Kavi Gupta Gallery’s new production studio in Little Village
Two of Chicago’s most prominent galleries—Kavi Gupta and Shane Campbell—are expanding into larger spaces. Kavi Gupta has added an additional building to their Chicago properties, situated in the Little Village neighborhood. Shane Campbell Gallery will be relocating to the South Loop next spring.
Kavi Gupta’s new site is an 11,000-square-foot space on California Avenue, between 21st and Cermak. The building is being used as a production studio for gallery artists and also as a display space for giant artworks in the gallery’s inventory. Says Gupta by email, “Many of our artists are working on large scale projects and we wanted to offer them the space and capacity to work on those pieces if their studios did not allow for this.” This new work facility has already been used in the production of work by Roxy Paine and Tony Tasset, as well as Jessica Stockholder’s fifty-foot-tall “Once Upon a Time” that was presented at Expo Chicago as part of the IN/SITU installations commissioned for the fair. The space is still being remodeled, but once it is completed, works by these and other artists will be on view, available for private viewing and by invitation.
At the end of September, ArtNews reported the announcement of Shane Campbell’s imminent new location that is set to open in April 2015. The gallery will move from their current spot in West Town to an 8,500-square-foot space on South Wabash in the South Loop. The gallery is working with UrbanLab to renovate a building that was a former indoor car dealership and most recently functioned as an ambulance company. UrbanLab is a Chicago-based architecture and design firm that has previously done major projects for SAIC’s fiber and material studies department, Hannah’s Bretzel, the courtyard at the Smart Museum of Art, and has presented projects at the Venice Biennale. The gallery plans to open the new space with an exhibition by Chicago-based artist Tony Lewis. (Matt Morris)
Rising Heroes: A Review of Nikko Washington at Kavi Gupta This new solo exhibition by Chicago artist Nikko Washington pays homage to Black athletes and creates room for fresh insights into the roles of myth, folklore and heroism in contemporary American culture.
