Marso/Patron (Mexico City/Chicago), #750
In collaboration with Mexico City-based Marso, Chicago’s Patron gallery presents work by Lucas Simões, a Brazilian artist who uses the concept of dialogue to explore breakdowns of systems and structures. The booth features three pieces in conversation: “Perpetual Instability” (2017), an installation that appears to be a simple concrete floor, but upon contact begins to crack and corrode under the pressure of each footfall; “BEBADOSAMBA” an installation of various cocktail glasses filled with concrete, and two works from his “abismo” series, a system of materials that depend on each other to hold their shape and keep their precariously balanced forms.

Sapar Contemporary (New York), #463
Sapar is a gallery and incubator that has been in the works since 2014 when Rashaun Sapar and Nina Levent finally found a home for presenting artists engaged in the kind of global, artistic dialogue that might resonate as strongly in Baku as they do in New York. Representing creatives working in diverse media—from fiber and sculpture to drawing and installation—and fields ranging from science to music and performance. Highlights include Faig Ahmed’s meticulously planned collaborative tapestries and Uthman Wahaab’s lovingly rendered drawings of women.

BERG Contemporary (Reykjavik), #742
BERG Contemporary focuses on an eclectic mix of artists, some established and others emerging. Berlin-based installation artist Monika Grzymala’s paper reliefs from her “FORMATION” series and her “SERPENT PULP PAINTING” combine the artist’s own paper-making methods with techniques from Japanese paper-making. Finnbogi Pétursson’s “Standwaves” draws on an interest in science, sound and technology.

Claire Oliver (New York), #716
Claire Oliver has worked with emerging and mid-career artists at critical moments in their careers. Represented artists have been featured in major biennials like Venice and the Whitney, received prestigious honors including Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and had work acquired by major museums. Gabi Trinkaus’s torn magazine collages warrant close inspection for their detailed meditations on beauty, while Barbara Earl Thomas’s prints and cut tyvek-on-rag construction paper works weave engaging grand narratives.

Maruani Mercier (Brussels, Knokke), #120
Maruani Mercier has focused on established American contemporary artists from the 1980s, including Eric Fischl, Sue Williams and Jonathan Lasker. They’ve also represented artists such as Lyle Ashton Harris and Hank Willis Thomas at critical moments in their careers. For this EXPO presentation, the gallery focuses on the Chicago-born and Brooklyn-based painter Ron Gorchov. For more than sixty years, Gorchov has extended the conversation around painting with his oil-on-linen biomorphic forms on shaped canvasses. He recently extended this conversation again into sculpture. Be sure to see the cast bronze and patinaed sculptures on the outer wall of the booth. (Lee Ann Norman)