Thirteen artists. Close to fifty works. Eight countries of training and tradition, all in one 1,000 square foot room at The Mart. That was our booth at the first Chicago Art Fair, which ran October 7 to 10, 2026.
What is the Chicago Art Fair?
The Chicago Art Fair is a new contemporary and modern art fair at The Mart, the building most people still call the Merchandise Mart. This year was its first edition. It’s independently organized, with George Billis as exhibition manager, and the published exhibitor list ran to at least thirty-one galleries from Chicago and farther afield, including Habatat, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Nancy Hoffman Gallery and us.
How is it different from EXPO Chicago?
Mostly it’s the calendar. EXPO CHICAGO ran April 9 to 12 this year at Navy Pier. The Chicago Art Fair lands in October, in the middle of the fall season of gallery openings and museum programming, so the city now has a second fair and collectors have a second reason to go looking.
We showed at EXPO Chicago in April 2025, so we know what a fair in this city asks of a booth. A first edition is a different kind of bet. There’s no track record to lean on. You bring your best argument and see who answers.
What we brought, and why
Our viewing room puts the thinking in one line: “a fair introduction to how we collect.”
Collecting with us has never meant one style. It means standing in front of a work and feeling that it was made for a conversation you’re already having. So we didn’t pick a theme. We picked artists who would each start a different conversation, and put them in the same room. A Dutch painter who paints herself into Picasso and Mondrian. A Belgian artist who makes portraits from thousands of pieces of cut glass. A Swiss street artist with a sharp sense of humor. A French sculptor who bends glass inward until it reflects the room back, warped. A painter born in Chicago and now living in Brooklyn, standing among artists from Tunis to Rotterdam to the South of France.
On paper, they have almost nothing in common. That was the idea.
What was on the walls
The painters carried a lot of the room. Caroline Dechamby, Adam Umbach, Taher Jaoui, Eric Alfaro and Hunt Slonem all brought paint, and no two of them use it the same way. Dechamby paints herself onto plexiglass over canvas. Umbach pairs photorealistic detail with marks made by his non-dominant hand. Jaoui goes monumental on raw canvas. Alfaro piles on impasto with a spatula. Slonem keeps coming back to birds, butterflies and rabbits. Gregory Watin’s collages of weathered city buildings and BYĆ’s satire on recycled card stock brought some of the street inside.
Then there was the work you can’t take in from the doorway. Isabelle Scheltjens showed a glass mosaic and two marble busts. Nemo Jantzen showed a picture made of thread pulled across steel nails. Rodrigo Franzao showed paper relief folded strip by strip. Lis Sam showed portraits made from preserved butterflies and petals. Gil Bruvel showed a sculpture of stacked wooden sticks. Véronique Locci showed KLEIN NEON BLUE, a piece of dimensional glass nearly three feet across.
If you want every artist and every title, here’s the thirteen artists in our booth. If you’d rather know how it’s all made, the materials behind the booth goes through the glass, thread, paper and butterflies one at a time.
Why Chicago
The fair made sense partly because we’re already here. Our gallery has been at 230 W Superior St in River North long enough to host openings, resident evenings and artist spotlights, and the city keeps turning up in the work. Adam Umbach was born here, was drawn early to the old masters at the Art Institute, and now lives and works in Brooklyn. His exhibition, The Weight of Play Comes Home, opened at our Superior Street gallery on October 8, the day after the fair began, and runs through October 31. Two of his paintings, Old Glory No. 1 (2026) and Bee Blooms (Goldsmith Light) (2025), were in the booth too, so you could meet his work at The Mart and then go to River North to see the rest.
If you saw something you want
Explore the viewing room with every work we showed.
The Chicago gallery is at 230 W Superior St, open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM.
What happens next
Whether Chicago keeps two fairs a year, one in spring and one in fall, is something the next edition will answer.
We’d like to hear which of the thirteen stopped you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Chicago Art Fair?
It’s a new contemporary and modern art fair that held its first edition at The Mart in Chicago from October 7 to 10, 2026. More than thirty galleries from Chicago and elsewhere showed paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media.
Where was the Chicago Art Fair held?
At The Mart, the Chicago building formerly known as the Merchandise Mart.
How is the Chicago Art Fair different from EXPO Chicago?
EXPO Chicago is in the spring. The 2026 edition ran April 9 to 12 at Navy Pier. The Chicago Art Fair is in October and is a separate event with its own organizers.
Which artists did Carousel Fine Art show at the Chicago Art Fair 2026?
Caroline Dechamby, Adam Umbach, Taher Jaoui, Gregory Watin, Rodrigo Franzao, Eric Alfaro, Isabelle Scheltjens, Véronique Locci, Nemo Jantzen, Hunt Slonem, BYĆ, Lis Sam and Gil Bruvel. Together they showed close to fifty works.
Can I still buy a work from Carousel’s booth?
Contact our Chicago gallery. The team will tell you what’s available and follow up with pricing and shipping. The viewing room shows everything that was on view.
Where is Carousel Fine Art in Chicago?
At 230 W Superior St in River North, open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 AM to 6 PM.