Art Chicago: Carl Hammer Gallery, from Chicago, sold a Martín Ramírez for $100,000, and Russell Bowman Art Advisory, also from Chicago, sold a 1971 Jim Nutt painting for six figures to a private collector. Jerald Melberg Gallery, of Charlotte, North Carolina, sold a six-figure piece as well, among other sales. Chicago’s Carrie Secrist Gallery said it had several museums interested in The Hadal Project, an 11- by 24-foot photo print by Angelo Musco (which will be featured in this year’s Venice Biennale), priced at $115,000. A roughly 4- by 8-foot version of the same piece sold out multiple editions for $16,000, one to Kansas City’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the even-smaller version, priced at $4,000, sold out too.
“The best part,” said Secrist, “was that no one asked for a discount.”
In general, Chicago galleries seemed to fare particularly well. G.R. N’Namdi Gallery sold four pieces by the fair’s second day to both new and existing clients, and Kavi Gupta, an organizer of and exhibitor at sister show Next, almost completely sold out his booth, which included works by German artist Ulf Puder, among them Mobilien, an oil on canvas for $8,500. Stephen Daiter Gallery, with photos by Wayne Miller, Art Shay, Helmut Newton, and Paul D’Amato, saw steady traffic throughout the fair's run.