Expo Chicago has named the two curators who will organize special sections at the fair’s 2024 edition, scheduled to take place April 11–14 at Navy Pier.
Amara Antilla will organize the In/Situ section for large-scale and site-specific works that are spread across the fair, while Rosario Güiraldes will curate the Exposure section, dedicated to solo and duo artist presentations by galleries in business for 10 years or less. They will both work closely with Kate Sierzputowski, who has been promoted from director of programming to artistic director.
Antilla has been senior curator at large at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati since 2019. Based there and in Washington, D.C., Antilla has organized several exhibitions and commissions at CAC with numerous closely watched artists, including Steffani Jemison, Kahlil Robert Irving, Nora Turato, and Carmen Winant; an exhibition there featuring the work of Tai Shani debuts this fall. Antilla has also cocurated group exhibitions like “Artist-Run Spaces” and “The Regional,” a survey focused on artists from the Midwest. Prior to CAC, Antilla served in various curatorial roles at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where she worked on exhibitions for Simone Leigh, Alfredo Jaar, and the MAP Global Art Initiative.
Güiraldes was recently appointed curator of visual arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and is a critic in the Department of Painting and Printmaking at Yale School of Art. She was most recently an associate curator at the Drawing Center in New York, where she organized solo exhibitions for Xiyadie, Fernanda Laguna, Ebecho Muslimova, and Guo Fengyi, as well as the group exhibition “Drawing in the Continuous Present.” Prior to joining the Drawing Center, she organized a survey on the collective Forensic Architecture that debuted at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017, and then traveled to the University Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City.
“Throughout my career,” Güiraldes said in a statement, “I have focused on contemporary art of the Global South, and now that I’m also based in the Midwest, I’m excited for the opportunity to bring that expansive worldview to the Exposure program, while at the same time foregrounding the vibrant artistic communities from the Greater Midwest.”
The fair’s 2024 edition will be the first one since Expo Chicago’s acquisition—along with the Armory Show in New York—by Frieze, which stages fairs in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Seoul. Under the new ownership, Frieze will operate the two fairs as separate divisions, retaining their teams, and sharing certain business operations.
In a statement, Sierzputowski said, “Expo Chicago is an international art fair deeply rooted in the cultural ecosystem of Chicago and the broader Midwest region, and this year we are thrilled to have for the first time two section curators [who] represent institutions from our region, while also bringing incredible international expertise and perspective to our programs.”