CHICAGO, IL.- A select group of Chicago's premier contemporary art galleries have come together to organize Chicago's first ever Gallery Weekend Chicago (GWC) on September 16-18, 2011. Like the very successful Gallery Weekend Berlin, the event is designed to attract an exclusive group of national and international clientele to experience Chicago’s dynamic contemporary art scene. Viewings of new exhibitions at top contemporary art galleries and museums, access to hard-to-secure reservations at Chicago’s finest restaurants, and private VIP events will make up the weekend’s activities.

“Chicago has so much to offer in terms of art, architecture, and cultural production in general, so I had the idea to marry that with our world-class restaurants to curate a unique weekend experience for our out-of-town friends and clients,” explained Gallery Weekend Chicago founder and art dealer Monique Meloche.

The James Hotel will be the hub for invited guests, where they will be treated to a private dinner with GWC gallery owners, artists, museum curators and directors, and the Host Committee of local art collectors on Friday, September 16. On Saturday, September 17, guests of Gallery Weekend Chicago will enjoy chauffeured gallery visits and exclusive dinner reservations to Chicago’s hottest restaurants, including Alinea, Next, L2O, Longman & Eagle and Schwa to name a few. The weekend will round out with a private closing tour of the Mark Bradford exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, led by MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn, and an invitation-only Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour sponsored by The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Chicago has a compact yet critical voice in the contemporary art world. Its galleries are uniquely positioned to discover some of the most exciting young artists, like Rashid Johnson and Angelo Otero, who graduated from Chicago's highly ranked art schools. Chicago galleries have also offered internationally recognized artists, such as David Noonan, Sterling Ruby, and Kehinde Wiley, their first solo exhibitions, and have debuted significant new bodies of work by Mark Grotjahn, Bruce Nauman, Amanda Ross Ho and Christopher Wool, just to name a few.

“Gallery Weekend Chicago will draw attention to the city as a vital place for contemporary art, both nationally and internationally," explained Jack Guthman, art collector and GWC Host Committee chair. "Chicago has the good fortune to have splendid art institutions and established galleries with long histories in the contemporary art world, as well as an exciting group of younger galleries showing emerging artists. The weekend will provide an opportunity for collectors from around the country to experience this dynamic.”

Participating galleries in the inaugural Gallery Weekend Chicago, include: Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Corbett v. Dempsey, devening projects + editions, Donald Young Gallery, Kavi Gupta Gallery, moniquemeloche, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Shane Campbell Gallery, Threewalls, Tony Wight Gallery and Western Exhibitions.

Gallery Weekend Chicago was founded by Monique Meloche and organized in partnership with Scott Speh of Western Exhibitions, Andrew Rafacz of Andrew Rafacz Gallery, and Tony Karman, president and director of Karman Projects. Support from partners, such as Otherwise, a Chicago branding and graphic design agency, CS magazine, a Modern Luxury publication, and New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) have helped to make the weekend possible.

Gallery Weekend Chicago aims to showcase the best of the local art scene to out-of-town art enthusiasts, critics and collectors and will develop into an annual event. Participating galleries are open to the public that weekend, as they are every weekend, and Chicagoans are encouraged to visit and view the new exhibitions.

A complete list of galleries, participating restaurants, and partners can be found at www.GalleryWeekendChicago.com.