Last year’s inaugural EXPO Chicago fair was generally characterized as being slow, but ultimately successful. The 2012 Vernissage, with a handful of exceptions, lacked the kind of frantic early purchasing that typically happens at the other big art fairs. By the end of that inaugural fair, there were many galleries happy with the sales that occurred over the course of the weekend and few grumblings from others, some of which had brought huge, expensive secondary market work that went unsold. This year feels markedly different.
