ARTnews
"Dealers Are Doing Brisk Business at a Smaller and ‘More Intentional’ Expo Chicago"
The Art Newspaper
"Expo Chicago’s local focus pays off as Midwestern collectors, institutions buoy sales"
The longtime Chicago gallery Secrist Beach has one of the most magnetic stands in the general galleries sector thanks to a wall-filling installation of neon-hued geometric compositions on aluminium panels that is lit by black lights. Its patterns are based on the abstract stained-glass windows of Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp, France. The glowing installation, by the Chicagoan duo Luftwerk (Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero), is titled Open Frame (2025), priced at $150,000 and was acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City during Thursday’s preview.
“For us, Expo is a great opportunity to check in with local collectors who maybe don’t make it to the gallery on a regular basis,” says Britton Bertran, a director at Secrist Beach. “Another great benefit is that the fair puts so much effort into bringing museum groups, curators and directors here.”
