While the art intelligentsia feigned disdain of Chicago’s international art fair even as they made the long, daily trek to the far end of Navy Pier to see the wares, the stARTup Art Fair’s first Chicago edition proved that the art fair model is not a dead trope. Taking over three floors of Streeterville’s MileNorth hotel, the self-fashioned entrepreneurial fair presented a weekend of in-room solo shows, performances and installations created by individual artists as well as local arts organizations, including Defibrillator Gallery and LVL3 in partnership with the studio visit blog Inside/Within. Every room had a distinct approach, and unlike the booth-browsing art fair, one could not avoid taking a closer look by stepping inside. With significantly lower fees than a traditional fair and a self-organized, artist-run ethos, the fair is a promising alternative.
