Carrie Secrist's insider's guide to 5 great galleries
ARTROPOLIS | Carrie Secrist explains what's hot -- and what's going to be
Artropolis, as its title suggests, is a sprawling art expo -- five separate shows, all opening Friday at the Merchandise Mart -- that for many visitors will seem dauntingly large and complex. The Sun-Times asked Chicago art dealer Carrie Secrist to help guide us through the maze. She suggests checking out several galleries -- including her own -- that are showing work in both Art Chicago and NEXT.
"There are the younger artists the galleries are focusing on in NEXT, and then there's the blue-chip artists they're doing for Art Chicago," she explains. "It's interesting to see them going in both directions, and that's what I'm doing, too. A lot of younger faces, a lot of graduate students' work is being devoured by top dealers and collectors around the world, so established galleries need to keep their eye on what's going on with new things. It also helps them invigorate their program. Finding wonderful new talent brings new life into the establishment."
(Dom Najolia/Sun-Times)
PHOTO GALLERY
Artropolis exhibits
Where: Merchandise Mart, on the north bank of the Chicago River between Wells and Orleans
Tickets: $15-$25; children free
Phone: (312) 527-4141 or go online at www.artropolischicago.com
Kevin Nance
1. Tony Wight gallery, Chicago
Secrist: "I always say I'm one of the oldest 'young' galleries in Chicago, and Tony's another one. I think he has a really strong program of young artists, a lot of them from Chicago, and these are two good examples of what he does."
2. Yvon Lambert, New York
Secrist: "Sven Kroner is a young painter that I've been hoping to bring to Chicago, actually. The whole idea of NEXT is to let people know what is the next, new, 'it' thing, and I believe that Sven Kroner's paintings definitely belong in that category. Tom Wesselmann is a classic Pop-ish painter who's always been a favorite in Chicago. He passed away in 2004, but his work is definitely on the rise in the art market."
3. Roebling Hall Art gallery, New York
Secrist: "In a lot of his work, Erik Benson actually paints on glass and breaks it, then reaffixes it onto canvas. It's sort of multimedia painting, and I think it's really interesting. David Ellis was the hit of the London art fair. He generally takes a bunch of garbage -- anything that's lying around, really -- and will make an entire installation out of it, and add some sound to it, so it looks like the garbage moves."
4. Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt
Secrist: "She's one of the people who had some of the original ideas for the Volta show in Basel, which is what NEXT is a version of. [Volta is now owned by the Merchandise Mart and is operated by Chicago gallerist Kavi Gupta and critic-curator Christian Viveros-Faune, co-organizers of NEXT.] I've met her, and really she has some exciting artists. She's out of Germany -- part of a large contingent of German galleries at the fair, including galleries from Frankfurt, Leipzig and Cologne. Germany is a new hot spot for art, kind of like New York was in the '60s -- it's strong, it's contemporary, and it's where things are going."
5. Zwirner + Wirth, New York
Secrist: "One of the main things the Merchandise Mart has tried to do with Art Chicago is boost its exhibitor list, and Zwirner + Wirth is definitely a big 'get' for the fair -- a real coup. They're a very well-known gallery with a lot of important artists, but they also have a very strong contemporary program that will bring the level of exhibitors up a few notches."
