leading contemporary art institutions, the ambition of the 2017 edition will be marked by a continued focus toward a

rigorous and challenging selection of works by emerging and established artists.”

IN/SITU Curator | Florence Derieux

Installed within the expansive, vaulted architecture of Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, IN/SITU features large-scale, suspended sculptures and site-specific works. Curator of American Art of the Centre Pompidou Foundation and Curator-at-Large of the Centre Pompidou, based in New York, Florence Derieux, will curate a selection of works featuring artists from leading international exhibitors participating in the 2017 exposition. Derieux was previously involved with the fair in 2016, both as a guest of the Curatorial Forum as well as a participant in a featured panel discussion with Sarah Thornton, The Trans-Atlantic Museum, hosted as part of Exchange by Northern Trust: An Interactive Conversation Around the Art of Collecting.

“As the 2017 IN/SITU curator, I look forward to developing a challenging series of large-scale works specifically for the unique architecture of Navy Pier,” said Derieux. “I am excited to work intimately with artists and alongside major international dealers within the context of Chicago.”

Prior to her work with the Centre Pompidou Foundation and the Centre Pompidou, Derieux held positions as Director of the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (2008–2016); Curator of Art Basel Parcours (2013–2015); Associate Curator of Le Magasin-Centre National d’Art contemporain in Grenoble (2007); Curator for Contemporary Art of the Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne (2005 – 2006); Deputy Director of the Picasso Museum in Antibes (2002–2004); and Curator at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2000–2002). Derieux has published numerous catalogs and contributed texts to a number of publications and magazines. Her most recent publications include Tom Burr Anthology: Writings 1991–2015 (Sternberg Press, 2015) and Agnes Denes: Work 1969–2013 (Mousse Publishing, 2016). She was a member of the Artistic Committee of Etant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art (New York) from 2012–2016, and also serves as Artistic Advisor of the Atelier Calder in France since 2016. For more information, click here.

Derieux follows past IN/SITU curators Diana Nawi (2016) | Associate Curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami; Louis Grachos (2015) | Executive Director of The Contemporary Austin; Renaud Proch (2014) | Executive Director, Independent Curators International (ICI); Shamim M. Momin (2013) | Director and Curator, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND); and Michael Ned Holte (2012) | independent curator and art critic.

EXPO VIDEO Curator | Ali Subotnick

EXPO VIDEO features a dynamic, curated screening program for film, video and new media works by artists represented by 2017 exhibitors. Curated by Adjunct Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles Ali Subotnick, the program will be presented within large-format screening rooms, as well as several viewing stations designed by Studio Gang Architects on the main floor of the exposition.

“I am very much looking forward to putting together a dynamic program of new and recent video and film for EXPO VIDEO.” Stated Subotnick, “EXPO CHICAGO is a thriving fair in a city with a long history of passionate support for the arts.”

During Subotnick’s ten years at the Hammer, she organized the mid-career survey, UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991–2015 and the retrospective exhibition LLYN FOULKES. Other exhibitions and projects include: The Afghan Carpet Project (2015), JG a film by Tacita Dean (2014), Mark Leckey: On Pleasure Bent (2013), Made in L.A. 2012 (co-curated with Anne Ellegood and the LA><ART team), Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from L.A. (2009), Richard Hawkins: Third Mind (2011) (curated by Lisa Dorin for The Art Institute of Chicago) and The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis (2010). For one weekend in July 2012, she organized the first and only Venice Beach Biennial, a weekend exhibition/event on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, which was a collateral event to Made in L.A. 2012. In 2006, along with artist Maurizio Cattelan and curator Massimiliano Gioni (together they created The Wrong Gallery & Charley magazine), she co-curated Of Mice and Men, the 4th Berlin Biennial for contemporary art. She has written about art and culture for Frieze, Parkett, ARTnews and ArtReview among other publications. For more information, click here.

Subotnick follows past EXPO VIDEO curators Daria de Beauvais (2016) | Curator at Palais de Tokyo; Alfredo Cramerotti (2015) | independent curator and Director of MOSTYN (Wales, United Kingdom); Astria Suparak, (2014) | artist and independent curator; and Dean Otto (2013) | Program Manager of the Film/Video Department at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center.

EXPOSURE Curator | Justine Ludwig

“I look forward to working closely with global up-and-coming galleries in the context of the EXPOSURE section at the sixth edition of EXPO CHICAGO,” said Ludwig. “Having attended the exposition in 2016 as part of the Curatorial Forum, I was taken by the strength and range of vision from the EXPOSURE participants. I am excited to continue the legacy of emerging work as the first EXPOSURE Program Curator.”

The EXPOSURE section, installed on the main floor of the exposition, features solo and two- artist presentations represented by galleries eight years and younger. Focusing on a curated selection of emerging artists, with the advisement of the Selection Committee, EXPOSURE will be curated by Director of Exhibitions and Senior Curator at Dallas Contemporary Justine Ludwig.

Ludwig’s career has included positions at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Rose Art Museum, the Colby College Museum of Art and the MIT List Visual Arts Center. She has also curated exhibitions at Tufts University Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recent curated exhibitions include Nadia Kaabi-Linke: Walk the Line, Pia Camil: Skins, Pedro Reyes: For Future Reference and Laercio Redondo: What ends every day. Her research interests include architecture, economics and the aesthetics of globalization. Ludwig has an MA in Global Arts from Goldsmiths University of London and a BA in Art with a concentration in Art History from Colby College. For more information, click here.

Palais de Tokyo Curator | Katell Jaffrès

As previously announced, EXPO CHICAGO will partner with the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Institut français for the first US-based iteration of the Hors les Murs program, a large-scale exhibition presented as an official satellite program during EXPO CHICAGO aligning with the opening of the 2017 Chicago Architectural Biennial (September 16 – December 31, 2017). The program, curated by Palais de Tokyo’s Katell Jaffrès, is an extension of the French- American Curatorial Exchange initiated in 2013 with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. The project will develop in two parts; the first through a strategic residency partnership with Mana Contemporary Chicago, allowing international artists to exhibition, to take place at a site to-be-announced,

The exhibition will feature the work of 8–12 artists, both based in France and abroad as well as local emerging artists in Chicago.

The Palais de Tokyo’s Hors les Murs program has been installed in eight cities to date. Past exhibitions include Zürich, parallel to Manifesta 11 (June 2016), Singapore, co-produced with the ICA Singapore on the occasion of Art Stage Singapore (January 2016), two participations at the Lyon Biennale (2013 and 2015) and the itinerant exhibition Inside China, co-produced with the K11 Foundation during Art Basel Hong Kong and in Shanghai (2015). Projects have also been developed with MoMA PS1 in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2014). Upcoming exhibitions after the 2017 Chicago iteration include Dakar and Havana (2018), and Sharjah and Istanbul (2019).

Before taking on the role of curator at Palais de Tokyo in 2007, Jaffrès worked with various institutions in France and Europe including the team of Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris. In 2005, she started to work at Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain as a curator. Jaffrès’ recent exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo include David Ryan and Jérôme Joy Nothing at All (2016) and Jean-Michel Alberola L’Aventure des Détails, (2016). Previously, she curated Servitudes by Jesper Just (2015); Patrick Neu solo show (2015) and Inside group-show, co-curated with Jean de Loisy and Daria de Beauvais (2014). Jaffrès holds a master in Curatorial Studies, from the University Rennes II (France) and regularly sits on various juries.

Comprised of a diverse group of leading gallerists, EXPO CHICAGO 2017 Exhibitors will be chosen by a Selection Committee* including Stefania Bortolami | Bortolami, New York; John Corbett | Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; Chris D’Amelio | David Zwirner, New York, London; Rhona Hoffman | Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; David Nolan | David Nolan Gallery, New York; Jessica Silverman | Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; and Susanne Vielmetter | Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles. (*Selection Committee members to date).

About EXPO CHICAGO

EXPO CHICAGO/2017, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, is presented by Art Expositions, LLC at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, hosting more than 145 leading International exhibitors presented alongside one of the highest quality platforms for global contemporary art and culture. Now in its sixth year as a leading international art fair, EXPO CHICAGO (Sept. 13–17, 2017) offers diverse programming including /Dialogues, IN/SITU, IN/SITU Outside, EXPO VIDEO, the Curatorial Forum, the Art Critics Forum, Special Exhibitions, EXPO Projects and OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project. In addition, EXPO CHICAGO continues to publish THE SEEN, Chicago's International Journal of Contemporary & Modern Art, following the first printed edition, which launched during the 2015 exposition. Under the leadership of President and Director Tony Karman, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and inspiring its collector base. 

Vernissage, the opening night preview benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, takes place Wednesday, Sept 13, 6–9 p.m. General Admission to the exposition is Thursday, Sept. 14–Sunday, Sept. 17 (for hours please visit expochicago.com). Tickets to the exposition are $20 for one day, $30 for three days. Northern Trust is the Presenting Sponsor of EXPO CHICAGO. For more information about EXPO CHICAGO and EXPO ART WEEK (Monday Sept. 11–Sunday Sept. 17), visit expochicago.com.

In 2017, EXPO CHICAGO and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (September 16–December 31) will align, establishing the city as a preeminent destination for global contemporary art and architecture. As part of the 2017 edition, the alignment will intersect across a wide variety of programs, including panels, international residencies, exhibitions and citywide events. As an official satellite to both the exposition and the biennial, EXPO CHICAGO has inaugurated a global partnership with the Palais de Tokyo and the Institut français, co-presenting the first iteration of the Hors les Murs program in the United States.