based in Toronto Patel Brown is showcasing the witty, humorous work of the collaborative duo Michael Dumontier AND Neil Farberexploring language, taxonomy and knowledge. The gallery sold many works on the first day, including a painting priced between $20,000 and $25,000, a sculpture at $8,000 and several smaller works.
It was equally successful in Focus superpositionpresentation of Helina Metaferiathe last work of The stand featured hand-cut mixed media collages, an etched sculptural brass wreath, a ceremonial staff in wood and brass, and a one-channel video documenting a live performance, all set within the artist’s ongoing investigation of diasporic identity and ancestral heritage at the intersection of archival research with archival, archival memory. An institution won one of the new brass sculptures, Crown (Makeda)priced at $20,500, while another sculpture, Staff (Betiri)priced at $18,500, it was placed in a private collection.
Steady demand on the main floor
Multiple sales were also reported by traders presenting in the main section throughout the day. based in New York and Los Angeles Karma attracted the attention of the floor with Kathleen RyanBad Fruit’s jewel-like sculptures where, like contemporary vanities, preciousness hovers in decaying tension. Gallery sold out Bad Lemon (Adrift) AND Wicked Orange (Deep Blue) (2026) for $150,000 and $135,000 respectively, placing all works from Jeremy Freyincluding three flat weaves priced between $30,000 and $55,000 and five basket relief prints priced between $18,000 and $30,000.
Directly opposite, the Los Angeles titan Night Gallery featured one of its leading artists, Robert Navafeaturing an entire booth of new, electrifying works in which the East Chicago native continues his intuitive exercise of mythopoiesis through fantastical characters. The gallery placed several works on the first day, priced from $40,000 to $200,000. “Our presentation is very much a homecoming for Robert. He grew up just outside of Chicago, and visits to the Art Institute (which now holds many of his drawings in its collection) and the Field Museum were formative. These institutions provided his earliest exposure to ‘Art,'” said Brian Faucette, the gallery’s senior director, Navigo’s non-Chicago director of work. the largest Imagist tradition. “The radical cross-pollination of fine art, pop culture, outsider art and psychedelia that was the essence of the Hairy Who artists is deeply present in Robert’s epic mutations.”
Among the severe blows from the Brazilian ecosystem, Nara Roesler doubled down on simultaneous participation in EXPO and SP-Arte – a move the New York gallery director described as “always worth” the effort. The gallery sold three acrylic and oil on canvas works by the Brazilian painter Elian Almeida for $22,000, $22,000 and $18,000. Almeida’s instinctive gestural approach builds dense impasto through accumulation as he seeks to appropriate and rewrite colonial narratives. The gallery also placed a work from Monica Ventura— in porcelain, bronze, wood and gold leaf, priced at $7,000 — whose biomorphic pottery explores femininity through ancestral techniques and embodied knowledge.
Debut at the fair after tremendous growth in just one year of operation, based in Miami Gallery Opa featured a group of new works by the self-taught, Geneva-based, Cameroon-born artist Maurice Mboawho, through his etched metal canvases, has developed a rich visual universe imbued with his own form of animism. Priced between $50,000 and $60,000, the works immediately attracted a lot of interest, following a nearly sold-out show at the gallery earlier in the year. The gallery also presents lino paintings by the French artist Tess Dumontwhose layered compositions channel a perceptual shift shaped by her experience as the mother of an autistic child. Priced at around $25,000, these poetic landscapes feel intimate and expansive, with a cosmological sensibility that bridges the personal and the universal.
This edition also marked the first official presentation of the joint fair between Marc Straus and Spinning galleryafter their last union. The collaboration materialized in a large central booth in the main section, where the two dealers staged a carefully choreographed intergenerational dialogue on materiality, combining artists from both programs with new works from Well done Amy, Kiah CelesteAlejandro García Contreras, Lucia Hierro, Otis Jones, Marton Nemes, Edgar Orlaineta, Anne Samat, Antonio Santín, Renee Stout AND Marie Watt. The gallery installed several smaller works on the first day and remained hopeful of closing negotiations for several more ambitious sculptural works in the following days.
Local institutions that anchor the Chicago scene year-round also performed well, reporting several sellouts during the VIP preview. Patron installed one of the new poetic abstractions from the Chicago-based artist Lindsay Adams for $32,000, ahead of her solo opening next week at Sean Kelly in New York, which follows a sold-out show in Los Angeles last year.
The gallery also sold a painting by Caroline Kent priced between $15,000 and $45,000 and several dense monochrome abstractions by Miao Wang priced between $9,000 and $15,000. His abstract, symbolic works also stood out Alice Tippit— described by the artist as “visual poetry” — which is based on the subliminal language of her current museum show at the DePaul Museum of Art before its closing, with prices ranging from $8,500 to $15,000.
Chicago Electrical Dealer moniquemeloche also had a strong first day, placing important new works from Yvette Mayorgapaired with a bright yellow ground, alongside two portraits from David Shrobe in a common dialogue with traditional painting and art history. By the evening, the gallery confirmed the sale of several works by Sheree Hovsepian and some paintings from Luke Agada. “We’ve enjoyed meeting many curators and museum directors at our booth, and it’s been a very active first day at the fair,” Meloche told the Observer, also noting strong traffic in the gallery’s physical space in recent days, with out-of-town curators and museum groups visiting its current show of living landscapes from Cheryl Pope.
DOCUMENT, now a regular presence at major fairs including Art Basel and Frieze, were equally pleased with the fair’s new institutional direction under Sierzputowski. “Our first day at EXPO was a success. We’re impressed with Kate’s leadership and the energy she brought to the fair. It’s a busy week for the city and we’re very proud to be a part of this edition,” said gallery partner Sibylle Friche. The gallery sold a new work based on photographs by Paul Mpagi – I’m not afraid, Negative (P1400105) (2024), and one of the suspended night scenes from the trap of Ahn, Four Seasons: Spring (Seoul, Chicago) (2026), part of the same series, the South Korean-born, Chicago-based artist is currently presenting in a solo show at the gallery.
Good Weather is another fast-growing gallery that has built a reputation for experimental programming both within the Chicago ecosystem and beyond. Introducing the Detroit-based Focus section What a pipelinethe gallery organized an ambitious solo presentation by Dylan Spayskydeciding the girls (2026)—a large sculptural installation in basket-weave weaving formed into a life-size portrait—to a private collector for $40,000. Moving fluidly between high and low culture, Spaysky provides a sharp yet disturbing commentary on the choices of adornment, consumption and accumulation through which we construct our identities.
