Frieze EXPO CHICAGO 2026

MARGO SELBY

b. 1977, Eastbourne, UK

Selby is an artist and designer working with colour and geometric form in textiles. She makes handwoven artworks, and oversees the design work of the Margo Selby Studio for mill production and commercial textiles applications – her tenet being ‘Art Into Industry’ – an approach to making art that is akin to that of the ‘Old Masters’ and mistresses, with their expanded studios and public commissions.

Selby uses thread to create abstract geometric artworks that explore repetition and transition, symmetry and asymmetry, the dynamic and the stable. She is interested in the relationship between the body and the machine, hand and industry, craft and technology. The loom, and the disciplined nature of weaving as a practice, provides boundaries and constraints which can be tested. The orderly nature of the craft of weaving is reflected in the developing designs of the artworks. She is satisfied by rhythmic and uniform repetition – where each element of a composition is changed in a methodical progression.

Studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art in London, with a term at Atelier National d’Art in Paris. She now teaches in various institutions, and has her own studio weaving workshops. In 2020, Margo was the recipient of the Craft Council’s Collect Open Award for her large scale textiles installation Vexillum at Somerset House, and, in 2021, the bi-annual Turner Medal for ‘Britain’s Greatest Colourist’. She also gave the Turner Lecture, reflecting on her practice. 2022 saw her showing at multiple applied arts and craft fairs including Collect, London Craft Week, London Art Fair. In 2023, Selby exhibited at Art Miami, British Art Fair and Collect.

Margo Selby is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

ANDY BURGESS

b. 1969, London, UK

Lauded by Annabel Sampson, Deputy Editor of Tatler as “the next David Hockney” painter Andy Burgess, who hails from London but lives in Arizona, continues to expand upon his fascination with contemporary architecture. Burgess selects the subjects for his paintings with the discernment of the portrait painter. Buildings are chosen for their clean lines, bold geometric design, and dynamic forms. Burgess approaches his subjects with a fresh eye, simplifying and abstracting forms even further and inventing, somewhat irreverently, new colour schemes that expand the modernist lexicon beyond the minimalist white palette and rigid use of primary colours. Real places are sometimes re-invented, the architecture and design altered and modified, with new furniture and landscaping and a theatrical lighting that invests the painted scene with a dream-like quality and a peaceful and seductive allure.

Burgess explores in depth the genesis of modern architecture in Europe and the US and its relationship to modern art, avant-garde design, and abstract painting. Burgess explains his fascination with modernist architecture thusly:

‘Despite the huge impact of early modern architecture, the innovative and subtle minimalist buildings that I am researching, with their concrete and steel frames, flat roofs, and glass walls, never became the dominant mode of twentieth century building. We have continued to build the vast majority of houses in a traditional and conservative idiom, so that these great examples of modern architecture, designed by the likes of Gropius, Loos and Breuer to name but a few, are still shocking and surprising today in their boldness and modernity, almost a hundred years after they were built.’

Andy Burgess’s work combines two of his greatest artistic passions, mid-century and modernist architecture, and collage. In his series of highly intricate pieces, Burgess has used hand painted paper to construct renditions of his favourite modern architecture. Replacing acrylic paint with gorgeous permanent inks he has introduced another level of textural interest. The ink adds a beautiful translucency and wash-like textures to the surface of the image…. making the finished work somewhat tapestry and mosaic like. The pleasure of these works lies in the complex shapes, the analogue quality of the fabrication and the sparkling crystalline colors. Those familiar with his work will recognize some of the iconic subject matter such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s wonderful Guggenheim Museum and famous Fallingwater residence as well as Los Angeles classics such as The Stahl House and other desert modern masterpieces. But there is an eclectic range of architectural subjects that spans decades and continents in a quest to do justice to the architecture of modern times!

Alongside the large-scale paintings, Burgess creates collages which reflect his love of vintage graphics, particularly those from the 1930s–50s, a “golden age” in American graphic design and advertising. Burgess has been collecting vintage American ephemera for many years; this ephemera is then unapologetically deconstructed, cut up into tiny pieces and reconstructed into visual and verbal poems, dazzling multi-coloured pop art pieces, and constructed cityscapes.

Burgess has completed many important commissions for public and private institutions including Crossrail (London’s largest ever engineering project), Cunard, APL shipping, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, a new medical centre in San Jose, California and most recently, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

In 2021 Andy Burgess started creating a series of site-specific artworks for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. The project, initiated by CW+ – the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – and facilitated by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which represents Burgess internationally, aims to improve and enhance the NICU environment for patients, relatives and staff.

Working together with the NICU team, Burgess was reminiscing on the hospital’s neighbourhoods and its iconic views, sights and buildings in collaboration with hospital staff. Known for his unique, abstract and colourful style, Andy has transformed selected London scenes into incredible artworks to create a warm and welcoming environment for both parents and staff to enjoy. The display, installed on the 16th June 2022, includes a panorama of London, an image of Albert Bridge and another of a London Underground station. Additionally, Andy produced two smaller scale abstract pieces developed from the colour palettes of his larger works, which were gifted as part of the commission. CW+ also acquired two existing works by Andy for the unit through Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Burgess’s collectors include the Booker prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, actor and writer Emma Thompson, the Tisch family in New York, Beth De Woody, Board Member of The Whitney Museum and Richard and Ellen Sandor in Chicago, who have one of the top 100 art collections in America.

In March 2023, Burgess published of a new limited edition book of abstract ink on paper collages called Tiger’s Eye in conjunction with an exhibition at Laughlin Mercantile in Tucson, Arizona and the release of four luxurious silk scarf designs based on the collages.

Andy Burgess has been represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery since 2004.

EBONY RUSSELL

b. Australia

Ebony Russell is an Australian ceramic artist who uses an unorthodox approach to construct ceramic sculptures. Her unique technique was developed out of an interest in gendered aesthetics, labour and traditional craft practices where Russell methodically pipes porcelain in series of intricate layers to build gravity- defying forms. Challenging the traditional making processes of decorative vessels; in her works the decoration becomes the structure, and the boundaries between the two are erased. Exploring established perceptions of cultural and artistic practices that were once exclusively coded as feminine and thus insignificant, Russell’s work celebrates the decorative, promiscuous aesthetics and politics of purity; the superficial, excess and delight – with pleasure.

Russell completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Honours) at Monash University in 2003 and in 2019 graduated from The National Art School Sydney with a Masters of Fine Art. Russell has won many awards including the Franz International Rising Star Award in 2018 and the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize in 2023. Major exhibitions include ‘Think Pinker’, Gavlak Gallery Los Angeles (2023), ‘SABOTAJE ESTEìTICO’, Yusto Giner Gallery, Spain (2022), ‘Halcyon Days’, Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco (2022), ‘Clay Dynasty’, The Powerhouse Museum (2022), ‘Interconnected’, NERAM (2022), Young Masters Art Prize, London (2023), Teetering on the Brink, Claire Oliver Gallery, Harlem New York (2024), and Homo Faber, Venice (2024).

Press:
Ebony Russell Announced as the Winner of Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2025
Ceramic Review Feature: "Piped Dreams"
Artsy’s "5 Artists on Our Radar" – March 2025
Art Mama feature
More Press Highlights

Ebony Russell was Highly Commended for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize 2023 and winner of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award 2025 in collaboration with Collect Art Fair, Crafts Council and Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

CHRISTINA SCHEK

b. Transylvania

Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind: she thinks in pictures, her imagination always in focus. A Transylvanian Surrealist rooted in London, Schek crafts conceptual digital works that explore identity illusion and the shifting nature of representation. Literature, cinema and art history act as her continual muses, guiding her into layered visual narratives where the self becomes both subject and symbol.

Art critic Estelle Lovatt FRSA describes Schek as “in a league of her own,” creating “incredible visual adventures” that pilot vision between reality and imagination, coining the term “Surreal Neo-Romantic Universalism.” In Lovatt’s reading, Schek “bends Einstein and Newton,” questioning what’s factual by what’s make-believe, and making “new artwork fairytales for grownups.”

Lovatt also locates the work as a departure from the old portrait tradition of the female muse: “Schek inspires us to be the victor, not the victim… creating a unique visual language, assertive, bold, visionary… solid enough to think in images not just of her, but of you and me.”

Diving Upwards Series (2022-2026)
"Everything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the Universe. Imagination is 'Diving Upwards'! And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems that arise, you just have to 'Dive Upwards' and imagine how much your ability to solve problems improves." Cristina Schek

"In my mind’s eye, I see carefully choreographed women and the sky-high lunar cycle of the Moon being celebrated. For (e)very good reason. The Moon’s gravity stabilises us. This image is an inspirational message; dream big and take chances. More than synchronised swimmers or water ballerinas, it’s Sisyphus rolling with huge stones as big as your troubles. Push giant rocks up the steep incline of life symbolising suffering, heaven forbid heaven bound, because you are strong enough. To wear a Titian-like shade of red swimsuit and bathing cap, a figure hugging skin-tight illusion of being naked, almost. Surely.

Rise up, propel yourself high. Believe. Nothing. Nothing is in the way to stop you. We are all capable of being top flyers, diving upwards and flippin’ hell. Being over the moon… The saying “Over the Moon” is used to describe how it feels when feeling extremely pleased and very, very, happy. Skyrocket, soar, fly. The sky isn’t the limit, since man walks on the moon, right? Right! More than a picture-maker, Schek is a visual influencer." Estelle Lovatt FRSA

'Diving Upwards Miniatures' is a collection of 3 miniature artworks elegantly framed in jewel-like antiques, in celebration of 100 Years of Surrealism. Inspired by André Breton's legendary Surrealist Cabinet of Curiosities, a revolutionary collection that embodied the surrealist passion for unusual, thought-provoking objects - each piece serves as a portal to the blurred boundary between imagination and reality. These miniature reveal their secrets up close; take a moment to peer in, explore, let your mind wander. After all, imagination lives in the tiniest of details

‘Diving Upwards’ Series – Glamour EditGlamarine (2025) revisits Schek's earlier divers, but here the figures rise from the sea in a weightless ascent. These glamorous swimmers lift toward the light, suspended between water and sky, pausing for a breath of air; a moment that celebrates beauty and the pure joy of being. "Everything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the Universe. Imagination is 'Diving Upwards'! And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems that arise, you just have to 'Dive Upwards' and imagine how much your ability to solve problems improves." Cristina Schek

Surreal Codes

Under the umbrella of Surreal Codes, The Dot Society, The Sip Society, and The Art & Sound of the Stiletto read as companion chapters in visual shorthand: small signals carrying big social meaning. The Dot Society follows the grammar of the glance and the mark, where dots become passwords for identity, status and desire. The Sip Society turns ritual into iconography, tracing how a drink, a pause, or a shared glass becomes social choreography, intimacy measured in what’s offered or withheld. The Art of the Stiletto treats fashion as a dialect, where heels are punctuation and luxury becomes a language of recognisable signs recast through surreal portraiture. Together, these series map how we communicate without speaking: codes of belonging, glamour and self-invention.

Surreal Objects of Desire
In the spirit of Surrealism’s objects, these works step out of the rectangle and into the room. A print becomes a relic, a portal, a small theatre prop that holds its own charge. Found forms are repurposed as frames and containers, shifting the image from something you look at to something you encounter , a lantern that carries a picture like a flame, shutters that open onto a private sky, an applied jewel that turns a portrait into a talisman. Each object is an invitation to cross a threshold: between the domestic and the mythical, the collectible and the uncanny.

Cristina Schek's work has gained international recognition, including the Young Masters Focus on the Female Art Created During Lockdown Award (2021) for 'Florence Lightingale', BFAMI Art Exhibition at Phillips Auction House (2022), and the 2023 W4th Plinth Award, where her 4×4m public artwork 'The Ceiling In The Sky' was unveiled as the winning piece by Dame Siân Phillips, succeeding Sir Peter Blake’s inaugural display in the rolling public art programme curated by Abundance London. In 2025 she received First Prize in the Young Masters People’s Choice Award and a Highly Commended recognition from the Rudolph Blume Foundation Acquisition Award. Schek’s work has been exhibited internationally at major art fairs including British Art Fair, London Art Fair, Art Miami, Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, NY Art Fair, LA Art Show, as well as in museum exhibitions at Elmbridge Museum and Kingston Museum in London. Her work is held in prestigious private collections in the UK, Europe and the United States.

Cristina Schek is the First Prize Winner of the Young Masters People's Choice Award 2025 and has been Highly Commended for the Young Masters Rudolph Blume Foundation Acquisition Award 2025.

ALASTAIR GORDON

b.1979, Scotland, UK

“I don’t seek a view but a sense of place. From here the paintings are developed in the studio to appear as drawing boards and sketchbook work. Oscillating between hyperrealism and intuitive gesture, they both tame and subsume to the wilderness itself.” - as Gordon states.

Alastair Gordon is best known for highly illusionistic paintings (rooted in the quodlibet tradition) but he combines his heightened sense of realism with historical notions of intuitive wildness and British wilderness painting. Gordon makes paintings about paintings; works that oscillate between artifact and artifice. We are presented with landscapes as still lives and sketches as completed works. Certain questions emerge about authenticity, the painting process and how we consider notions of landscape today. The veracity of the object is constantly in doubt yet the wild is ever calling.

In making his works Gordon travelled to the outer reaches of the British Isles, undertaking a painting pilgrimage from the heights of the Lake District, depths of Caithness peat flows and furthest reaches of the Outer Hebrides. Sitting atop mountain peaks and sinking into peat bogs each work begins in the landscape.

Alastair Gordon is a London based artist and tutor and a course leader for the Graduate Residency Scheme at Leith School of Art, Edinburgh. Last year, Alastair was artist in residency for City and Guilds of London Art School followed by a parallel residency with PADA Studios in Lisbon.

Notable Alastair’s solo exhibitions: Quodlibet, Aleph Contemporary, UK (2021), Without Borders, Aleph Contemporary, UK, (2020), and at City and Guilds of London Art School, UK (2020) and Souvenirs from the Waste Land, Ahmanson Gallery, Los Angeles (2017), at First Things Gallery, New York (2017).

Notable group exhibitions include: LA Art Show, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Los Angeles (2024), Miami Art Fair, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Miami (2023), British Art Fair, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London (2023), Chicago Expo, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Chicago (2023), Here After, Bridge Projects, Los Angeles, (2022), Unpacking Gainsborough, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London (2021), The Long Echo, Terrace Gallery, London (2021), The Just, Alpeh Contemporary London, (2020), The Collectors Room, JGM Gallery, London (2020), London Art Fair, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London (2020), Summer / Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2020).

He was the inaugural winner of the Shoesmiths painting prize and co-recipient of the Dentons Art Prize. Gordon has been shortlisted for the Denton Art Prize, 2020.

Gordon’s work is found in numerous prominent private and public collections including Beth Rudin de Woody, New York; Simmons and Simmons, London; Ahmanson Collection, Los Angeles; Landmark PLC, London; Bow Arts Trust, London; The Royal Bank of Scotland Collection, and The Glasgow School of Art Alumni Collection.

Alastair Gordon is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

KLARI REISS

b. 1977, USA

Klari Reis has invented her own medium, using epoxy polymer (a form of liquid plastic) with many added ingredients including pure pigment, acrylic and secrets. Reis’s design is almost otherworldly, her colours unique and her patterns inventive. Her artwork is both object and fine art and she is at the forefront of innovative use of art resources.

Klari Reis’ new works are imaginative recreations and curious playful inquiries into our place in the world. The artist proposes new ways of seeing and understanding our natural environment through painting and sculpture, testing the boundaries of logical systems. By considering the contradictory implications of the word natural and exploring the relationships between the human and non-human, Klari embraces possibility through work that is joyful and hopeful.

Klari Reis is an American artist with a Master of Fine Arts (2004) and an Associate Research Fellowship (2005) from the City and Guilds of London Art School. She currently lives and works in San Francisco and represented by Cynthia Corbett gallery.

Klari Reis is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.