Among the many Satellite events bringing fresh energy to Chicago this year, neighborhood it stood out for its deliberate lack of commercial urgency and prioritization of exchanges between galleries, institutions and ideas. Established by the young collector and patron Mirka Serrato Apart Jonny Tannaco-founder of Frieze satellite Small attractions in London and Harlesden High Streetthe fair defines itself as an intentionally curated platform – a platform that facilitates institutional exposure for a tightly selected group of galleries, helping them introduce their artists and programs to local institutions.
“The fair was conceived as a platform for dialogue and proximity, and it was very encouraging to see how galleries and audiences are engaging with the work,” Serrato told the Observer, noting that on opening day, Neighbors welcomed major institutions, including the MCA and the Art Institute of Chicago. “Chicago showed up for us and we stood proud, supported by the rigor and narratives formed together by all of our exhibitors. There is a strong sense of attentiveness and exchange throughout the program, which is exactly what we hoped to create within the context of EXPO week.
Elegantly staged in a Gold Coast apartment, Neighbors unfolds less like a fair than a lived-in exhibition, where palette, scale and thematic tensions are carefully orchestrated against the backdrop of early 20th-century architecture once associated with Chicago’s culture of private patronage. The result is something closer to Design Miami or Salone del Mobile than a conventional booth fair: a curated indoor environment in which art, interiors and historic space negotiate with each other rather than compete. You could say that Neighbors revived the cultural salons of Chicago’s Golden Age for the current moment. In four rooms of the 1,200 square meter apartment, the galleries inhabited the architecture, their presentations unfolding as a sequence of atmospheres rather than a series of booths.
Neighbors, according to Serrato, arose as a response to a structural tension in the wider art system that had become impossible to ignore. Smaller galleries, which do most of the research, struggle for visibility and institutional access, while institutions are reluctant to engage on a more experimental level, unsure of how to adapt to a rapidly changing ecosystem without losing authority. Neighbors stepped in to bridge that gap in a way that is unapologetically anchored in Chicago art scene. “This is essential,” she emphasized, describing the city not only as a point of departure, but as a land frame—historical, personal and strategic.
From there, the concept of “neighbors” extends outward. In returning the creation of the exhibition to a residential scale historically associated with patronage, Serrato cites Peggy Guggenheim as a point of reference, noting how she built a platform that connected two worlds – the US and Europe, the basic avant-garde institutions and practices that would eventually define the canon. “She did a wonderful job of putting this through the rally, but I don’t have the means to rally at that level,” Serrato said. Instead, she created Neighbors as a different kind of intervention: one that facilitates circulation—of attention, of resources, of opportunity—rather than accumulation. The aim is to bring together galleries that demonstrate discipline, strong artist representation and prior institutional engagement, presenting them within a context that feels serious, elegant and intellectually rigorous and, most importantly, readable to institutions.
After leaving a finance role that no longer matched her creative ambitions, she pursued further education at Sotheby’s and spent a year moving around the art circuit, mapping its structural gaps and building relationships. This research supports the Neighbors model, which privileges intimacy, accessibility and long-term ecosystem building over scale and spectacle.
The curation of the space emerged in close dialogue with the participating galleries, as confirmed by Broc Boughtowner of the Lower East Side experimental space Post Times and one of the 15 exhibitors of the fair. Bleve accepted the invitation precisely for its purposeful format, seeing it as an opportunity to meaningfully connect with both collectors and the city’s institutions. Post Times brought Andrew Chapmanfuzzy, post-digital, paneled paintings in the apartment’s living room, alongside Richard Maguirehis intricate drawings that examine colonial tensions and the intersections of sexuality and politics. In keeping with the history of the space, Maguire’s series focuses on the largely forgotten figure of Ram Gopal, a charismatic pioneer of Indian classical dance, credited with bringing the art form to the West in the mid-20th century.
Among the other participants was London-based gatherwhich was simultaneously showing at the new Art Cologne in Palma de Mallorca on the same day, presenting Tamara KE’s vividly colored paintings in which drawing-like figures appear as manifestations of the subconscious. Other galleries are included in the well-curated showcase He did from LA, presenting the work of Sidney Jimenez; tour from Dallas, highlighting the works of Los Angeles-based poet, painter and graffiti artist John Garcia; Harlesden High Street from London, featuring works by the Chicago-based painter By Payne and multimedia pieces from Antonio Lechuga; AND Green Gallery from Milwaukee, with prints by the indigenous artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka in dialogue with ceramic works from Chicago Jessica Jackson Hutchins. The fair also attracted a dynamic group of Chicago’s newest spaces—Hans Goodrich, Shanghai Seminar, Twelve Ten, story, Weatherproof AND Good weatherthe latter dividing its presence between Neighbors and EXPO.
Bringing together galleries and project spaces from five different cities and art scenes, Neighbors’ goal was to encourage cross-market conversations within adjacent rooms rather than adjacent cubicles.
Economically, the model remains deliberately restrained. Galleries charge a fee and the fair is ticketed, though these function less as sources of revenue than as instruments to gauge engagement and collect data, Serrato explained. Building a business structure around the fair signals seriousness – intimacy, she said, does not mean informality. Neighbors’ central ambition, she added, is to foster meaningful connections that can translate into real opportunities for participating galleries, offering an alternative to the scale-driven transactional logic that dominates large fairs. What emerges is not a rejection of the system, but a recalibration that privileges attention over sales volume.
Ultimately, she sees Neighbors as a responsible, community-driven counterpoint within the art ecosystem. This year, the fair was one of several such initiatives. Joined EXACTLY RIGHT—”1:12 scale international contemporary art fair” that has become one of the satellites of Chicago art week. Since its launch in 2019, Barely Fair has redefined what a fair can be with its whimsical scaled toy booths and miniature artwork creating opportunities for traders to engage in surprisingly meaningful conversations about their programming.
