Above Sigmund Freud’s Couch (left), Spencer Elden In His Last Year In High School (January 2008) (top right), and Wall of Fire, Labor Day, 2006 (Cleveland, OH) (bottom right).
 

Chicago has seen its share of art fairs come and go, but this month’s Expo Chicago, led by former Art Chicago VP Tony Karman, promises a fresh start. More so than its predecessors, Expo makes an effort to highlight local talent while showcasing top-tier international galleries. Among the featured Chicagoans is the photographer Jason Lazarus (pictured at right), a Columbia College grad who first found success in 2006 with a series of self-portraits at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

With Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Lazarus will install Sarasota Photomat: Lindsey, Teenage-Goth One-Hour Photo Technician, 1997–2000, an ambitious archive that reveals a new side to his work. In contrast to his self-portraits, Sarasota provides a voyeuristic look into the lives of countless strangers who dropped their film off at a Florida photo processor more than a decade ago. The Lindsey of the title is Lazarus’s friend—and the employee who pinched the photos. “For me, it’s a portrait of Lindsey; for everyone else, it’s a portrait of that person who had access to their personal photos,” he says. Meanwhile, his archival project Too Hard to Keep recently landed at the Philadelphia Photo Art Center and the International Biennial of Photography and Visual Arts in Liège, Belgium.

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THREE ITEMS TO ADD TO YOUR EXPO ITINERARY

EXPERT PANELS
Jerry Saltz, the Pulitzer-nominated art critic for New York magazine, will kick off the series of talks.

CHEFS’ LOUNGE
No Chicago fair is complete without a rocking food court. Look for booths from MK’s Michael Kornick and Mercadito’s Patricio Sandoval.

KAVI GUPTA GALLERY
The former curator of the art fair NEXT, Gupta will display work by the crowd-pleasing local multimedia artist Tony Tasset (see Blob Monster above).

GO The contemporary art fair Expo Chicago runs September 20 to 23 at Navy Pier; admission is $20 for one day. For info, expochicago.com.

Photography: Wall of Fire, Labor Day, 2006 (Cleveland, OH), archival inkjet print, 28×40 inches, 2006; Above Sigmund Freud’s Couch, archival inkjet print, 40×50 inches, 2011; Spencer Elden In His Last Year In High School (January 2008), archival inkjet print, 30×40 Inches, 2008; (Lazarus) Anna Knott; (Saltz) Ryan McCune/patrickmcmullan.com/SIPA via AP Images; (Kavi Gupta) Blob Monster, 2010, rigid urethane foam and steel, 8x8x8 inches/courtesy of Kavi Gupta Chicago|Berlin; (Tacos) Drew Templeton/courtesy of Mercadito