Latino art fair to run

"Latin American art never had an official presence in the mainstream art world of Chicago. There were smaller exhibits, and of course it was always in the barrio, but never anything like this." -- Curator Aldo Castillo

"Chicago ARTEahora," dubbed Chicago's first Latin American art fair, is being staged this weekend at the River East Art Center in downtown Chicago.

Curators Aldo Castillo and Thomas Monahan, along with adviser Hernan Carrara, put together nearly 300 contemporary and modern art works by more than 120 artists from Latin America, including Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, Guatemala, Ecuador and other countries.

The exhibit, staged on about 60,000 square feet of space -- much of it awash with bay windows -- will include painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video and art installations, plus a selection of works by widely known Latin American "masters," such as Chilean Roberto Matta, Mexican Rufino Tamayo, and Colombian Fernando Botero.

"This is the first fair of its scope, of international Latin American artists, put together in Chicago," said Monahan, owner of the newly opened "Thomas Monahan Fine Art" gallery in Chicago.

Castillo, a native of Nicaragua and owner of the Aldo Castillo Gallery, also in Chicago, said that he has wanted to organize such a large-scale exhibit for years.

"Latin American art never had an official presence in the mainstream art world of Chicago," he said. "There were smaller exhibits, and of course it was always in the barrio, but never anything like this."

While the Latin American exhibit includes a wide variety of art forms, Latin American art is most often mired in social and political thinking, Castillo said.

"When people think about Latin American art, they think about color, they think about politics, they think about texture and they think about freedom," he said. "In Latin America, there has always been the ability to protest when there are social issues on any kind, and that reflects in the art."

Chicago ARTEahora

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through April 28 in concurrence with Art Chicago, the annual exhibit held at Merchandise Mart in Chicago.

Where: River East Art Center, 425 E. Illinois St., Chicago.

Cost: Free. All exhibited art will be for sale

Web: www.chicagoarteahora.com.