EXPO CHICAGO

About This Event

EXPO CHICAGO is the city's marquee contemporary and modern art fair — top galleries from around the world setting up at Navy Pier's Festival Hall for four days, spinning off a full citywide 'Expo Art Week' of gallery openings and talks well beyond the fair floor itself. Browsing carries no obligation to buy, whatever the price tags on the walls suggest.

It's the direct successor to Art Chicago, which launched in 1980 as America's answer to Switzerland's Art Basel and spent the '90s known as second only to Art Basel itself in global importance. When Art Chicago's owner pulled the plug on it in February 2012, Tony Karman — who'd been the fair's own vice president until 2010 — launched EXPO CHICAGO that same year to fill the gap. The choice of Navy Pier wasn't incidental either: the pier had already hosted Chicago's international art fair scene for two decades before EXPO CHICAGO ever existed.

Worth knowing before you go: pricing and hours vary by day, and the fair draws serious collectors alongside casual browsers, so check expochicago.com for the exact ticket type and time slot you want rather than assuming a single flat price applies.