Chicago Art fair wars

Art in America, April, 2005 by Susan Snodgrass

At the end of this month, three simultaneous art fairs in Chicago will vie for dealers, collectors and the public. Thomas Blackman Associates's longstanding Art Chicago will go head-to-head with the newly established Chicago Contemporary & Classic, while NOVA, a smaller fair of emerging artists, makes its debut.

Launched in 1993, Art Chicago enjoyed a good run, but its quality and importance began to wane over the last few years. Debts mounted, as well. The rise of a number of national and international fairs, such as Art Basel Miami Beach, the Armory Show in New York and the Frieze Art Fair in London, have reshaped the contemporary market, creating stiff competition for Art Chicago. Aware of its declining status, Blackman began searching last spring for a new venue and a new time slot for the fair, traditionally held at Navy Pier in early May.

In June 2004 the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), owners of Navy Pier, sued Thomas Blackman Associates (TBA) for nearly $375,000 in back rent and fees. MPEA also actively pursued a new fair. The slot was awarded to Pfingsten Partners, a publishing group and producers of Art Miami, which is traditionally held in January and has also seen a drop-off in attendance. Pfingsten won a seven-year contract at the pier for its Chicago Contemporary & Classic (CC&C). Directed by liana Vardy (director of Art Miami and a former director of Art Chicago under Blackman), CC&C will showcase primarily modern and contemporary art, alongside old-master works, antiques, textiles, and decorative and ethnographic arts.

The MPEA/TBA lawsuit was settled last November. At the same time, Blackman announced that his fair will be held in a 125,000-square-foot temporary structure at Butler Field, adjacent to Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago. Dubbed Art Chicago in the Park, the fair will take place Apr. 28-May 2. In a surprise move in January, CC&C announced new dates for its fair: originally slated for May 6-9, it is now scheduled to coincide with Art Chicago. According to Vardy, the dates were moved to avoid conflict with the New York auctions, although many, including Blackman, view the change with suspicion. "The MPEA was livid when I announced my show dates," he states, "and subsequently found it necessary to keep up the competition." In Vardy's view, there is stil "synergy between the two fairs." Some observers, like Natalie van Straaten, executive director of the Chicago Art Dealers Association (CADA), see the overlap as good for the city. CADA has not endorsed either fair.

Meanwhile, Bridge magazine, a nonprofit cultural publication, has revealed plans for the NOVA Young Art Fair, to take place at the same time [Apr. 28-May 1] in various locations in the city's West Loop gallery district. Akin to the New Art Dealers Alliance fair known as NADA--which since 2003 has coincided with Art Basel Miami Beach--NOVA is a small, informal enterprise dedicated to work by emerging artists. Most likely it will replace the Stray Show, the alternative fair initiated by TBA in 2001, whose future at this date is unclear.

At press time, a list of participating exhibitors was not available for any fair, and some of the city's leading galleries, including Richard Gray, Carl Hammer, Rhona Hoffman, Monique Meloche, Donald Young and Kavi Gupta, remain undecided or are sitting this year out. Many are committed to shows elsewhere (for instance, Gupta is co-organizer of a new art fair, VOLTA, which will coincide with Art Basel in Switzerland in June); others fear that organizers of the Chicago events lack the time or leadership to build new fairs of international merit. One thing is certain: in order for Chicago to reclaim its place in the global art market, at least one fair must succeed.