EXPO CHICAGO 2025 : Southern African Highlights

By PETRA MASON April 25, 2025

With notifications and amplifications the order of the day, EXPO CHICAGO opened on Thursday and seemingly ‘everyone’ in the art world is in springtime Chicago for EXPO CHICAGO's 12th Edition. 

The 2025 EXPO CHICAGO features an impressive line-up of artists and galleries from Southern Africa sharing space with inspiring voices and bold visions from across the globe. 

Collectors, gallerists and curators on the lookout for pan-African talent can make a beeline to several Southern African fair booths namely the Everard Read Gallery, Gallery MOMO, Ebony Curated, The Melrose Gallery, Eclectica Contemporary, Martin Projects and Southern Guild Gallery. 

Wondering how to describe contemporary art from Southern Africa? We asked an expert, Spier Arts Trust CEO Mirna Wessels:

'We often see work referencing themes of social and political history, exploring identity by blending traditional motifs. Artists that excite me employ rich, tactile materiality using traditional craft in a modern and diverse way, including embroidery, weaving, textiles, mosaic, beads and mixed media.’

Everard Read Gallery Installtaion EXPO CHICAGO Booth 135 (c) Mikhail Mishin

Two stand out artists, both living and creating in South Africa, Liza Grobler and Vivien Kohler are simultaneously presented at EXPO and in American collections. The Karoo based Liza Grobler, whose work titled ‘Impression Sunrise’ is a nod to both Monet and the colours of the Klein Karoo where she lives. 

A combine of rope, ostrich egg shells, stone and clay offers a ‘primal meeting point of texture and light in brief moments across epochs’. Described as ‘a compulsive constructor of alternative landscapes and realities’ the artists work has, for sometime already been part of Chicago’s ever-evolving cultural landscape via the Nando’s Art Collection USA. Grobler’s ceramic piece titled ‘Honeydew’ is part of an installation permanently displayed at the Nando’s eatery in Chicago’s Gallery District, which was the very first Nando’s to open in the notably foodie city. 

 Liza Grobler, ‘Impression Sunrise’ at Everard Read Gallery Booth 135  

Grobler’s piece is on view at the Everard Read Gallery Booth 135. Notably, artist Faith XLVII’s new collectible book titled ALPHA OMEGA RISOGRAPH is also on view. 

In the Galleries section, Gallery MOMO Booth 107 has a large scale work by Pretoria based mixed-media artist Vivien Kohler titled 'Softly, Softly Wrote the Poem to the Sky' (configuration 1)

 Vivien Kohler 'Softly, Softly Wrote the Poem to the Sky' at Gallery MOMO Booth 107 EXPO CHICAGO

Another of Kohler’s pieces 'Pieta' features in an exhibition of masterworks from the Nando’s Art Collection on view in New Orleans titled ‘If You Look Hard Enough You Can See Our Future’ at the Newcomb Museum of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

On the East Coast, in Maryland, Kohler's heart wrenching ‘I Hope our New Place is Nice’ -- a powerful acrylic paint and parquet wood on board art work features at the Nando’s eatery in Woodmore in Glenarden. The Nando's Art Collection is considered one of the largest, most in-depth collections of Southern African contemporary masterworks to date. Art works from the collection are typically displayed in Nando's restaurants globally, providing museum quality art access to millions of people, some of whom would never visit art galleries or museums. Similairly, visitors to EXPO CHICAGO, many of whom may never make it to the Continent of Africa themselves, get to engage with the diverse forms, mediums and themes being shown.

EXPO CHICAGO is on all weekend - GO! 

Gallery MOMO Booth 107 EXPO CHICAGO 

EXPO CHICAGO 2025

Contemporary Art Fair

Navy Pier 

Chicago, IL

April 24 - 27, 2025

https://www.expochicago.com/