Tears of joy are not the first thing you expect to hear about at art fairs, but that was the order of the day for Tennessee artist Annie Brito Hodgin at Thursday’s VIP preview at the thirteenth edition of Expo Chicago (April 9–12), where she is showing her paintings with Red Arrow Gallery. “It’s the artist’s first time showing outside Nashville and her first time showing at an art fair, and she’s here with us,” gallery director Ashley Layendecker told ARTnews. Raised in a Southern Baptist fundamentalist Christian culture, the artist paints surreal modern interpretations of Biblical passages, populated entirely with versions of herself. “She works out of her kitchen and is raising three children,” Layendecker added.  Related Articles The tears came when it was revealed that one of her paintings went to the Bennett Collection (founded by Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt, retired from careers in corporate law and education), which created a fund to buy works from the fair by women-identifying artists painting women in a realist style; acquisitions will go …