From April 9 to 12, EXPO CHICAGO returns to Navy Pier, hosting hundreds of galleries, site-specific projects, talks, and multi-disciplinary programming both downtown and across the city. This week is one of the most exciting times for the Chicago-area art scene, and we’re excited to share our annual preview of what we’re most looking forward to!

1. Aliza Nisenbaum at Anton Kern and Regan Projects

Presented by Anton Kern and Regan Projects, Aliza Nisenbaum’s vibrant portraiture portrays her subjects in bold chromatics. Nisenbaum’s smaller-scale works presented at the fair echo one of her larger projects: a celebratory mural titled “Reading Circles/ Weaving Dreams/ Seeding Futures” created for the Obama Presidential Center.

2. Tawny Chatmon at Galerie Myrtis

We’re always excited for the opportunity to see Tawny Chatmon’s portraits up close. Galerie Myrtis will be presenting some of the artist’s newer works, which continue her interest in melding craft techniques with photography. Rather than gold leaf, though, Chatmon embroiders various motifs onto her portraits.

3. Maya Fuji at Charlie James

Referencing a genre of manga popular in the mid-2000s, Maya Fuji’s Slice of Life peers into the everyday activities of her young characters. Lounging, petting a napping cat, and getting ready for the evening take center stage in these vibrant yet calm paintings.

4. LaKela Brown at 56 Henry

LaKela Brown has traded in her stark white paint for another monochromatic palette, coating her polyurethane sculptures in black. For her solo presentation with 56 Henry, the artist explores ethnobotany and Black life in America through renditions of collard greens, tobacco, corn, chicken wings, and more.

5. Gerard Mas at Ting Ting Art Space

Longtime Colossal readers will likely recognize this cheeky figure as one of Gerard Mas’ brazen busts. For the past few years, the Barcelona-based artist has been taking a playful, contemporary approach to sculpture, casting spirited women in a variety of witty roles.

6. Rhama Lhoussig at dmincubator

Merging abstraction and magical realism, Rhama Lhoussig paints vivid domestic scenes in which a recurring figure amuses herself with stuffed bears, flowers, toy blocks, and more. Crayon scribbles and crude line drawings fill the surrounding negative space, firmly placing the works in a dynamic moment of creativity.

7. Dee Clements with Mindy Solomon

Chicago’s own Dee Clements presents a suite of still-life paintings framed in hand-woven frames, alongside mixed-media sculpture and abstract tapestries.

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