The 2025 Expo Chicago : Art Fair Preview

  • Explore our virtual art fair booth, premiering at the Expo Chicago, April 24th-27th. 

     

    As part of this year’s curation, Carousel Fine Art unveils a series of new artworks by Patrick Hughes, Eric Alfaro, Caroline Dechamby, Opake, and Alexi Torres whose distinct styles and narratives push the boundaries of perception, legacy, and reinterpretation in contemporary art.

     

    Explore All Available Artworks

  • Understanding the Curation

    How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception

    How Five Contemporary Artists Challenge Perception

    Carousel Fine Art's curation for EXPO Chicago 2025 brings together a group of artists who challenge visual conventions, cultural narratives, and the boundaries between fine art and personal identity. Though distinct in style, each artist reimagines perception—whether through Patrick Hughes' mind-bending “reverspective” sculptures or Caroline Dechamby’s plexiglass reappropriations of iconic masterpieces, both of which invite viewers to question what they see.

     

    Eric Alfaro and Alexi Torres, each drawing from their Cuban heritage, use color, texture, and symbolism to create layered works that speak to heritage, emotion, and collective experience. Meanwhile, French street artist Opake infuses the language of graffiti with complex storytelling, offering a counterpoint that bridges popular culture with deeper social reflection. Together, these artists form a dialogue around perception and reinterpretation in contemporary art.

  • Explore Patrick Hughes's Artist Page

  • Patrick Hughes Artwork Preview

  • Who is Patrick Hughes?

    Patrick Hughes is a British artist known for inventing "reverspective," a mind-bending technique that merges painting and sculpture to reverse the viewer’s sense of depth and motion.  Renowned worldwide for this groundbreaking contribution to contemporary art, Hughes masterfully challenges perception through his invention of "reverspective."

    His pioneering "reverspective" technique features three-dimensional relief paintings in which spatial perceptions are astonishingly reversed—objects that appear closest to the observer are, in reality, the most distant. This inventive manipulation of perspective and depth creates a dynamic, almost magical experience, causing the static artwork to appear in motion as viewers shift their vantage points. 

     

  • Explore Eric Alfaro's Artist Page

  • Eric Alfaro Artwork Preview

  • Who is Eric Alfaro?

    Eric Alfaro is a Cuban artist based in the United States who is primarily known for his prolific portraiture. Eric Alfaro dives into human sensibilities through tender, intentional motions that ultimately reveal realistic paintings. His technical mastery and keen-sightedness capture true gesture; a personal seal that despite being figurative, does not lack space and sense.

    Alfaro is quickly gaining reputation as the Modern-Day Monet; transforming oil paint with his spatula into unforgettable imagery. Not only does the impasto texture lure curiosity, but his marriage of color and contrast creates a profound perception of dimension.

  • Explore Opake's Artist Page

  • Opake Artwork Preview

  • Who is Opake?

    Opake is one of Britain’s most sought-after street artists, known for experimenting with the fragmentation of Pop Art as a lens to raise issues around addiction, disintegration, and the societal impacts on cultural erosion. The artist’s fascination with street art began at the age of thirteen, when the adolescent fell in love with graffiti culture. Taking to the streets, Opake spray-painted large scale murals, tags, and elements inspired by calligraphy and illustration.

    Opake's roots as a street artist are visible throughout his current works. The medium, spray-paint and acyrlic, yet now on canvas. Taking beloved cartoon characters, he transforms them into chaotic, thought-provoking compositions. His work explores themes of addiction, disintegration, and the cultural erosion of nostalgia in the modern world. Over time, his technique evolved, blending graffiti with influences from traditional tattoo culture, music, and contemporary art. His distinctive use of thick black lines, vibrant color blocks, and intricate detailing reflects his early experiences as a tattoo apprentice and his admiration for artists like Keith Haring, Banksy, and Jeff Koons.

     

  • Explore CAROLINE DECHAMBY'S ARTIST PAGE

  • Caroline Dechamby Artwork Preview

  • Who is Caroline Dechamby?

    Throughout her career spanning over three decades, Caroline Dechamby has used art and history as a source of appropriation through which to develop her own niche, and place of resonance for her audience, within the largely male-dominated canon of painting. Dechamby’s paintings re-asses masterpieces by household names — among them Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Piet Mondrian, as her own, painting herself (either full-bodied or as silhouette) into the pieces in the act of creation.

    In doing so, Dechamby symbolically and visually takes back the field from “the boys” reimagining art history in her own vision, and allowing for viewers, especially female viewers, to envision themselves too in the empowered position of creative genius in place of the artist’s painted avatar.

  • Explore Alexi Torres Artist Page

  • Alexi Torres Artwork Preview

  • Who is Alexi Torres?

    Alexi Torres is a Cuban artist known for exploring the relationship between nature, human thought, and interconnectedness through intricate multi-layered paintings, bronze sculptures, and objects. Inspired by his agrarian roots, he follows lunar cycles in his creative process, reimagining cultural and political symbols with a focus on spirituality, authenticity, and collective memory. 

    Torres has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad and hist work can be found in major private and public collections, including the private collections of Will Smith, Los Angeles, CA; Delta Airlines, Atlanta GA; Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA; Hoover Public Library, Hoover, AL; Museum of Art Matanzas, Cuba; David Mills, San Francisco, CA; Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Atlanta, GA; Ruth Beardsley, Australia; Laura Rathe, Houston, TX; Bernie Marcus, Boca Raton , FL; Trijicon Inc, VA; Law & Moran, Atlanta GA. He is the recipient of the following awards: 2017 Top prize at Art Fields, SC. 2014 People’s Choice Award; Red Clay Survey; Huntsville Museum of Art. 2002 Grand Prize "Mapa Conceptual”, Matanzas, Cuba. 2000 Second Place Roberto Diego, Provincial Salon of Visual Arts, Matanzas, Cuba.

  • ART FAIR DETAILS
  • Expo Chicago 2025 Fair Information , Dates, Times, and Location

    Expo Chicago 2025 Fair Information

    Dates, Times, and Location
    Opening Night Preview party 

    Thursday, April 24, 2025 | 5:00–8:00pm

     

    General show dates

    Friday, April 25, 2025 - Saturday, April 26, 2025

    11:00am – 7:00pm
    Sunday, April 27, 2025

    11:00am – 6:00pm

     

    Navy Pier Festival Hall

    600 E Grand Ave,

    Chicago IL 60611

     

    the expo show INFORMATION and tickets