(flickr via Renaissance Society & Art Chicago)

In the dead center of NEXT's layout at Merchandise Mart this weekend, in what would otherwise be prime real estate for galleries willing to shell out big bucks for sprawling, centrally-located booths, is instead the Art Chicago | NEXT Talk Shop, the site of CONVERGE Chicago: Contemporary Curators Forum, a 4-day series of public panels and talks with major national and international figures from the art world.

Curator, critic, and New American Paintings Editor-at-Large, Evan J. Garza, will serve as the moderator for "Beyond the Stretcher: Breaking Down Spatial Limitations in Contemporary Painting," a CONVERGE panel discussion with three prestigious curators, this Friday, April 29 at 6pm at the Talk Shop. (Click to attend and share the event on Facebook!)

As the practice of painting moves ever further from the confines of the canvas, it continues to pour over into sculptural forms, installation, and new media. Curators will discuss issues of materiality, multidisciplinary influence, and the spatial and material undertakings in recent contemporary painting practices. Panelists include: Dominic Molon, Chief Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (and the juror for edition #85 of NAP), Dina Deitsch, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; and William Cordova, (featured in 2003 MFA Annual, Spotlight #86) artist and curator, New York, Miami, and Lima, Peru.

Committed to the cutting edge (and those who actively seek it), NEXT's inclusion of CONVERGE makes for an especially thorough conversation about contemporary practices and new work on the horizon, in an environment specifically geared to maximize that dialogue in the first place. And we're excited to be a part of the conversation.

For a complete schedule of CONVERGE events—including panels with New American Paintings jurors MCA Chicago's Julie Rodrigues Widholm (forthcoming #95), The Art Institute of Chicago's Lisa Dorin (edition #89), SMoCA's Cassandra Coblentz (forthcoming #96)—you can see the entire list of scheduled discussions at the Talk Shop + CONVERGE site. We hope to see you Friday at 6pm!