...or planned to be in Chicago this weekend, I'd be sure to stop by NEXT. Not an art fair, at least in name, it is self-described as an "Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art."
More international than any other young fair of contemporary art to date, NEXT boasts galleries from every important art city in the world, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Warsaw and Bucharest. The largest collection to date of significant art trends ever assembled, NEXT presents approximately 170 of the best young galleries from every major international center of art production.
I know, I know. Another bleepin' art fair. Like I said, if you are in Chicago this weekend...
I am going to be in Chicago this weekend, as it turns out, and am excited to be introduced to some of these international galleries whose artists I know very little or nothing about. Organizers/fair curators Christian Viveros-Faune and Kavi Gupta have worked hard to put together the "anti-fair" inviting collectors (like myself) to exhibit (and not sell) their collections at the fair. (There will, however, apparently be plenty of art to buy from the 170 galleries showing.)
They have also put together a great line-up of speakers and topics at their Talk Shop. I am personally hoping to go to the Value System: What Gives Art Value? talk on Friday, April 25, at 1 p.m. (The Merchandise Mart Conference Center, 2nd Floor. Panel includes: Jeffrey Grove, Toby Devan Lewis, and Michael Moses). Description of talk:
Inquiring minds want to know what gives art value in today’s market. A collector, an economist, a curator and an art lawyer discuss the ways in which criticism, exhibitions, sales and other relevant aspects impact and form the "value system" of contemporary art today.
This talk will be after my own panel discussion (yes, here's the plug) The Art of Buying Art (sound familiar?) on Friday, April 25, at 11:15 (Merchandise Mart 7th floor). Description:
This panel will encourage a loose discussion of the collecting experiences and models (however established or organic) employed by the panelists, their roads taken and avoided in establishing their collecting practice, the role art collecting plays in their lives, the sense of mission the panelists may or may not feel with regard to their collecting of contemporary art, and the obsession that may personally drive each of these individuals to commit their time, money and energies to collecting as a sustained activity.Moderated by Heather Darcy. Panelists: Me, Breck Kling, Scott Miller, Andrew Leslie, and Kavi Gupta. See you there.
The show at Brandeis is a wonderul survey of this Austrian artist's work - the first survey of his work to visit the US. This show includes the numerous photographs, videos, and sculptures he is known for - How to Be Politically Incorrect (2002-2003), Curator/Imperator (2002), One Minute Sculptures (1997-present), and Instructions for Idlesness (2001). The highlight of the show is Fat House (pictured right) - a life size house covered in rolls of fat. 
Fat House is both cartoonish and satirical. With the accompanying video, installed in the belly of the house, in which the Fat House discusses (with the help of digital animation) its reason for being ("Am I a house? Am I a work of art? Who decides?") is, for me, a poignent and somewhat humerous summarizing of all of Wurm's work. What is art? Who decides? 
