Pucker was there by 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
By morning, all was fine.<\/p>\n
Chicago Exhibition Weekend was established about six years ago by Tony Karman of EXPO Chicago, as something of an autumn continuation of EXPO, a contemporary art fair held in the spring on Navy Pier. It was created to ensure that Chicago would be more than a once-a-year visit for the international art world. Still, its popularity and growth is largely credited to Pucker\u2019s steadiness.<\/p>\n
Karman agrees. \u201cWhen Abby came back to town four years ago, she didn\u2019t lead with her money, her family or her connections,\u201d he said. \u201cShe led with her passion and ideas in support of the cultural community. She made sure Gertie would not be seen as someone writing a check.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, four years later, it\u2019s hard to discuss contemporary art in Chicago without hearing about Abby Pucker and her ambitious initiatives, which have included public art pieces installed during last year\u2019s Democratic National Convention as well as EarlyWork, a monthly subscription service that connects Chicago audiences and collectors with artists, galleries and art-scene happenings. Pucker says her two target audiences are fledgling young collectors and the \u201cculturally curious,\u201d which are often one and the same. <\/p>\n
Valerie Carberry, president and CEO of GRAY gallery, said that during last year\u2019s Exhibition Weekend, her longtime West Town art space probably saw its biggest influx of visitors ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbby\u2019s name opens doors, yes,\u201d she said, \u201cbut no one who works with her thinks of her as a dilettante. She\u2019s bringing intelligence, energy.\u00a0 She\u2019s identifying a real hunger in young people to be a part of the art community but find art galleries intimidating. We\u2019re lucky to have her here.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Abby](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-ENT-ABBY-PUCKER08_237306350.jpg\")
Abby Pucker founded Gertie, a cultural organization with the aim of reenergizing Chicago\u2019s art scene with new faces and collectors, four years ago. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
A few days before Exhibition Weekend, Pucker moved through that large concrete exhibition space on Peoria Street, surveying an installation here, an installation there. \u201cWHAT IS THIS?\u201d she said, stopping in her tracks. Kaye leaned in to a pair of faint matching smudges on a white gallery wall. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need to fix that,\u201d she said, and Kaye agreed and they continued on.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, am I a yeller?\u201d she asked Kaye.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you\u2019re not, but if you follow me through a day \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou good?\u201d she called to an installer.<\/p>\n
A nod.<\/p>\n
The core exhibit<\/a> of Chicago Exhibition Weekend is titled \u201cOver My Head: Encounters With Conceptual Art in a Flyover City, 1984-2015.\u201d Kaye calls it \u201csort of a show about shows.\u201d Each of the dozen artists included had a work that originated in or made a significant impact at a Chicago gallery. We passed a large pink wall painted with the words \u201cELVIS LIVES,\u201d a piece from Kay Rosen. We passed a huge \u201cNO\u201d in silver and black with dark cheetah-like spots, made by the painter Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. We passed artist Wendy Jacob herself, and with her daughter, hunched over a field of truck tires, halved and stitched together, resembling edamame but connected to a network of electronics and blowers \u201cbreathing\u201d each half, inflating, deflating. We passed a craggy mound of paper that could be a science-fair volcano, or the Smog Monster.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the Tony Lewis \u2014 and it\u2019s whatever you think it is,\u201d Pucker said.<\/p>\n She turned to a large wall installed with long pipes and video monitors and speakers at the ends of long black arms. \u201cThis is by Dara Birnbaum, who passed away about two years ago. She had a seminal show with the Rhona Hoffman Gallery. Should we turn it on?\u201d She called over to an staffer: \u201cHey you guys, could you please turn on the Dara? Thank you.\u201d It clicked to life and Dan Rather spoke over faded news footage. \u201cIt\u2019s called \u2018Tiananmen Square: Break-In Transmission,\u2019 and it\u2019s so incredibly relevant right now, in terms of suppression of the media, and free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, this is the hub this year (for Chicago Exhibition Weekend),\u201d she said, continuing on. \u201cAnd we never had a hub. Right here is where there\u2019ll be opening text explaining how this show fits into the weekend, and all of this here\u201d \u2014 she pointed to refrigerators on rollers, stacks of shining aluminum pans \u2014 \u201call goes to a big dinner we\u2019re doing. Anyway I got in this morning at 7:30 a.m., picked up Gareth, we got paint and then had to find someone last-minute to paint the wall better than us, which means I texted everyone I know and posted on Instagram. I should not have let Gareth stay that late and paint. We have never had a central exhibition for this weekend until now. We\u2019re evolving. At first when we were starting (Exhibition Weekend), we had to ask: Is it even interesting? Do people even want it? And now since they do, we\u2019re kicking it up a notch and, again, the theme here is Chicago\u2019s role as a hotbed for conceptual and post-conceptual art. But I also wanted a show that wasn\u2019t just this artist and this artist showed in these galleries. The works are in a conversation within the show. It\u2019s about time, forgetting \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n She speaks in a restless stream of ideas that ping from one thought to the next, slowing to expand, then continuing. She speaks in the wary, slightly tired voice of the perpetually busy.<\/p>\n She sees Gertie producing more shows in the future. \u201cWe move really quickly \u2014 this show alone right here only took two and a half months.\u201d By comparison, museum exhibitions, even gallery shows, can take years to organize.<\/p>\n She said she might change her mind in five years but right now, though it may be hard to explain what she does without a gallery or museum behind her \u2014 something to point to and say, this is what I do \u2014 she can\u2019t imagine herself wanting to create any kind of permanent collection.<\/p>\n She prefers the speed of projects \u2014 also known as, trying stuff.<\/p>\n She sees herself bringing more Chicagoans to arts who wouldn\u2019t normally consider the gallery world seriously \u2014 and conversely, wouldn\u2019t be considered seriously by the gallery world.<\/p>\n We stop at a table covered in small cards, each with a name, like at a wedding.<\/p>\n To begin Chicago Exhibition Weekend, she\u2019s hosting a dinner for 300. Tickets were $230 a head and sold out quickly. \u201cThis,\u201d she said, \u201cthis is my favorite part. I love curating people. Why would I put all this work in if the people who attend these projects only talk to other people they know?\u201d<\/p>\n So she seats everyone herself.<\/p>\n She reaches inside a duffle bag. A photographer is coming to take her picture. She\u2019s was going to change into a cardigan, but decided to just change sneakers. She pulled out a pair of sparkly Alexander McQueens, the sort of sneakers that start at $600. She wears them everywhere, to galas, weddings. She rotates through a few pairs of the same kinds, \u201clike a cartoon character.\u201d The pair she has on she once gave to her grandmother, Cindy Pritzker<\/a>, who died in March at 101. She cofounded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She was appointed by Mayor Harold Washington to lead the formation of what eventually became the Harold Washington Library.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was (expletive) iconic, is what she was,\u201d Pucker said. \u201cAnd my inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n After the photo, she\u2019s getting dry-needling therapy, to remove the knots in her neck. After that, she buying the staff lunch \u2014 her mother, film producer Gigi Pritzker Pucker, told her the best way judge the quality of a production is by its craft services. Then she heads out for a political fundraiser. And then after that, an EarlyWork event at the Chicago Athletic Association.<\/p>\n About a year ago she stopped concerning herself with whether or not she was legitimate. She stopped trying to please everyone with every new project. She knows Chicago can be a transient place for the art world. She herself is in New York City at least twice a month. \u201cBut I will be here forever now,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I\u2019m rapping Chicago, who am I if I am not walking the walk?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Abby](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-ENT-ABBY-PUCKER10_237306334.jpg\")
Abby Pucker chats with artist Armani Howard and her team as they work on installations for the Chicago Exhibition Weekend on Sept. 16, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Abby](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-ENT-ABBY-PUCKER07_237306380.jpg\")
Abby Pucker at the installation for her Chicago Exhibition Weekend at a warehouse in the Fulton Market neighborhood. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n