ML - Michigan Avenue

2015 - Issue 5 - September

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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Artistic Pursuits Expo Chicago's president-director shares his personal passions. local loves: "The Hideout, the Green Mill, The Matchbox—those are the kinds of places I seek out, the places where the tourists don't go. That's the way I navigate the world and our city." urban explorer: "When I'm in London for Frieze, I go mud- larking on the Thames. When [it's] at low tide, you can fnd 15th-cen- tury pipe heads and the detritus of London—the grit and the beauty." a perfect night: "A quiet night with my wife and my two cats— making a great meal, sitting outside and having a glass of wine. We do that as often as we can, and not often enough." the power of art: "I remember seeing the Chicago Picasso when it was frst installed. [It's impossible] not to be impacted—that's what artwork should be. It should be provocative." "There's no better time to be in our city," he says of our temperate early autumn, when Chicago's cultural insti- tutions collectively come to life. If the fair depends on the city, it also relies on the city to be at its most vibrant. Last year, Expo Chicago welcomed 32,500 visitors, significantly more than the year before. While Karman says he'd like to see that number climb even higher, he insists the fair will never have more than this year's 140 galleries, up from 100 galleries in its inaugural year. And while Karman says he doesn't know (or even track) any sales figures from Expo's exhibiting galleries, he notes that if sales weren't going up, the fair wouldn't still be here. "What we're doing is first and foremost an artistic endeavor, and it should be," he says. "On the other hand, that doesn't happen unless commerce is transacted." The fair owes its success, Karman says, to its part- nerships with local arts institutions that align their exhibitions and programs with Expo Chicago. On September 19, the Art Institute of Chicago opens the first exhibition dedicated to British architect David Adjaye, and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art launches the first solo museum exhibition of local multimedia artist Geof Oppenheimer. Expo has expanded its collaborations, working with the locally based councils of China, France, Italy, and Spain to bring top curators and collectors from those countries to Chicago's fair. This year's show also sees the introduction of the Greater Midwest Curatorial Forum, which connects top Midwest cura- tors with their colleagues from around the world. "The act of partnering," Karman says, "is the only reason success happens in anyone's endeav- ors." He learned that fact, he says, from his 30 -plus years working in Chicago's arts community, a career that ranges from an early stint as a security guard for the Chicago International Art Exposition to a panoply of civic and cultural gigs. In 2006, after Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. boosted a f loun- dering Art Chicago, it named Karman as the fair's vice president and director, a position he held until 2010, more than a year before the fair closed. "I decided early on I didn't have the inner voice that said I have to be an artist," says Karman, who earned his BFA from Kansas State University. "I don't paint anymore. Someday, maybe." Rather than creating art, he collects it, which, he says, "is almost as rich as taking a breath or having a great meal." That passion can be seen on the walls of the light- flooded River West condo he shares with his wife, Sondra. He demurs when asked the names of the local galleries represented in his home ("If I [were to] ever single out a favorite gallery, I would be tarred and feathered, and I should be"). Still, he acknowledges that most of the pieces he and his wife respond to fall in the realm of structured abstraction. "I love process," he explains. "There's something about manipulation that's always attracted me, whether of canvas, clay, or paper"—and it is thanks in part to that love of process that Chicago once again boasts a globally respected art fair. Expo Chicago runs September 17–20 at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., 312-867-9220; expochicago.com. MA Last year's Expo drew 32,500 visitors. An art lover takes in the offerings at Expo Chicago 2014. 74  michiganavemag.com "If you're a collector or curator, there's no questIon that you are In chIcago In september." —tony karman PEOPLE View from the Top

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