Esther Kim Varet is the founder of Various Small Fires, a gallery established in 2012 with locations in Los Angeles, California and Seoul, South Korea. VSF focuses primarily on emerging and established American arts, in particular those with practices relating to social justice, climate activism, identity politics, and alternative modalities of visual art production and consumption.
A native Detroiter, David Klein graduated from the University of Michigan in 1988 with a BA in Art History. Klein opened his eponymous gallery in 1990 in Birmingham, Michigan. At its inception the gallery worked closely with artists associated with Ivan Karp and OK Harris Works of Art in New York City. Over time David Klein Gallery developed its own contemporary exhibition program which included Detroit based artists as well as artists with national and international reputations. Klein also produced exhibitions of 20th Century American and European artists including Jean Dubuffet, Al Held, Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Bob Thompson, Jack Tworkov and Tom Wesselmann.
In 2014 the gallery was invited to join the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and in 2015 Klein opened a second location on Washington Boulevard in the heart of downtown Detroit. The gallery schedule includes an average of eight exhibitions a year in addition to participating in major art fairs such as The Armory Show, Art Miami and Expo Chicago.
Klein was a member of the DIA’s Founders Junior Counsel in the early 1990s and was a longtime Governor of the Cranbrook Art Academy and Museum and chairman of the Museum Committee. He also serves on the Membership Committee of the ADAA.
David Klein and his wife, jewelry designer Kathryn Ostrove, live with their two sons, Benjamin and Gabriel in Birmingham, Michigan.
Monique Meloche founded her eponymous gallery in Chicago’s West Loop in 2001 with an international roster of emerging artists working in all media. Our program has been diverse and inclusive since its inception, and we continue to be a bellwether for artistic talents early or under-recognized in their careers. The gallery has grown from being locally recognized as one of the best in Chicago to being respected internationally with our artists collected by public institutions worldwide.
Originally from Windsor, Canada, Meloche began her art career at the MCA Chicago upon completing her master’s degree in Art History and Theory at the School of the Art Institute. After six years as MCA Assistant Curator, she went on to fill directorial roles at Rhona Hoffman Gallery and Kavi Gupta Gallery (then Vedanta Gallery), Chicago. In 2000, she decided to embark on her own, inaugurating her gallery venture with HOMEWRECKER, an ambitious group exhibition featuring artists such as Marcel Dzama, Hans Op De Beeck, Hernan Bas, Luis Guispert, Carla Arocha and Karen Reimer (the latter two continue to be presented by the gallery) at her own private residence, before moving on to her first West Loop location in 2001.
Meloche has consistently presented conceptually challenging programming in Chicago and at art fairs internationally with an emphasis on institutional outreach. The gallery’s focus is on discovering and fostering emerging artists like Rashid Johnson, Amy Sherald, Ebony G. Patterson, Sanford Biggers, and Brendan Fernandes – bringing them to the attention of collectors, curators, institutions and global audiences. Indeed, the gallery presented Johnson’s first solo show in 2003 when the artist was still in graduate school at SAIC.
The gallery’s forward-looking, curatorial commitment to presenting rigorous, socially minded work by young and mid-career artists has not only fostered exciting artistic talent by some of the most important artists working today, it has also provided a nourishing incubator for arts professionals. Former intern Ruba Katrib has since gone on to become Curator at MoMA PS1, after her time as Curator at SculptureCenter, New York, and Associate Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. Whitney Tassie worked from a gallery intern to Director and is now Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City. Former Director Allison Glenn is now Associate Curator at Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AK, after working on Prospect.4, New Orleans, as Curatorial Liaison.
In addition to her role at the helm of the gallery, Meloche founded Gallery Weekend Chicago in 2011 as antidote to the shuttering of Art Chicago (which has since been resurrected as EXPO Chicago, a fair in which the gallery regularly participates). Meloche passed on the reins of GWC to colleague Michael Hall, who has transformed it into an annual Chicago event associated with other Gallery Weekends around the world. Meloche has also been an active supporter and philanthropic leader at several local institutions, including the MCA Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography, and The Renaissance Society. She lives near the gallery in Ukrainian Village, with her husband and gallery partner, Evan Boris, with whom she has amassed and continues to develop a dynamic personal collection of art by many of the artists she has worked with and championed over the years.