NEXT 2008
NEXT, the invitational exhibition of emerging art, debuted as the perfect complement to Art Chicago during Artropolis 2008, April 25 – 28. NEXT offered focused curatorial visions of some of the most important developments in contemporary art, and was installed within 150,000 square feet of space, with more international representation than any other fair of contemporary art to date.

One hundred eighty galleries from Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Warsaw, Madrid, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Beijing, Warsaw and Bucharest showcased significant art trends with adventurous presentation, scores of works by 2008 Whitney Biennial Participants and substantial solo shows and large scale works.

Among the crowd-drawing installations was the U.S. debut of The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle, by Jonathan Schipper. Presented by Pierogi Gallery, this major sculptural work featured two American muscle cars spectacularly engaged in a real-life, time-controlled, slow-motion head-on collision, leaving a mangled wreck by show’s end.

One of America’s premier private holdings of contemporary art, the famed West Collection, housed a special exhibition, including a how-to model for collecting contemporary art.