Frieze announced that Kate Sierzputowski will be the next director of Expo Chicago. She succeeds Tony Karman, one of the fair’s cofounders who stepped down from the role in May.
The company also announced that it has hired independent curator Essence Harden in the role of curator for Expo Chicago. Sierzputowski and Harden will both assume in their roles beginning November 6. Karman will continue as president of the fair, serving in an advisory capacity.
A release also noted additional changes to the fair for its 2026 edition, including the introduction of “a more focused fair with a smaller floorplan, designed to highlight the strongest work and ideas.” The 2025 edition featured more than 170 exhibitors, 20 of which hailed from Korea as part of a partnership with the Galleries Association of Korea, brokered by Frieze, which works with the association to mount its Seoul fair.
Sierzputowski joined Expo Chicago in 2020 in a coordinator role, before being promoted to director of programming in 2021 and artistic director in 2023, around the time that Expo was acquired, along with the Armory Show, by Frieze. Prior to joining the fair, she was a codirector of Julius Caesar, an artist run space in Chicago, a role she maintained until this year.
“It’s an honor to build on EXPO CHICAGO’s deep connection to the city that inspires it,” Sierzputowski said in a statement. “Chicago thrives on experimentation and generosity – I’m excited to expand how the fair reflects that creative energy and risk taking, while continuing to position it as a site for bold dialogue and exchange.”
Essence Harden.
Photo Barrington Darius
As Expo Chicago’s curator, Harden will curate a section of the fair, work on programming, and help shape “the fair’s identity across all aspects of the fair,” per a release. Harden will split her time between Chicago and Los Angeles, where she is currently based.
In a statement, Harden said, “At a moment when the arts—and the diasporic communities that build and sustain them—face increasing strictures and precarity, my work with the fair will foreground the civic and collaborative resonance between artists, galleries, and institutions, reflecting the breadth of contemporary practice that defines this moment.”
Harden has previously worked with Frieze, having organized the Focus section at Frieze LA since 2024. (She will also organize the 2026 iteration.) She is also the cocurator of the 2025 edition of the Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum, and she previously was visual arts curator and program manager at the California African American Museum.
In a statement, Kristell Chadé, Frieze’s executive director of fairs, said, “Kate Sierzputowski and Essence Harden are united in their commitment to elevate perspectives that will continue to define the fair’s success. Under the leadership of Christine Messineo, Director of Americas, their appointment represents the next generation of Chicago’s art community — highly collaborative and forward-thinking. Their partnership reflects the creative exchange that defines both EXPO CHICAGO and the wider Frieze network.”
