Expo Chicago, which opened on Thursday at Navy Pier Festival Hall, continues to pull off a great balancing act.
The longstanding fair is a hub for regional activity, with a unique flair, but it is also taking on a more international feel with support from Frieze, which acquired it in 2023, along with the Armory Show. This year’s edition features 20 exhibitors from South Korea, in a partnership with the Galleries Association of Korea.
Its special sections—like “Exposure,” which spotlights emerging artists, and “Profiles,” for solo booths and focused projects—feel even stronger than at past editions.
In “Exposure,” the New York-based Palo Gallery has devoted its booth to the emerging New Orleans artist Auudi Dorsey, who was born in 1992, and by the end of opening day, it had sold Rumble (2025), a striking painting of a Black boxer, for $14,000.
Dorsey works come from his latest series, “Gunslinger,” named after the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s boxing team.
The artist was inspired by the story of New Orleans boxer Clifford Etienne, who started painting after a period of incarceration. Dorsey’s paintings show boxers training and practicing, honing their craft. His “depiction of the struggles and achievements of Black communities reflects his personal pride in his heritage,” Palo Gallery said in its press statement. “Through figurative paintings and portraits rich in color and history, Dorsey explores how African Americans in the South maintain their stories of ancestral culture.”
