EXPO Chicago 2025: Afifa Aleiby, Luella Bartley, Gabriella Giroletti, Modupeola Fadugba, Makiko Harris, Lotte Keijzer, Kimathi Mafafo, Martine Poppe, Vibeke Slyngstad, Sinta Tantra, Rufai Zakari

24 – 27 April

EXPO Chicago
Afifa Aleiby, Luella Bartley, Gabriella Giroletti, Modupeola Fadugba, Makiko Harris, Lotte Keijzer, Kimathi Mafafo, Martine Poppe, Vibeke Slyngstad, Sinta Tantra, Rufai Zakari
Afifa Aleiby

Afifa Aleiby (b. 1952) is an Iraqi artist who was born in the city of Basra, in the utmost southern part of Iraq. She took up her studies at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad while working as an illustrator for the Iraqi press, before leaving Iraq for the Soviet Union in 1974 to study and specialize in monumental art at the renowned Surikov Institute in Moscow. Due to the political situation in Iraq, she was unable to return to her native country after the completion of her studies and decided to move to Italy and later back to Moscow, before settling in Yemen to work as a teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts in Aden, where she also illustrated children’s books and magazines. Aleiby has since been living and working in the Netherlands and continues to contribute to a great deal of cultural activities in support of the Iraqi and international democratic movement, in the struggle against terrorism, racism, war and dictatorship. Having not returned to her native country for 35 years, she has built a strong connection to every country she has lived in since leaving Iraq, both in a cultural and personal sense. Her connection to humanity and different cultures has led to solidarity transcending geographical and cultural borders becoming an important theme in her work. Bringing together different influences from Renaissance painting to religious icons and social realism, she uses the female figure as a recurring motif to reflect beauty, taste, politics and society.

Highlights and collections

Afifa Aleiby's art was featured at the 2022 Singapore Biennale. Previously, from 2019 to 2020, her powerful pieces were featured in MoMA PS1’s acclaimed exhibition Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, highlighting her compelling artistic voice. Furthermore, her work can be found in prominent public and private collections such as the Newark Museum of Art, USA; Azman Museum, Malaysia; Farjam Foundation, UAE; Rana Sadik Collection, Kuwait; The Bunker Artspace Museum, USA; Barjeel Foundation, UAE and Collection of Disaphol Chansiri, Thailand. In addition, she has participated in numerous exhibitions throughout her career, from Baghdad and Moscow to Yemen, Italy, Syria, Lebanon, England and the United States as a representative of the artistic and cultural face of the Iraqi civilization.
Enquire
- Afifa Aleiby, Wish Flower, 2023
Luella Bartley

Luella Bartley's (b. 1974, Stratford Upon Avon) work is a personal exploration of vulnerability, intimacy, and conflict around the female experience, specifically related to the body, including works on paper in pencil and oil, photographs and sculpture. These different mediums show the intimate process of the investigation.

Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2026); Salon, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2025); Passenger, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2024); EXPO Chicago, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (2024); Intimate Spaces, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023).

Group exhibitions include (Upcoming) Expo Chicago, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (2025); EXPO Chicago, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (2024); Armoured, Sara Berman and Luella Bartley, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2022).

Highlights

Trained at Central St Martins in the early 90s, Luella first worked as a writer at Dazed & Confused, British Vogue, The Face and The Evening Standard. Bartley's early investigations into drawing and painting were presented in collaboration with Miuccia Prada for Miu Miu.

In 1999 she launched her own fashion brand Luella, for which she was awarded an MBE for services to fashion in 2010. She was also awarded with the Designer of the Year Award in 2008 by the British Fashion Council after previously being nominated 2 years in a row. She published a book with Fourth Estate in 2011 and from 2014-16 designed the Marc by Marc collection for Marc Jacobs. Luella collaborated with Raf Simmons and Pieter Mulier for Calvin Klein 2017-2019.
Enquire
- Luella Bartley, Old Pair of Jeans, 2025
- Luella Bartley, pink hair, 2025
Gabriela Giroletti

Gabriela Giroletti (b. 1982) is a Brazilian painter, living and working in London. In 2018, she received her MFA in Painting (distinction) from the UCL, Slade School of Fine Art, where she held a position as an Honorary Research Fellow from 2019-2020. In 2015, Giroletti graduated with a BA in Fine Arts (first class) from the Middlesex University, London. In her work, Gabriela Giroletti explores the relationship between the painted image (the meaning, the immaterial, the metaphor, the mind) and the material presence in the painting (the corporeal, the touch, the physical presence, the body). Deliberately ambiguous, the paintings fluctuate between their crude materiality and their metaphysical aspect, encouraging the viewer to formulate peculiar connections with our tangible surroundings, as well as with individual and unique lived experience.

Highlights and Collections

In 2021 Gabriela Giroletti was a recipient of the Eaton Project grant. In addition, Giroletti has been awarded several other prestigious awards including the Freelands Foundation Emergency grant and the Unit 1 Gallery Workshop grant in 2020. Giroletti is also a 2019 Bloomberg New Contemporaries artist and was shortlisted for the Hix Award that same year. In 2018, Giroletti received the Desiree Painting Prize and was also the runner up for the Chadwell Award as well as was shortlisted for the Elephant x Griffin Prize and the Young Contemporary Talent Purchase Prize by the Ingram Collection of Modern British Art.Giroletti’s work is included in private and public collections worldwide including Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art, Brazil and the Jasteka Foundation collection.
Enquire
Modupeola Fadugba

Modupeola Fadugba (b. 1985 in Lomé, Togo) is a Nigerian multi-media artist whose practice involves painting, drawing, and socially engaged installation. The self-taught artist comfortably inhabits the nexus of many disciplines. She holds a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, a Masters in Economics from the University of Delaware, and a Masters in Education from Harvard University. Modupeola has lived in the US, the UK, Rwanda, and Tanzania and currently lives in Ibadan, Nigeria. Modupeola’s artworks explore cultural identity, social justice, game theory, and the art world within the socio-political landscape of Nigeria and our greater global economy. Fadugba’s recent practice researches reflection to represent the act of introspection and embarking on an inner journey.

Highlights and Collections

Modupeola Fadugba is the winner of the 2025 Norval Prize. In 2024, she completed the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship in South Africa & England. Her work continues to receive international recognition, including a New York Emmy Award in 2022 for the documentary video accompanying Dreams from the Deep End, which captures her painting NYC’s only African American synchronized swim team of senior citizens, the Harlem Honeys and Bears. Fadugba has held esteemed residencies, including the Smithsonian Institution Research Fellowship and Headlands Center for the Arts in 2020, as well as the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York in 2018. Her works are featured in national and international auctions and are part of over 70 private collections worldwide, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the University of Delaware, the Sindika Dokolo Foundation Collection, and the collection of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Earlier in her career, The People's Algorithm was awarded El Anatsui's Outstanding Production Prize and the Dakar Biennale Grand Prize from Senegal's Minister of Communication in 2016.
Enquire
- Modupeola Fadugba, An Unseen Horseman, 2025
Makiko Harris

Makiko Harris (b. 1989, The Netherlands) earned her Masters in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art London in 2023 following her studies in painting at the California College of the Arts, and her Bachelors in Philosophy and Art with a focus on feminist philosophy and aesthetics from Tufts University, Boston in 2011. An interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of feminism, identity, and desire, Harris has earned significant recognition for her work across painting, moving image, sculpture, and sound.

Highlights

Her first artist film premiered at Tate Modern in March 2023 as part of the Tate Lates series, a significant milestone that signalled her rapid rise in the international art scene. Harris has received numerous prestigious accolades, including the Grand Prize at The HIGH Prize for Excellence (2023), receiving a grant from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (2022), and residencies such as PADA Portugal (2024) and the Buinho Creative Residency (2022). A finalist for the Ingram Prize in 2024, her sculpture Sewing Needle 2 (Black and Gold) earned critical acclaim. Her work is held in private collections worldwide, and in 2024 was placed in the permanent collection of The Bunker Museum, Florida.
Enquire
Lotte Keijzer

Lotte Keijzer (b. 1983 in Texel, Netherlands), born and raised on one of the picturesque Wadden Islands in the north of Holland, learned to observe, appreciate, and reimagine the world around her from an early age. Studying Graphic Design at Grafisch Lyceum Amsterdam and Production Design at The Dutch Film and Television Academy (NFTA), further affected her outlook on life and informed the way she paints. Over the years, the Haarlem-based artist developed a visual language that focuses on conveying a sense of physicality using her paintings as visual metaphors for personal reflections on daily affairs, snapshots of moments one might have lived through but didn’t give much attention to. Inclined to underline the imagery with humor and work with bold, alternated, vibrant colors, she's showing the determination not to take herself, or anything for that matter, too seriously. By zooming in on daily annoyances (depending on the kind of person you are), Keijzer exposes the irrelevance of such affairs while poking at the underlying spoiledness of the self-obsessed Western society.

Highlights and Collections

Lotte Keijzer’s work can be found in private and public collections, amongst them being, the Collection of Ömer M. Koç.
Enquire
Kimathi Mafafo

Kimathi Mafafo (b. 1984) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice ranges from embroidery and oil painting to installation. Mafafo obtained a National Diploma in Fine Arts from the College of Cape Town in 2007 and a National Diploma in Film and Video from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2016. Born in the semi-arid Kimberley in the Northern Cape of South Africa, Mafafo questions historical stereotypes around gender inequality in Africa. She primarily focuses on celebrating the black female and depicting abstracted forms typically surrounded by verdant imagery, characterised by lush greenery and sensuous drapery that are far removed from the dusty mining town where she grew up. She has recently organized a group of Capetonian woman into an informal traditional embroidery society.

Highlights and collections

Kimathi Mafafo was finalist for the Ares Art Prize (2022) and the recipient of the Norval Foundation Sovereign Art Prize (2022). Kimathi Mafafo's work can be found in various international collections which include Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Figge Art Museum, Iowa; The Newark Museum of Art, USA; The Bunker Artspace Collection, Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Kilbourn Collection, Cape Town, South Africa; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberly South Africa; Standard Bank Corporate Art Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa; Africa First Collection, Israel; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; The Art Bank of South Africa, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa; The Irma Stern Museum, The University of Cape Town; Foundation H Museum, Antananarivo, Madagascar; Jiminez / Constantine Trust, Puerto Rico; Euston Capital Collection, USA; The House of KOKO, London, UK; Spiers Arts Trust, South Africa; Nelson Mandela Art Museum in Gqeberha (FKA Port Elizabeth); Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa; OLYM Collection, Belgium, France; The Levett Collection, Europe.
Enquire
- Kimathi Mafafo, The Dance I, 2025
- Kimathi Mafafo, The Dance II, 2025
Martine Poppe

Martine Poppe (b. 1988, Norway) has been living and working in London and Oslo. Poppe graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art BA and MFA in 2011 and 2013 respectively. Poppe's works are developed from the fluidity between the different materials she employs, negotiating the boundaries between abstraction and representation. The artist's source materials, which are often photographs or textiles, instigate her process. Climate is at the heart of Poppe's subject matter. The artist takes photographs of nature, processing the images digitally, twisting the pixels until the photograph is at the brink of becoming illegible. Once printed out, these large scale photographs are affixed behind translucent fabrics on stretchers, creating a screen that Poppe can see through and work on with paint. Poppe's paintings carry the effects of diffracted light and overexposed photography, as well as the pixelation of blown-up digital images. The photographs, as well as other surplus materials are later recycled as standing barriers or scrunched up shapes in the exhibition space.

Highlights and Collections

Poppe's work is present in many collections including the UK Government Art Collection (UK), KODE Museums (Norway), the Saatchi Collection (UK), Benetton Collection (Italy), the Kistefos Museum (Norway), The Kotanko Collection (Europe/Asia), Claremont University Collection (US), Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norway), House of St. Barnabas Collection (UK), CCA Andratx (Spain), UCL Art Collection (UK) and Oxford University (UK). She's participated in many residencies including Vice x Velux (2022), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2019), The Banff Centre (Canada, 2018), CCA Andratx (Mallorca, 2017) and Hooper Projects (Los Angeles, 2015). Poppe has also been the receiver of multiple esteemed grants and awards including a grant from Ingrid Lindbäck Langaards Stiftelse in 2021 and 2022, the grant for young artists from the Norwegian Arts Council in 2017. In 2015, Poppe was shortlisted for the East London Painting Prize. She awarded the Juvenarte Price in Norway in 2010 and 2011.
Enquire
Vibeke Slyngstad

Vibeke Slyngstad (Norwegian, b. 1968), currently based in Oslo, studied at the Meisterschule für Malerei, HTL Graz in Austria as well as at the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo and the Documentary/Animation class at MRDH Volda. Slyngstad has been exhibiting worldwide since the 1990s and her works are known for their high psychological complexity. Her practice is rooted in Romanticism while at the same time referring equally to contemporary photography’s critical view on the impact of the human imprint.

Highlights and Collections
Vibeke Slyngstad has received various grants, including the Government Grant for Artists from the Ingrid Lindbäck Langaard's Fund in 2015 and 2010; the Bildende Kunstneres Hjelpefond in 2008 and 2007; as well as the Vederlagsfondet and KEM’s Debutant Prize. Her work can be found in prominent collections such as The British Museum, UK; Art Council Norway, Norway; National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway; Nordea Norway Art Collection, Norway; Hydro Norway Art Collection, Norway; Telenor Art Collection, Norway; Nordea Bank Collection, Norway; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway; Norwegian Storting Collection (Parliament), Norway; The Kistefos Museum, Norway; Oslo Municipality Collection, Norway; Lundin Collection; Kredittbanken Collection; Sparebanken Møre Collection; Statoil Collection; Storebrand Insurance Collection; Ålesund Kunstforening Collection; Kjell Holm’s Foundation; and many others.
Enquire
Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra (b. 1979, New York) is a British artist of Balinese descent. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London between 1999–2003 and later continued her studies in art at the Royal Academy Schools in London, graduating in 2006. Tantra describes herself as a painter working on an architectural scale. By using an abstract geometric style, exploring color, identity, and narratives, she questions the function of spaces in her work. Sinta Tantra is highly regarded for her site-specific murals and installations in the public realm.

Highlights and Collections

Sinta Tantra's artworks can be found in international private and public collections, including Government Art Collection UK; Louis Vuitton Collection Southeast Asia; Karachi Biennale; Benetton Collection; Folkestone Triennial, Canary Wharf; Tumurun Museum, Indonesia; Museum MACAN, Indonesia. In 2024, Tantra was nominated for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Tantra is a recipient of many awards, including the Bridget Riley Drawing Fellow at The British School at Rome (2017); shortlisted for the Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize (2015); British Council’s International Development Award (2014); First Prize, Painting and Decorating Industry Award (2012); The Royal British Society of Sculptors AHRBS (2012); British Council Grant (2009); Courvoisier ‘The Future 500’ in partnership with The Observer Newspaper (2009); Arts Council England (2007); Deutsche Bank Award (2006); Paul Smith Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Arts (2003–2006); and the Henry Moore Sculpture Fund (2002).
Sinta Tantra
- Sinta Tantra, Carmine Awakening, 2025
- Sinta Tantra, Tanah Air, 2025
Rufai Zakari

Rufai Zakari (b. 1990) is based between Accra and Bawku, Ghana. He completed his apprenticeship under Mozzay, a senior artist in Nima, Accra. In 2011, Rufai Zakari graduated from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design. In his work, Zakari examines consumerism, environmental pollution, labour, trade, and the perils of industrialization in contemporary Ghanaian society. The founder of Rujab Eco-Art Foundation in his hometown of Bawku, Zakari bases his practice on the recycling of waste from the streets of Ghana. After decades of tribal conflict that took countless lives and left the city in ruins, Zakari is now looking to the future with optimism and a strong ambition to rebuild what has been lost while inspiring hope in his community.

Highlights and Collections

Rufai Zakari's work can be found in important private and public collections, including LAM Museum, Netherlands; Pizzuti Collection at Columbus Museum of Art, USA; Arthur Lewis Collection, USA; Easton Capital/John Friedman Collection, USA; Nubuke Foundation, Ghana; The Bunker Artspace Museum, USA; The Ditau Collection, South Africa; Susan Goodman Collection, USA; VG Collection; Akron Museum Collection, USA; JOM Collection, Senegal; AMMA Foundation, Mexico; The Africa Centre Collection, London, UK.
Enquire
- Rufai Zakari, I Love My Ride 02, 2024
- Rufai Zakari, I Love My Ride 01, 2024

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

EXPO Chicago 2025: Afifa Aleiby, Luella Bartley, Gabriella Giroletti, Modupeola Fadugba, Makiko Harris, Lotte Keijzer, Kimathi Mafafo, Martine Poppe, Vibeke Slyngstad, Sinta Tantra, Rufai Zakari

EXPO Chicago

Afifa Aleiby

Enquire

Luella Bartley

Enquire

Gabriela Giroletti

Enquire

Modupeola Fadugba

Enquire

Makiko Harris

Enquire

Lotte Keijzer

Enquire

Kimathi Mafafo

Enquire

Martine Poppe

Enquire

Vibeke Slyngstad

Enquire

Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra

Rufai Zakari

Enquire

Cookie preferences

Viewing Room

Please check your email