Art Chicago Offers New Approach

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Next Remains on the Cutting Edge
Now in its second year, Next continues to be a lively and cutting-edge international showcase — made even livelier on opening night with free bourbon and a performance-art piece involving jelly wrestling — attracting such young talents as Canadian painter Marc Seguin, Hong Kong–born artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, and duo Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich, whose inflatable pink tank installation was featured prominently at the fair.

Also featured was a show of the finalists for Philadelphia’s West Prize, which awards $125,000 to 10 artists, and “New InSight,” an exhibition of work by some of the country’s top MFA students sponsored by the fair and curated by Susanne Ghez, director of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.

First-time Next exhibitor Bruno L. David, owner and director of the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, praised the opportunity Next provides for emerging Midwestern artists. “Having a venue like this allows many artists to stay in the Middle West,” said David, who had sold homegrown artist Cindy Tower’s Brooklyn Amour for $15,000. “They don’t have to go to New York and work three jobs just to survive. They can remain here and build up a body of work before moving on to other markets.”

And, in fact, David touched on something that is becoming increasingly evident: Art Chicago may be shifting away from being just one of many international showcases to being a premier Midwest art fair — and thus filling a role that has never been filled before. In the ever-changing global art economy, fairs may increasingly take on niches to survive, and this might be the appropriate one for Art Chicago.