SPRING 2020
A BIANNUAL MAGA ZINE
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
I N TH I S I SSUE: SANFORD BIGGERS AND ARTISTS DRIVEN BY COURAGE
SPRING 2020
A BIA N N UA L MAGA ZINE
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO 1
FROM THE PRESIDENT
24 THE PROCESS
Nicholas Lowe on His Process
4 NEWS 8
ON VIEW
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Art and Courage
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34 A CRITICAL EYE
The Importance of Critique
FIELD TRIP
The Setouchi Triennale
40 THE COURAGE TO BELONG
First-Generation Students on Charting Their Paths
20 STREET STYLE
At the Fall Undergraduate Exhibition 21
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SANFORD BIGGERS
The Courage to Create
WHERE I WORK
At Spudnik Press with Angee Lennard 18
Art Preparation Program for Professionals
CONTINUING STUDIES
En Plein Air
RE-TOOL 21
46 WHY I GIVE
Claire Ashley
CAREER CONVERSATIONS
Expert Advice from Moki Tantoco
48 MY OBSESSIONS
ABOUT A WORK
49 ART SCENE
In the Museum with Magdalena Moskalewicz
50 MY CHICAGO
Mie Kongo
José Lermas’s Favorite Places in Chicago
23 EMERGING DESIGNER
Xiang Gu
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MEET THE GRADUATING
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CLASS NOTES
55 EVENTS 61
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Jane Heap
Above: The Broad museum plaza designed by Walter Hood (MFA 2013) Cover: Sanford Biggers (MFA 1999) in his Harlem studio
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School of the Art Institute of Chicago magazine Published by the Office of Marketing and Communications 116 S. Michigan Ave., 6th floor Chicago, IL 60603 communications@saic.edu
Contributing Editors Ethan G. Brown (Post-Bac 2019) Doug Kubek Ana Sekler (MA 2016)
Vice President of Marketing and Communications and Editor-in-Chief Scott J. Hendrickson
Contributing Art Directors Riley Brady Jenny Halpern (Post-Bac 2021)
Director of Marketing Sarah Gardner
Project Coordinator and Production Ethan G. Brown
Director of Communications and Editor Bree Witt
Art Director Jeffrey R. Sanchez
Design Riley Brady Ethan G. Brown Jenny Halpern Jeffrey R. Sanchez Illustrator Patrick Jenkins (MFA 2013) Contributing Writers Ethan G. Brown Zoya Brumberg (MA 2015) Micco Caporale (MA 2018) Adrienne Samuels Gibbs Sophie Lucido Johnson (MFA 2017) Doug Kubek Liz Logan Brontë Mansfield (MA 2017) Ana Sekler (MA 2016) Bree Witt
Photographers Chris George Tim Knox (cover) Stephanie Murano (MA 2020) Kevin Penczak Jerzy Rose (BFA 2008) Printing Graphic Arts Studio Inc.
From the President
WE’VE ALL HEARD the tired narrative in which the artist is depicted as standing outside of society at large. Isolated, autonomous, and omniscient, this false depiction of the artist imagines a contented soul who makes art with disinterested amusement. That doesn’t match my experience. I find that those who make and study art and design have much more to express. The artists, designers, and scholars I know are aesthetically voracious and intellectually restless. They are socially invested, aware of art’s power in society, and globally minded citizens, rarely lacking in compassion. Rather than turn their backs on the world, artists, more often than not, rush in where others fear to tread. They are, in a word, courageous. This issue of our magazine explores the courage of School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) artists and designers in art school and beyond. The feature story profiles how alum and member of the Board of Governors Sanford Biggers (MFA 1999), pictured on the cover, displays fearlessness in his interdisciplinary, history and culture mixing practice, which “combats cultural amnesia” that obfuscates systemic racism. Also in this
issue, the reflections of many faculty, students, and alums comprise an interrogation of the group critique. This evaluative tool unique to art school has been braved by countless students, but in its contemporary formation, critique may also be a source of kinship among makers. Perhaps the most moving profiles in courage, however, are those of our first-generation students, who are from the first generation in their families to pursue higher education. Without family members’ personal reflections to learn from, everything from life in residence halls to completing financial aid paperwork can be overwhelming. You’ll be moved, as I have been, to meet some of our dauntless first-generation students in these pages; you’ll also be glad to read about how SAIC is supporting these extraordinarily intrepid artists, designers, and scholars.
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I see the artist as someone who glimpses an unseen future, takes a risk, and pursues a question. They are explorers. Exploration—boldly working across media and throughout an open curriculum—is one of our core values. That’s why you can always ascribe one word to the SAIC artists, designers, and scholars you’ll meet in this issue or out in the world: courageous.
ELISSA TENNY PRESIDENT, SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO Follow President Tenny on Instagram at @saicpres
Perhaps I find the stories of first-generation students especially moving because I, too, was a first-generation student, but I think it’s more than that. The first-generation student narrative closely mirrors my favorite narrative of the artist.
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On July 27, 2019, Jefferson Pinder, interim dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs, realized a meditative performance called FLOAT in Lake Michigan to honor Eugene Williams. Williams, a Black teenager, was killed in 1919, after his raft accidentally drifted into an area designated for White bathers. One hundred years later, participants in black inner tubes floated quietly at the same beach to remember Williams and to consider the racial divides that continue to affect our communities. Pinder’s performance is a visual reminder of the past, intended to spark conversations about injustice and inspire change for the future. Photo: Elise Schimke
News
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2019 MacArthur Fellows, Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995) and Walter Hood (MFA 2013). Photo courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Alums Jeffrey Gibson and Walter Hood Received 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grants Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), interdisciplinary artist and craftsperson, and Walter Hood (MFA 2013), landscape and public artist, were awarded 2019 MacArthur “genius” grants by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Since 2001, six SAIC alums and faculty
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have received this prestigious honor: Wu Tsang (BFA 2004), Trevor Paglen (MFA 2002), Associate Professor LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (MFA 1989). Hood was also the recipient of the Gish Prize, a $250,000 award given to a highly accomplished artist from any discipline who has pushed the boundaries of an art form, contributed to social change, and paved the way for the next generation.
Black Harvest Film Festival Celebrated 25 Years The Black Harvest Film Festival at SAIC’s Gene Siskel Film Center celebrated its 25th anniversary in August. The festival showcases independent films that tell the stories and explore the images, heritage, and history of the worldwide Black experience.
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SAIC Became Carbon Neutral As of January 1, 2020, SAIC is a carbonneutral campus. This goal was more than a decade in the making. SAIC joined the Second Nature Leadership Commitment in 2008 and in its first 10 years, the School reduced its carbon footprint by 57 percent. SAIC achieved carbon neutrality through continued operational changes, renewable energy credits, and carbon offsets.
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Professor Nick Cave Named One of the Greats and Opened First Exhibit at New Art Space
The newly renovated Wellness Center
SAIC renovated the 13th floor of the Lakeview Building, which houses the Wellness Center and includes Counseling Services, Health Services, and the Disability and Learning Resource Center. As part of SAIC’s commitment to ensuring that every student’s experience is a successful one, this renovation delivered modernized facilities and improved services.
Lori Waxman Received the 2019 Jean Goldman Book Prize Photo courtesy of Renée Cox
SAIC Renovated Wellness Center
SAIC Strategic Plan Over the past two-and-a-half years, stakeholders from across the School participated in hundreds of strategic planning activities designed to envision SAIC’s future through NEXT: SAIC’s Strategic Plan. NEXT has pinpointed 14 strategic initiatives slated for implementation along with a host of complementary projects, which promise to enrich the student experience at SAIC. Alum Sterling Ruby Spotlighted in the New Yorker Acclaimed artist Sterling Ruby (BFA 2002), famous for his large-scale paintings, ceramics, and sculptures, was recently profiled in the New Yorker about his foray into the fashion world.
The recipient of this year’s Jean Goldman Book Prize is SAIC Senior Lecturer Lori Waxman (MFA 2001) for her work Keep Walking Intently: The Ambulatory Art of the Surrealists, the Situationist International, and Fluxus. This annual prize goes to the author of the best book about the visual arts (art history, cultural studies, theory, or criticism) or to an editor who also contributed to a significant essay in a book-length collection. It was presented by President Elissa Tenny and James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago museum, at the annual Literary Lions Luncheon on November 7 in the SAIC Ballroom.
Nick Cave, Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body and Garment, was profiled by Lecturer Megan O’Grady in the New York Times T Style Magazine’s “Greats” issue. In addition, the acclaimed artist opened a new multidisciplinary art space in Chicago called Facility. The inaugural exhibit at Facility, Disturbed Awakening, featured work by Associate Professor Katrin Schnabl. The exhibit, which was curated by Cave, explores three artists’ most personal and pressing issues. Alum David Sedaris Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters David Sedaris (BFA 1987) was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honor society of the country’s 250 leading architects, artists, composers, and writers.
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Nayland Blake Named Bill and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Visiting Professor
Professor Candida Alvarez and Alum Juan William Chávez Awarded Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grants
SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program lecture series featured a diverse group of artists including Bill and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Visiting Professor Nayland Blake, who is co-teaching a course this spring in conjunction with his visiting professorship. Blake’s multidisciplinary practice considers the complexities of representation, particularly racial and gender identity, play and eroticism, and the subjective experience of desire, loss, and power. SAIC Community Members Selected for Newcity’s Annual “Art 50” List Many SAIC community members were selected for Newcity’s annual “Art 50” list of Chicago’s visual vanguard of 2019. Lecturer in the Sculpture department Jordan Martins was chosen as “art leader of the moment” for his work as executive director of Comfort Station. Other SAIC community members who made the list include: President Elissa Tenny; faculty members Shane Campbell (MA 1997) and Jeremiah HulsebosSpofford; alums Stephanie Cristello (BFA 2013), Meg Duguid (BFA 1999), Catherine Edelman (MFA 1987), Emily Green (BFA 2005), Duncan MacKenzie (MFA 2002), Monique Meloche (SAIC 1991–94), Cesáreo Moreno (MFA 1993), Julie Rodrigues-Widholm (MA 1999), and Vincent Uribe (BA 2013); and SAIC Board of Governors member Denise Gardner. The publication also released a “Hall of Fame,” which included alums Jim Dempsey (BFA 1991) and Valerie Carberry (BFA 1993), Director of SAIC’s Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice Mary Jane Jacob, Theaster Gates (HON 2014), and Board of Governors member Daniel Berger.
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SAIC received the 2019 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT into Diversity magazine, a national honor recognizing US colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. SAIC Hosted “More Speech: A Conversation about the First Amendment”
Alum Roger Brown’s Exhibition Reviewed by the New York Times
Roger Brown: Virtual Still Lifes, an exhibit of work by Roger Brown (BFA 1968, MFA 1970) at the Museum of Arts and Design, was positively reviewed by Roberta Smith (HON 2017) for the New York Times. The exhibit, curated by alum Shannon Stratton (MFA 2003, MA 2008) with support from SAIC’s Roger Brown Study Collection Curator Lisa Stone (MS 1998) is the first museum show devoted to the artist’s work in New York. Alum Dread Scott Debuted Slave Rebellion Reenactment
Photograph by Wayne Lawrence
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Professor of Painting and Drawing Candida Alvarez and alum Juan William Chávez (MFA 2004) were awarded prestigious Painters and Sculptors Grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. The Painters and Sculptors Grants provide unrestricted funds of $25,000 each to 25 artists.
SAIC Recognized for Excellence in Diversity with 2019 HEED Award
In November, Dread Scott (BFA 1989) debuted Slave Rebellion Reenactment, a march and performance tracing the largest slave revolt in American history. Featured in Vanity Fair, Scott invited strangers, volunteers, and reenactors to echo the unified spirit of the 1811 German Coast uprising.
SAIC hosted its third Citizen Artist Forum, “More Speech: A Conversation about the First Amendment,” in partnership with the American Library Association and Illinois Library Association. Panelists joined in a statewide dialogue to examine how the First Amendment impacts art and civic life, freedom of speech, and expression. Associate Professor LaToya Ruby Frazier Debuted First Solo Show in Chicago Associate Professor in Photography and 2015 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work was on view at her first solo show. The Last Cruze is “an achingly close look at workers who rolled the final Chevrolet Cruze off the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly line before General Motors quit producing the compact car, closed Lordstown and relocated those workers who wanted to move to other factories,” reported the Chicago Tribune. Alum Angel Otero Received National Attention for His Work Angel Otero (BFA 2007, MFA 2009) was featured on PBS NewsHour’s “Brief but Spectacular,” where the artist discussed his unique style of painting and discovering his artistic voice.
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SAIC booth at EXPO CHICAGO 2019. Dean of Graduate Studies Arnold J. Kemp, Sarah Skaggs (MA 2016), and Graduate Curatorial Assistant Sophie Jenkins (MA 2020)
SAIC faculty and alums were important contributors to both the international art fair EXPO CHICAGO and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest survey of contemporary architecture in North America. More than 170 SAIC artists presented work at EXPO CHICAGO, and many faculty members and alums were featured on several panels as part of /Dialogues, including Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), Associate Professor of Photography Jan Tichy (MFA 2009), and Lecturer in Contemporary Practices Edra Soto (MFA 2000). SAIC community members in the biennial included Walter Hood (MFA 2013), Tania Bruguera (MFA 2001, HON 2016), Santiago X (MFA 2018), Theaster Gates (HON 2014), Assistant Professor Maria Gaspar (Contemporary Practices), and full-time visiting artist Paola Aguirre (Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects).
Alum Tony Liu of Diet Prada Included on Fast Company’s List of “100 Most Creative People in Business”
Leslie Darling Appointed Executive Vice President and General Counsel Leslie Darling was appointed executive vice president and general counsel of the Art Institute of Chicago, overseeing legal operations for both the School and museum.
Courtesy of Fast Company
SAIC Faculty and Alums Featured in EXPO CHICAGO and Chicago Architecture Biennial
Diet Prada cofounder Tony Liu (BFA 2007) made Fast Company’s list of “100 Most Creative People in Business.” Diet Prada is an Instagram account which has become the fashion industry’s most influential watchdog, exploring issues of racism, misogyny, and more.
SAIC Joins Pulitzer Center and Illinois Humanities to Present “The Struggle for Justice” SAIC, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and Illinois Humanities presented a talk titled “The Struggle for Justice: 1619 Project and the Changing Narrative on Mass Incarceration.” The program featured a keynote address by award-winning journalist Nikole HannahJones, lead writer on the New York Times’ “The 1619 Project” and an expert panel. An image from the talk appears on the back cover of this issue.
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STEPPING INTO historically homogenous spaces to unite people through their differences, create conversation inclusive of more voices, and honor history takes a sort of courage not unknown to SAIC alums and MacArthur “genius” grant recipients Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995) and Walter Hood (MFA 2013). Gibson is a member of the Chocktaw and Cherokee nations, and his work brings forward the history and culture of Indigenous
people and traditions to show that native people “exist, are present, and contribute.” Hood, a landscape and public artist, fosters unity by creating ecologically sustainable public spaces that honor communal histories and empower marginalized communities. Over their careers, Gibson and Hood have used the power of art and design to lift up the voices of others and create representation among those who have often been overlooked.
JEFFREY GIBSON For CAN YOU FEEL IT, a solo exhibition of new work, Gibson presented 14 paintings and sculptures, including the debut of a never-beforeshown body of quilted works. Included in the exhibit are three new works from Gibson’s ongoing punching bag series (2013–present). Appropriating iconic Everlast punching bags as sculptural supports, Gibson mobilizes bead work, weaving, tassels, and other material interventions to transform objectified targets for abuse into conceptual
symbols of strength and beauty. Gibson’s jubilant and ever-evolving practice blends the aesthetic heritages of Native America, rave culture, and punk rock, breathing new life into traditions of modernist abstraction. CAN YOU FEEL IT was on view September 20 to December 21, 2019, at Kavi Gupta gallery.
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Opposite: Jeffrey Gibson, CAN YOU FEEL IT, 2019. Installation view at Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., Photo courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta. Photo: John Lusis
Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), PROTECTS THE LAND, 2019, cotton and linen, digitally printed fabric, polyester thread, cotton batting, 73 1/2 x 102 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta
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Left to right: Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE, 2015, mixed media, 40 x 30 inches; Jeffrey Gibson, REMEMBER REWIND TO REPEAT, 2016, glass beads, artificial sinew, tin jingles, acrylic felt, canvas, wood panels, 42 x 32 inches; Jeffrey Gibson, FOREVER ALWAYS, 2017, glass beads, artificial sinew, metal studs, tin jingles, acrylic felt, over wood panel, 50 x 43 x 4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta
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Opposite: Jeffrey Gibson, ALIVE!, 2016, glass beads, tin jingles, steel and brass studs, nylon fringe, and artificial sinew on acrylic felt, mounted on canvas, 100 x 61 1/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta
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WALTER HOOD Walter Hood’s recent projects reflect his interest in the role of sculpture in public space. Carry On, a glass art wall in the San Diego International Airport, displays hundreds of photographs of personal objects superimposed over abstracted x-rays of carry-on bags. The wall is a portrait of San Diego through the objects carried, suggesting the myriad stories told by the contents of one’s luggage. For the landscape surrounding
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
the forthcoming International African American Museum, to be built on the site where nearly 40 percent of enslaved Africans arrived in this country, he has designed a memorial garden filled with native grasses and featuring a tidal pool. Hood is broadening the ways in which a place can be transformed by intervention in the landscape and by imbuing social justice and equity into public spaces that make past and present community lifeways visible. ▪
Walter Hood (MFA 2013), Carry On, 2018, glass and ink, 12 x 225 feet x 9/16 inches. Installed in the San Diego International Airport
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SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Opposite: Walter Hood (MFA 2013),Three Trees: Jackson, Obama, Washington, 2019, wood from fallen trees, steel. Top: A rendering for the International African American Museum to be built in Charleston, South Carolina. Bottom: Walter Hood, Witness Walls, 2017, cast concrete, 48 x 32 x 12 inches. Installed in Public Square Park in Nashville, Tennessee
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En Plein Air SAIC and the Chicago Botanic Garden Team up for a New Course
CON TI N UI N G STUDI ES
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Photo: Tony Favarula
IT’S HARD ENOUGH TO STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS, let alone to stop, sketch them, and learn from scientists about their defining characteristics. But a new Continuing Studies course, Nature in the Sketchbook, in the Garden, in the Museum, offered that and much more. The first course in a collaboration between SAIC and the Chicago Botanic Garden met twice a week: once at the Garden and once at the School. “This class was all about interdisciplinary learning, combining rigorous fine art education with scientific expertise and experiential learning,” says instructor
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Jeane Cohen (MFA 2018). “Students were introduced to the vast history of artists representing nature, everything from scientific illustrations to impressionism to abstraction. Then, they created their own interpretations of nature in their sketchbooks.”
For the first meeting, students visited the Garden’s library and looked at sketchbooks by early explorers, whose deeply detailed illustrations of nature were meant to serve as a scientific record. “I wanted the students to understand one way that sketchbooks were used and one way of depicting nature, so they could blow those ideas out of the water if they wanted to,” Cohen says.
Sessions at the Garden included lectures by scientists, along with time for drawing For student Mary Lou outside. Richard Hawke, McNabb, who recently plant evaluation manager earned a Continuing Studies and associate scientist at Certificate in Studio Art and the Chicago Botanic Garden, Design, the plein air aspect lectured on the plants, and of the course was important. then students spent time “The Garden is a creative sketching flora with an eye to environment,” she observes. each plant’s components.
Beyond that, she learned about scientific concepts that she wasn’t previously familiar with. One class was a forest walk led by Jim Steffen, the Garden’s senior ecologist. McNabb says, “He talked about the communication that goes on underground in the forest, about the interconnectedness. I think artists can do a lot with that concept.” This summer, SAIC’s collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden continues with two three-day workshops, The Poetics of Botanical Art–Gardens of Color offered in June, and The Poetics of Botanical Art–Gardens of Light in July. Learn more about Continuing Studies courses for adults, teens, and kids at saic.edu/cs
Where I Work At Spudnik Press with Angee Lennard (BFA 2004)
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WHERE I WORK
“You have to take advantage of the resources around you and there are a lot in Chicago.”
“You don’t have to just [make art] as a career. You’re not any less valid of a maker if you’re making something wacky just because you want to.”
“Arts administration is a creative practice.” SPUDNIK PRESS, an artist space and printmaking studio, opened in 2007 in a small live/work space. Angee Lennard (BFA 2004), founder and executive director, has steadily expanded the studio since its humble beginning, moving to a large, industrial space in Chicago’s West Loop in 2009. Spudnik now offers printmaking classes and a studio space for both artists and students to utilize freely. The third floor warehouse space boasts beautiful hardwood floors and an exposed ceiling. Neatly organized inks, paper samples, and type cases fit
perfectly into the large, yet cozy, room. Spudnik students and studio members are able to take advantage of the space and resources, from letterpresses and Risograph machines to the vibrant community of artists that the studio has supported over the years. In addition to running the studio, Lennard collaborates with artists to produce limited-run print editions. “For me, finding ways to make sure that there are always entry points [to making art] for anyone is really important,” she says.
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F I EL D TRI P
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The Details of Life Students exhibit work at the 2019 Setouchi Triennale in Japan
SETOUCHI WAS HOT. Not just summer-day hot; it was soaked-shirts-90percent-humidity hot. The 16 graduate students and five faculty artists from both SAIC and Tokyo University of the Arts worked nonstop on a massive site-specific art installation, a focal point of Japan’s prestigious Setouchi Triennale. The collaboration is part of The Details of Life, a course taught by Sculpture department Chair and Associate Professor Dan Price and Associate Professor of Photography Alan Labb. The Setouchi Triennale is a multifaceted art exhibition that stretches along 12 sleepy islands in the Seto region. The festival intends to draw tourists and young people to the area, which has seen a massive population decline over the past few decades. By connecting Setouchi to the art and architecture of the rest of the world, Kagawa Prefecture hopes to revitalize its communities and draw upon local wisdom and identity. The museum where SAIC’s students exhibited their work is situated inside a florid bamboo forest with carved granite everywhere—including a granite road running through the center of the museum—inspiring the students to either create works with a resolute contemporary feeling to contrast the traditional setting, like a video projection in a Japanese tea room, or use traditional materials and aesthetic ideas in order to capitalize on the juxtaposition against the texture and palette of the place itself.
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Graduate student Elizabeth Cote used traditional Japanese materials for her installation but took the overall work in a more abstract direction to create a sculpture representing the collapse of traditional and contemporary life together, blending and becoming something new. Saffronia Downing, another student, drew upon Japanese tradition to create several takotsubo—octopus pots—in collaboration with a local potter. She was inspired by the Edo period fisherman’s hut where she set up her installation in the museum. “It was a really great experience, just having the opportunity to work with artists in Japan—both with the students and with the ceramicist that I collaborated with,” said Downing. “I come from an interdisciplinary background, so we thought about ceramics differently, but it was really interesting,” she added. Graduate student Billie Carter-Rankin said that the opportunity in and of itself was incredible. “It was so rewarding to be able to experiment, create work, and collaborate with other brilliant and talented grad students in Japan. It allowed me to be pushed out of my comfort zone, and I’m thankful for the experience I was able to have.”
The prestigious Setouchi Triennale is held every three years across 12 islands in the Seto Inland Sea. One of the contemporary art festival’s main goals is to revitalize the rural region in a sustainable and creative way. Bottom left: work from SAIC student Ferrell Garramone. Bottom right: work from SAIC student Billie Carter-Rankin. Photos courtesy Alan Labb
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Street Style At the 2019 Fall Undergraduate Exhibition
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STREET STYL E
WHETHER SUPPORTING THEIR BESTIES or celebrating their own final works, students at the 2019 Fall Undergraduate Exhibition came dressed to impress and express. Here are our editors’ picks from some of the best styles at the preview reception on November 15 at SAIC’s Sullivan Galleries. Why this outfit? My friend who has a piece in the show has a signature Hawaiian shirt, and as I was coming as support for my key bestie, I thought I gotta go with the theme of that. Favorite part? I love this shirt always. I get a lot of hand-me-downs from my uncle who is many sizes bigger than me, but we look great in the same things. What is your personal style? Colorful, but always jeans. Normy plus thrift store chic.
LOU NAJJARRULIN
BFA 2021
RUBY BAEK
BFA 2019
Why this outfit? I’m a fan of color and pattern, and I thought for a night where I get to present in a gallery, I should express myself the way I want to. Favorite part? The upper part; I really like the flounce sleeves. What is your personal style? It’s very color based. I prefer brighter colors because it helps me with my mood and drive to work.
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Why this outfit? I didn’t want to be too fancy, but I wanted to be fancy enough.
AUDREY MULLIN
BFA 2020
Favorite part? I really like the belt and shoes. What is your personal style? A spin on vintage. I collect a lot of vintage.
Expert Advice from Moki Tantoco (BFA 2014)
How did you decide to work in museum education? I enrolled at SAIC with plans to focus on art history, but I wanted to be with people, collaborate, and build something together, which lead me to the Art Education department. I was fortunate to be introduced to a couple of communitybased nonprofits that became formative in my decision to work in education, such as Chicago Public Art Group and After School Matters. Assistant Professor Maria Gaspar (Contemporary Practices), also introduced me to Regin Igloria with North Branch Projects, where I completed a Career and Professional Experience (CAPX) internship. Which skills are necessary for arts professionals? Research. Writing. Speaking. You have to know what you are talking about, write well about it, and communicate clearly and concisely.
What do you enjoy most about your work? I am most interested in visitors’ responses to the artwork: participating, reflecting, considering—maybe for the first time. It is a challenge to be uncomfortable; I appreciate creating space where people can be vulnerable. My educational philosophy is that there is a way to talk to anyone about anything, regardless of age or experience. We can find ways and spaces to communicate with understanding.
CA R EER CON V ERSATI ON S
MOKI TANTOCO (BFA 2014) is a museum educator and artist who is living her “childhood dream of being in an art museum every day.” After graduating from SAIC with her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Art Education, she began volunteering at the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) in Chicago, where she is now the education and programs manager. At NVAM, she works to educate museum visitors and other educators, while also advocating for the veteran community. This is an excerpt from our conversation with her.
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What was the most important thing you have learned from working at the National Veterans Art Museum? Civic responsibility. Recognizing that I have power as an arts administrator and educator to create programming, write grants, and advocate for civic education in the arts. What is the most rewarding part of your job? The people. The community. Especially the veterans, the ones I get to work with who continue their service by volunteering to speak at tours, the veteran artists I have partnered with in programs, and the veterans working in social organizations advocating for veteran services across Chicago. I have never met a group of people who, even through the hardship of their experience, continuously strive to give back. What advice can you offer to current students? Make sure you are completing the practice part of maintaining an art practice. It is art work for a reason. Never be stagnant and don’t be so easily satisfied. Challenge and push. Change your environment. Find communities outside of SAIC. Build those bridges if they aren’t there. Art making is power and you have a lot of it. SPRIN G 2 02 0
A B OUT A WORK
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In the Museum with Magdalena Moskalewicz Cildo Meireles, Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project
WHAT COULD THREE COCA-COLA BOTTLES POSSIBLY SAY about modern art and Brazilian politics in the 1970s? For Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles, the Coca-Cola bottle was more than a vehicle for a consumer product. His 1970 piece, Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project, employs the classic bottles as a signifier of American hegemony and a medium for subversive communication. Meireles saw the cycle of consumption represented by the bottles as a ‘circuit’ that could be interrupted—he affixed nearly-invisible stickers with messages about modern art and the United States’ political involvement in Brazil into empty Coca-Cola bottles, then returned them to the factory to be refilled. Once full of dark soda, the messages became visible. Meireles was able to communicate art and political ideology through “secret” messages between the artist and Brazilian consumers, unbeknownst to Coca-Cola. Magdalena Moskalewicz, curator and lecturer in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, says Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project is “an opportunity to talk with students about what an ‘ideological circuit’ is.” Meireles’ piece was a way to communicate within an oppressive society in a time
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Cildo Meireles, Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project, 1970 (ongoing)
before digital communication. For Moskalewicz, Meireles’ work is an archive of a moment in time—a relic from a performance piece, one that sought to facilitate subversive communication and discourse about art through objects that would not be art without the story to contextualize them.
When Moskalewicz teaches Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project, she asks her students to imagine, “how can an artist insert themselves into an ‘ideological’ circuit today?” It is a poignant question for emerging artists and art historians, one that keeps Meireles’ piece relevant in the face of a transformed system of social communications.
Emerging Designer Xiang Gu (MDes 2019)
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Xiang Gu (MDes 2019). Photo courtesy of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc.
BEIJING-NATIVE XIANG “SEAN” GU’S (MDES 2019) graduate collection of sculptural garments has earned him accolades in the New York City fashion world and at SAIC. He is the recipient of the 2019 NicNac Fellowship, a $10,000 award that recognizes exceptional promise in a graduating master’s student in Fashion, Body and Garment. The winner is selected by Stephanie and Bill Sick Professor of Fashion, Body and Garment Nick Cave. Gu has lived in the United States for eight years. His work is inspired by the freedom and rebelliousness of hip-hop culture. “In hip-hop, there’s this tradition of sampling, and I sample shapes for building garments the way that hip-hop producers sample melodies,” he says. “My values come from hip-hop culture. Hip-hop has taught me to look forward, to hustle, to try new things, to not hesitate.” For his collection based on some of the stated Core Socialist Values of the Communist Party of China, Gu took the Chinese character for the words democracy, equality, justice, and integrity, and made a pattern using the shape. “Then, I began
to play around from there,” he recalls. After a long prototyping process, the finished garments—made with leather, vinyl, and sequins—are cumbersome, with many openings that suggest the desire to break free. Gu says, “I wanted the collection to convey the feeling of trying to save myself from a future dystopia.” The collection was selected for the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s highly competitive Future Fashion Graduate Showcase 2019, and later it was exhibited at MoMA PopRally x The Bronx, an event curated by the staff of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1. He hopes to exhibit the collection in China. Gu has parlayed what he’s learned as a student in SAIC’s Fashion Design department to working as an intern at Vivienne Hu and as assistant designer at LRS. With the NicNac fellowship, Gu is now making pieces for his own fashion brand, NOY, while working in fashion in New York City. In the future, he hopes to establish and lead a successful Chinese fashion company.
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Nicholas Lowe on His Process
THE PROCESS
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have to accept that the plastic frog has “Every artifact has its own life, and all TUCKED AWAY IN A QUIET as much value, as a cultural object, as a we have to do is interview the object,” CORNER OF THE ART INSTITUTE Rembrandt,” says Lowe. explains Lowe when discussing his OF CHICAGO’S Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Nicholas Lowe’s mind is racing, curatorial approach. Acknowledging Lowe’s process starts with arranging that this idea may sound strange, he connecting every historical document to and rearranging the order of artifacts, clarifies that every item has inherent its source and every source to contextual paying close attention to every detail and details—such as a postscript about wild details, drawing maps in his head about building outward, reminiscent of how a rice on a letter between Marcel Duchamp where the archived material is, where forensic scientist might approach their and Mary Reynolds—serving as evidence it came from, and where it’s going to go work. This research phase allows him to tell a larger story. “What I’m really next. Lowe is searching for a story. to go deep into context and histories of saying is, I want you to really, really pay items he’s working with to form a clear Lowe, program director and associate attention to what the thing tells you,” understanding of the material and ideate professor in Historic Preservation, is a he emphasizes. how he might exhibit the work. From visual artist and curator. Scratch that; there, Lowe investigates his materials Lowe takes the observer through their he’s a historian. No, that’s not right; further through display, iterating various own unique journey by making order he’s an archivist. Though he seeks to use ways to put them on view. Different out of the finer details of an object. extensive details to create order in his stories will arise by the presentation Inspired by Katherine Kuh, an influential work, Lowe recoils from categorization. of objects, so it is critical to explore all Chicago gallerist and curator at the Art “I’ve got a real allergy to labels,” he says. Institute of Chicago museum in the 1950s, options. and art historian Helen Gardner, who Lowe is all of the above and an expert “Don’t be satisfied when you think you’ve facilitator who creates space for materials served on SAIC faculty from 1920–46, made something that’s great; do it again,” Lowe approaches materials he works with he works with to tell their stories. he says. as though they are on a level playing field. Advice to pay attention to. “If you really believe in the materiality of art and art objects, then you kind of
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Top left: Feed Forward. Lowe builds upon the idea of the archive as a feed-forward mechanism to unify the shirt metaphor with an interpretive representation of the archive. Exhibition visitors might weave their ideas with those in the archive. Bottom left: Oblique Strategy. In response to conversations with Erin Manning, the diagram illustrates woven cloth, frayed edges, and cuffs as metaphors for emergent qualities in events and experiences. This was Lowe’s initial framework for articulating Goat Island and the nine performances they made.
Empowering a New Wave RE-TOOL 21: Art Preparation Skills Development Program Provides Arts Training for Professionals
R E-TOOL 21: EMPOW ERI N G A N EW WAV E
For others, like Richton Thomas, a health plan advisor, the program is opening up new avenues. “I’ve never even thought about appraising art for insurance purposes…it’s interesting because my work background is in insurance and financial services,” he says. In addition to the hands-on training and exposure to working professionals, participants receive a certificate of recognition, a stipend for their time and successful completion of the program, and support from RE-TOOL 21 staff to identify potential employment opportunities.
and mounting artworks to EVERY SATURDAY AND handling, installing, and SUNDAY for seven weeks appraisals. Ife Williams, from September through program coordinator, says that November, a variety of one of the goals of the program professionals came together is to create a more inclusive, to learn how to frame and diversely representative, and mat artwork, pack and crate accessible arts preparation art objects, and much more. field, disrupting the more The eight participants along traditional cycles of arts and with a peer mentor devoted culture. their weekends to learn new skills as part of RE-TOOL “RE-TOOL 21 has the potential 21, a program which seeks to not only provide an entry to provide opportunities for point for a new wave of arts traditionally underrepresented technicians, it may prove to groups, including women, be a launch pad for future immigrants, and people arts professionals who will go of color, for advanced arts on to create new institutions education or training while and businesses that enhance working to make the industry our communities and attract more inclusive and accessible. new audiences,” says Tracie D. Hall, director of the Joyce Through RE-TOOL 21, which Foundation’s Culture Program. is sponsored by a grant from the Joyce Foundation, SAIC is Many of the people and places able to provide a free training they visit and learn from program for professionals, are part of the network of teaching skills from framing
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“Everyone has different experiences from their SAIC alums and faculty, like work background or creative the Roger Brown Study practice, and we come Collection. “We had the together and help one another,” pleasure of unpacking, writing says Thomas. condition reports, and For more information, please reinstalling about 20 pieces visit saic.edu/retool. of Roger Brown’s (BFA 1968, MFA 1970) work that was on exhibit in New York, and that was a big deal,” says Michael Ryan, lead instructor and adjunct professor in Arts Administration and Policy, who taught and developed the curriculum for the program. The sessions are intensive and participants learn a range of new skills. “I want to be an independent curator, so I’m excited to learn the technical stuff, how to document artwork, and the logistical and legal side,” says Alexis Villagomez who works as a family day assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. SPRIN G 2 02 0
THE BRAVERY OF
SANFORD BIGGERS by Sophie Lucido Johnson (MFA 2017)
SPRIN G 2 02 0 Jae (SAIC 1959–61) and Wadsworth (DIPLOMA 1958) Jarrell, two of the five founding members of artist collective AFRICOBRA
THE B R AVERY OF SA N F ORD B I GGERS
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IT’S HARD TO FIND A SINGLE CATEGORY FOR SANFORD BIGGERS. You could say he’s a massive installation sculptor, but that would neglect his knack for working on smaller scales with textiles or ceramics. You could say he’s a maverick, but that leaves out that Biggers (MFA 1999) is one of the greatest living collaborators—with partners both living and dead—in the United States. He is often classified as a visual artist, but even that isn’t quite right: Biggers put together a multimedia concept band called Moon Medicin, which performed a singular and experiential concert at the Kennedy Center. Ultimately, just one word spans the many Venn diagrams where his career fits, and the word is so broad that it’s a little unsatisfying: Biggers is an artist. “I think I make art—I’ve been doing it all
my life, basically—to sort through ideas and process information,” Biggers says. “I’m very much attached to objects and images, and I see them as gateways to engaging with deeper conversations that I have, and deeper conversations with society and culture in general.” Biggers grew up in Los Angeles, where his parents kept a lot of art around. His cousin was the muralist John Biggers, and he cites that early experiences with his cousin’s work solidified the idea that being an artist was a viable career path. “I actually started creating as more of a musician than as a visual artist, from taking piano lessons to gradually learning how to play by ear, and I was doing that from the ages of 9 to probably 12 or 13 or so,” he says. When he started listening
to jazz—Biggers names Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Ray Charles as influences—playing by ear got more difficult, so he started to draw pictures of the people he heard on his records instead. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts from the historically Black men’s college Morehouse, Biggers was admitted into the Painting and Drawing program at SAIC, but, as he puts it, “I did not paint a single thing the entire time. But that’s specifically why I went there; because at the time I was going there, it was one of the only schools that prominently and proudly said that they were interdisciplinary.” SAIC gave Biggers the opportunity to work in the Sound; Film, Video, New
Sanford Biggers with Chimeras sculpture
Media, and Animation; and Sculpture departments, as well as to collaborate with people he’s still in touch with today. This interdisciplinary practice ultimately embedded itself into Biggers’ oeuvre, allowing him to switch artistic roles at the wave of a finger. Throughout his schooling, Biggers continued to be influenced by African American history and the African diaspora in America and internationally. It became paramount to him for his work to “shine a light on the stories and histories that we weren’t taught in school and that have not been mainstreamed at all in our country,” as he puts it. From the start of his career, this history has been a part of Biggers’ work; he is uncompromising about telling the whole
truth of the past. This is intentional, and it takes courage. Biggers has had to fight from the beginning. While he was still an undergraduate student, Biggers entered a city-wide art contest. He was a sculptor’s apprentice at the time, and he knew what piece he wanted to submit: a metal disk polished to a mirror-like surface with a rusted chain that came off and fell into a rusty steel pipe with the Georgia state flag in it. (The Georgia state flag had the Confederate flag integrated onto it at the time.) His mentor considered the piece, but suggested he change it. Biggers did. But he couldn’t sleep the night before the contest. And so in the early hours of the next morning, he got in his car and swapped the new piece out for
the original one. It ended up winning second prize. When the newspaper arrived to take pictures of the winning pieces, they refused to photograph the flag element. That wasn’t going to fly with Biggers. “I ended up standing in front of the entire piece and said, ‘No pictures at all. If you can’t take a picture of the full piece, then there’s no reason to take a picture at all.’ So that was a statement,” he says. It was just the beginning of a career in art-making statements, each of them thoughtful, courageous, and deep. And it’s difficult to describe his work, because, as Biggers himself concedes, the power of his pieces often demands physical presence.
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Sanford Biggers, Laocoรถn (Fatal Bert), 2016, vinyl, electric air pump, 240 x 348 x 140 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
THE B R AVERY OF SA N F ORD B I GGERS
IT BECAME PARAMOUNT TO BIGGERS FOR HIS WORK TO “SHINE A LIGHT ON THE STORIES AND HISTORIES THAT WE WEREN’T TAUGHT IN SCHOOL AND THAT HAVE NOT BEEN MAINSTREAMED AT ALL IN OUR COUNTRY.” Take, for example, Lotus, which debuted at a small solo show in 2011 at the Brooklyn Museum. From a distance, it’s a lovely white flower cast in glass, serene and suspended mid-air by a perfectly round hanging circle. But when the viewer gets up close, it becomes clear that the flower is composed of slave ships, and the texture of the piece is structured from human bodies, brutally crammed together. Or the more controversial Laocoön (Fatal Bert), which debuted at Miami Beach’s Art Basel in December 2015. The enormous vinyl inflatable sculpture looks like Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert lying on the ground and bringing to mind—especially given the piece’s name and its sonic similarity to Laquan McDonald’s—the countless bodies of unarmed Black people shot and killed by the police. After Biggers finishes a piece, it becomes the viewers’ job to discuss, interpret, and find meaning in it. Biggers says that his audience shouldn’t be pinned down and he makes work for everyone. “I try to make the work enticing and visually interesting to draw people in, and then the deeper they get in, if they spend a little time, they’ll start to peel back the different layers of meaning and context,” he says. In a way, Biggers intentionally collaborates with his audience. He is interested in making work that brings people in, and then allows them to add their own history and experiences to their understanding of the work. This necessitates a diversity of complex understandings, which, ideally, brings audiences into conversation in order to further deepen the pieces’ meanings.
His audience is not his only unknowing collaborator: Biggers does a lot of work that builds upon both original artwork and the destruction of artwork from the past. He’s currently working on a series of marble sculptures titled Chimeras, in which he fuses classical Greco and Roman figures with traditional and contemporary African sculptures and masks. “So you might see, let’s say, the body of Spartacus with a mask from the Fang culture of Africa. I think these are sculptural forms that we all have some familiarity with. Anyone who’s gone to an encyclopedic museum will have seen examples of both of those genres. But the intersection, or at least the intersection I’m imposing on them, I find particularly interesting,” Biggers says. There’s an added layer here, too: While the typical museum viewer imagines European sculptures as monochromatic or white, Biggers found that several of them were actually polychromatic and painted in bright colors that have worn off over time. “That means the way we’ve been perceiving that sculpture is totally whitewashed, literally whitewashed,” Biggers says. He adds that in contrast, African sculptures that museumgoers are used to seeing as monochromatically brown or black also originally had pigments, beads, and various colorful textural elements that were removed before the sculptures were put on display. He describes these sculptures as being “blackwashed, in a sense.” “So what I’m doing now is taking them even to a third level of removal, another level of removal, by putting them together
and then rendering them in marble,” Biggers says. While the choice to make art with content that’s politically charged is brave, Biggers is careful about where he situates himself inside movements like Black Lives Matter. “I do have very charged and loaded content in my work. I do hope that it inspires people to think differently and consider things in a deeper way. But at the same time, I don’t confuse it with the very hard activist work that many people are doing out in the field that are looking at safety and freedom and so on,” he says. “I’m informed and inspired by those people’s acts and my means of communicating them is through art, so that’s where I pick up the challenge.” Biggers acknowledges the importance of collaboration in his work and also the variety of his media. He’s currently working on marble sculptures, quilt paintings, an experimental musical outfit, a set design for a libretto, and consultation on a feature-length film. “The message can be translated into different forms, and I’m sort of guided by themes rather than materials. In that respect, I’m very open to working in different forms, because I think the message of all the things I work on is very in sync with one another,” he says. That message is a battle cry for audiences to join him in this critical work. And the work, as Biggers puts it, is to “rewrite history, combat historical amnesia, and inspire.” ▪
Sanford Biggers, Lotus, 2007, steel, etched glass, colored LEDs, 84 inches. Installation view at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY. Bottom: detail of Lotus
ENROLLING IN ART SCHOOL IS AN ACT OF COURAGE. “When I was a student, the goal of the faculty was to keep going until a person just broke down in tears,” art historian and SAIC faculty member Jim Elkins remembers of his MFA critiques in the 1980s. “People used to cry in front of the faculty all the time.” The tear-inducing critique—which Elkins documents in one of the only books on the subject—has become something of an art school cliché, like baggy black sweaters or a caffeine dependency. Critiques, even the difficult ones, can make an artist resilient, teach them to learn from failure, to be more human. Because criticism, both in school and outside of it, is so fundamental to an artist’s life, SAIC faculty members across disciplines are challenging and changing the way students approach this rite of passage.
Critique has become an essential part of art schools. As modernism and Bauhaus emerged, art schools shifted from developing technical skills to encouraging individual expression. The group critique as we know it was born. “Critiques are meant to challenge assumptions that the student is perceived to have,” Elkins explains. Students come into school with skills and ideologies that need to be unlearned, habits that need to be changed. “I came through school when the perception was that you’re broken down and built back up again,” says Dawn Gavin, interim dean of undergraduate studies, who went to art school in Scotland. Gavin remembers “being horrified” by critiques as an undergraduate, but as a professor, has reoriented her relationship to them.
Critiques, even the difficult ones, can make an artist resilient, teach them to learn from failure, to be more human.
Left and right: Students and faculty from various departments at SAIC engage in critiques
Now, Gavin oversees the undergraduate division, where students are first introduced to critiques. In her experience, two of the most useful things for students new to critique include the development of shared ground rules and an understanding of the attributes of emotional intelligence. While artists no longer need to have a breakdown to have a breakthrough, students should still be able to work through uncomfortable moments in their practice. Gavin likens critique to training athletes: “I think there are pain points when you make things and you
care about them. Those are stretching moments. It really is that process of slight pain that you go through when you’re actually getting better at what you do.” For novelist and Writing professor Jesse Ball, early sour experiences with creative writing workshops led to his invention of an entirely new critique process. “There I was in a series of workshop classes wherein the student provides work and is silent while others speak about it,” Ball remembers of his East Coast schooling. “To me the experience was often dreadful.”
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Thirteen years ago, Ball and a friend created a method of critique called “Asking.” In this process, a student shares their work with a class and sits in front of the group. The group can only ask questions about the work, and they must avoid judgement, praise, and asking questions to which they know the answer. This turns the critique process into a playful competition among the group to come up with the most thought-provoking and meaningful questions. “Something that Jesse Ball’s format gets at is that critique should be a way to learn what you think
about your work,” says Brian Fabry Dorsam (MFA 2008). Dorsam took one of Ball’s classes as a graduate student. “The most useful thing for me is when a critique brings out a thought or a change to my piece that I didn’t know that I wanted to make. That’s why we engage people that we trust: to use their opinions to find our own.” As an alum, there are snippets from critiques that Dorsam hears like mantras in their head as they create art outside of school. When Dorsam needs to hear feedback now, they seek out the honest responses of the community that they built at SAIC.
“The most useful thing for me is when a critique brings out a thought or a change to my piece that I didn’t know that I wanted to make. That’s why we engage people that we trust: to use their opinions to find our own.” BRIAN FABRY DORSAM (MFA 2018)
Elkins gives similar advice to artists outside of schools: get a set of artist friends together to form a crit group but after a few years, have the courage to find new friends with new voices and fresh perspectives. The ability to absorb critical feedback and learn from it is a vital skill for any career—inside or outside of the art world. The Chicago Tribune art critic and SAIC faculty member Lori Waxman (MA 2001) devised a new method for critiquing work outside of art schools and publications: an ongoing performance art piece called 60 wrd/min art critic. Waxman travels to various locations to set up an office, complete with a computer, projector, and receptionist, to give artists a chance to have their work reviewed. Those seeking her feedback can bring a single work of art to her office where Waxman creates a 200-word review in 30 minutes.
Waxman has reviewed pieces by established artists and self-taught people who have never shared their art before, writing about everything from a priest’s conceptual landscape paintings to a singer’s performance. This up-close-and-personal experience, she says, has made her “a very human art critic. I have to work hard to forget that there’s an artist on the other side of the artwork.” Perhaps as a reaction to the rough crit myth, many artists are fostering critiques that strike the balance between dread and empathy—which feels uniquely important in this cultural moment. And critique will continue to evolve in years to come. “It’s as complicated and as messy and as wonderful as all human interrelationships,” Gavin says. “Critique is like a living thing.”
by Adrienne Samuels Gibbs
C OLLE GE I S A T I ME OF B E G I N N I N G S : new friends, new classes, even a new town. So much change at once can feel more daunting when you’re a first-generation college student. When SAIC student Leana Yonan’s family fled Iraq in the 1980s, they didn’t know she would be the first in their family to attend college; that Yonan chose to pursue art and design studies was even more surprising to them.
“After I received my scholarship, it confirmed to me that I belong here, that I wasn’t just a random selection. It was an active choice to let me continue my art practice and my academics here,” she says. Yonan isn’t the only first-generation student who has, at times, struggled to navigate an unfamiliar environment. Studies show that first-generation students face challenges that their peers whose
Left to right: Undergraduate students Reggie Williamson, Leana Yonan, and Abdullah Quick
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Clockwise from top left: Assistant Professor Salvador Jiménez-Flores; Nopales híbridos: An Imaginary World of a RascuacheFuturism, 2017, terra-cotta, porcelain, underglazes, gold luster and terra-cotta slip, 96 x 96 x 96 inches; Nopal Espacial, 2019, brass, cast iron, rose gold plating, and brass hose 72 x 72 x 72 inches; Jiménez-Flores’ mentor, Jiménez-Flores as a child
parents attended college do not. For instance, navigating college financing or finding a balance between work and study can cause feelings of isolation that become difficult to overcome without a network of support. To assist students like Yonan, SAIC developed First-Generation Fellows, a pilot program that aims to create a stronger peer network for these students, who make up nearly 20 percent of SAIC’s undergraduate and graduate community. Elissa Tenny, president of SAIC and once a first-generation student herself, saw an opportunity to better support these students, so she contacted Art Institute of Chicago Board of Trustees Chair Robert Levy and his wife Diane to help fund the program. Launched
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THE COURAGE TO B ELON G
“AFTER I RECEIVED MY SCHOLARSHIP, IT CONFIRMED TO ME THAT I BELONG HERE; THAT I WASN’T JUST A RANDOM SELECTION. ” –LEANA YONAN
Clockwise from above: Leana Yonan with her artwork; Leana Yonan, You’re not Assyrian Enough/You’re not American Enough, 2019, linen, embroidery, Autodesk Maya, 21 x 17 inches; Yonan as a child
in the fall of 2019 after two years of research to identify challenges unique to this group, the program supports initiatives such as student employment, mentorship, workshops, and scholarship opportunities. “We spent time learning about our student population and found ways to provide better support,” says Deborah Martin, dean of student life at SAIC. Martin and her team seek to identify areas of opportunity to create or strengthen a sense of community among first-generation students. “For example, we learned through data that if a student works on campus, they are much more likely to be successful than if they don’t. Part of the reason is that they’re creating a connection with other people, they’re feeling this sense of belonging.”
But there are other issues: Sometimes a student’s family doesn’t understand why they are choosing a career in the arts or the doors it can open for their children. Paul Jackson, associate dean for undergraduate studies, says, “What we’ve heard from some students is that their families don’t immediately appreciate the variety of outcomes students achieve coming from a degree focusing on the arts. Unlike programs which focus on specific career outcomes, like pre-law or pre-med, a degree in art and design can lead to so many different places, and that opportunity can create some feelings of uncertainty with parents, especially those who did not attend college themselves. It takes
courage, particularly if you’re the first in your family to go to college, to pursue your passion. You gain a lot of valuable skills along the way and because of this, there are many paths toward a career.” Reggie Williamson, a senior who is graduating in May, had to explain their choice to their family. “We had to take my grandma to the museum and let her see it’s not just arts and crafts,” Williamson says. “At first, your parents might not have any context for what you’re doing, but then you go home and you help them develop the language for it.” Williamson, who is from Maryland, had parental help throughout the application process for SAIC. But even upon arrival,
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THE COURAGE TO B ELON G
“COLLEGE IS 50 PERCENT COMMUNITY BUILDING. THESE PROGRAMS ARE DEFINITELY IMPORTANT.” –REGGIE WILLIAMSON
Left to right: Reggie Williamson, Abdullah Quick
and even with a scholarship, managing the transition was difficult. That’s where programs like First-Generation Fellows come in, he says. “I think first-generation programs are important,” says Williamson. “I’ve done a lot with student leadership because the transition between wherever you’re coming from to these college spaces can be really jarring. College is 50 percent community building. These programs are definitely important.”
Abdullah Quick is another firstgeneration student attending SAIC. After graduating from Chicago Public Schools, he attended SAIC for printmaking. “I decided to study at SAIC to turn my style into a skill I could market,” says Quick, who looked to his friends as examples of how to how to master the juggle between classes and clients. “My classes at SAIC built a foundational skillset that made my work distinctive.”
Now Quick is soon to graduate, and he has actively used the skills he learned in school to broaden his freelance business. He recently completed commercial work for the singer Kesha and for McDonald’s. Students benefit from hearing these stories and seeing these successes, says faculty member Salvador Jiménez-Flores, who is one of more than 160 firstgeneration SAIC faculty and staff to sign an open letter expressing support for first-generation students.
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Above: Angel Otero (BFA 2007, MFA 2009). Photo courtesy of Angel Otero Studio
“It is very important that the faculty members and administration reflect the student body we serve and the city that we live in. This benefits all students and this tells the students, ‘I am represented, I am heard and I can do those jobs too,’” says Jiménez-Flores, who teaches ceramics and came to the United States from Mexico at the age of 15. For alum Angel Otero (MFA 2007, MFA 2009), simply being in an environment that embraced and helped him realize he could make art for a living is the magic of SAIC.
“I wanted to be an artist,” says Otero, whose parents can now tell their friends to check out their son’s larger-than-life installations being featured in the New York Times. “I quit my job against my family’s will, and I started making my moves to go to Chicago.” Otero’s experience juggling emotional and financial challenges highlight why different types of support are key, says Yonan, especially when navigating something like a final assignment or even a cross-country move to a location that requires something as deceptively simple as a new winter wardrobe.
“Like for example, my friend just said to me, ‘I didn’t do my FAFSA; I gave it to my family,’” says Yonan. “But that’s a great privilege. I can’t do that. My mom [read the FAFSA] and asked me, ‘What does this big word mean?’ I and other first-generation students feel this pressure. If I mess up this application, it’s on me.” That’s a lot of responsibility to shoulder as a young adult, say the students, but their courage and resiliency is why they belong. n
Why I Give Claire Ashley (MFA 1995)
WHY I GI V E
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WHEN CLAIRE ASHLEY (MFA 1995) was an undergraduate student studying painting in her native Scotland in the 1990s, she did a residency in a small town on the east coast of Scotland where only eight students—two from each of the country’s four art schools—were invited to live and make work in a “tiny wee fishing village,” Ashley remembers. She was creating Rauschenberg-esque assemblages from found objects like fishing nets, expanding the definition of painting beyond what she had been taught. “But when I got back to school, the faculty there were like, ‘No, no, no. This is not art. What are you doing?’” she says. “And I stupidly believed them.” She forced herself into making art in the rigidly traditional manner she was being taught. “I was thinking about grid painting. Layers and layers of grids, but they became...quite like tartan when I look back at them now,” Ashley laughs. “A very stereotypical Scottish thing!”
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
After meeting faculty from SAIC, Ashley took a leap and moved to Chicago to pursue an MFA. Soon, she was absorbing the new “plastic, neon, kitsch” American landscape and the boundary-defying work of SAIC’s faculty. Gone are the grids (they are still used on occasion as a pattern). Ashley now makes giant inflatable installations painted with electric colors. Since graduation, she has stayed closely connected to the School that changed the course of her career. Ashley has given numerous times over the years to the Fund for SAIC, and in 2018, she created an installation for Beautiful/Night, SAIC’s first alum and faculty art auction. Giving back to the School helps more students gain access to the education that changed Ashley’s life decades ago. She has also given to the School as a faculty member, dedicating 26 years to teaching as adjunct professor in the Painting and Drawing department. Ashley continues to teach new generations of young artists at SAIC, challenging them to make the work that matters to them and to go off the grid.
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Mie Kongo on Her Obsessions (BFA 2006)
MY OB SESSI ON S
Sewing
Yellow Magic Orchestra Making In Between MIE KONGO (BFA 2006) didn’t grow up dreaming of being a ceramicist. The Japanborn sculptor came to Chicago in 1992 to study at Roosevelt University. During that time she also took studio classes at SAIC and years later decided to return to the School to pursue her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Ceramics was something she took at the School on a whim, but her classes awoke a connection with clay that has guided her professional life since. Today, she is an internationally exhibited artist and adjunct associate professor in SAIC’s Ceramics department.
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Kongo’s work is about finding harmony between disparate things—whether it’s materials, ideas, or influences. It seems natural that someone who started her career engaging with ideas would find satisfaction in the physical labor of art. She divides her time between Chicago and a rural Indiana town, preferring large, bustling cities while finding solace in quiet nature walks. Here are some of the obsessions of someone who welcomes contradiction: READING A Japanese book whose title translates to Making In Between. The author talks about craft that people
use and contemporary art that’s interactive. So, there’s a “maker,” an “experiencer,” and a “thinker.” Someone makes this work, then someone uses or experiences the work, and that leads to thinking. LISTENING Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). It’s three Japanese guys who made an early form of techno. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, the school dance club performed one of their songs. It seemed so sensational. Two years ago, I developed a sensitivity to [low-sound frequencies]. Things like pans colliding and low male voices really burn
my brain. Someone made fun of my symptoms, like, “Oh, that’s a feminist disease: You don’t want to be in a kitchen or listen to men!” YMO doesn’t have a lot of bass. It’s upbeat and makes me nostalgic. MAKING Sewing. I’m so in love with this fabric that’s 50 percent cotton and 50 percent linen. I want to immerse myself in it. Sewing is a new skill, so I’m making a lot of mistakes and discoveries. I’m really interested in that process. It’s good for teachers to be students sometimes—it reminds us to be compassionate and understanding.
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1. SAIC AT EXPO CHICAGO
2. JEFFREY GIBSON (BFA 1995)
3. LEADERSHIP SOCIETY ANNUAL
4. SAIC IN MIAMI
5. RE:WORKING LABOR
September 25 / Navy Pier
ROUNDTABLE WITH STUDENTS
APPRECIATION EVENT WITH JACOB
December 6 / Marseilles Hotel
EXHIBITION OPENING
October 29 / The LeRoy Neiman Center
HASHIMOTO (BFA 1996)
November 6 / Willis Tower
September 20 / Sullivan Galleries
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José Lerma’s Chicago
MY CHI CAGO
La Michoacana
José Lerma was supposed to be a radiologist. As the Puerto Rico-born son of two doctors, who were also first-generation college students, his parents had specific expectations. He studied political science and even began law school, but he couldn’t fight a consuming passion for painting. Today, Lerma’s work, which combines politics and humor, is recognized internationally. He has taught at SAIC for 10 years and is chair of the Painting and Drawing department. This is his Chicago.
BUGHOUSE SQUARE [WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK] It’s very close to the “Viagra Triangle” [the area around Mariano Park]. People call it that because there’s a lot of upscale restaurants and older men with fancy cars. Bughouse Square used to be the place where socialists would hold big rallies and give speeches. It’s interesting to walk by because, in the middle of all this commerce, here’s this place with so much soul and integrity.
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
FOOD IN PILSEN The Jibarito Stop. Jibaritos are Puerto Rican sandwiches with plantains instead of bread, but they’re really hard to find in Puerto Rico—or at least San Juan, where I’ve lived a big part of my life. It’s like I have better Puerto Rican food here than back home. [Laughs] Then, La Michoacana, the one near the [Pilsen] library. My wife is big into ice cream. I like to get a cup of this ice cream with cucumber in it. It’s so good.
MARIA’S PACKAGED GOODS AND COMMUNITY BAR It’s an interesting place in Bridgeport. It’s built like an old speakeasy and run by artist, Ed Marszewski, who owns Co-Prosperity Sphere and publishes Lumpen. I like places run by artists. The atmosphere is very nice, and if there are art shows in that area—either Pilsen or Bridgeport or just somewhere in the south—it’s a great place to end up.
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO I’m a very site-responsive painter, so since I’m working here [at SAIC], I stick around the museum. I’ve been doing a series based on the museum paintings—repainting some paintings but also working on a huge drawing of every painting in the old wing. There’s no frames dividing anything. It’s just one giant painting that blends into the next, into the next. It’s pretty goofy.
Meet the Graduating Class
CONS TAN Z A M E N D O Z A (MA 20 1 9 )
L E A NA L EO N YONAN (BFA 2 0 19)
N I COLE G R AC E D OR AN (MFA 2019 )
JUAN AR A NGO PA L ACIOS (BFA 2019)
Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Hometown: Miami, FL
Hometown: Pereira, Colombia
Three words that describe you: My friends say that I'm a "fake Virgo," curious, and a coffee-lover.
Three words that describe you: Funny, caring, and analytical.
Three words that describe you: Brazen, honest, and loyal.
Three words that describe you: Charismatic, driven, and dynamic.
Most memorable moment at SAIC: One of my favorite moments at SAIC was helping Freshmen Fellows develop a first-generation peer mentorship program here at SAIC.
Most memorable moment at SAIC: Hanging out with friends on the 15th floor of MacLean, overlooking the city skyline.
Most memorable moment at SAIC: Planning and hosting the 2018 Decolonization Dinner. It was an extremely memorable and rewarding night full of great discourse and tasty food.
Most memorable moment at SAIC: Listening to an artist and educator I have admired for a very long time speak in a room usually used to eat and talk with friends. Something you learned at SAIC: I have expanded my ways of learning by working as a graduate curatorial assistant in the Sullivan Galleries and as a teaching assistant for the Continuing Studies office. Favorite class or teacher: Gibran Villalobos' Arts Organizations in Society, Kate Dumbleton's Management Studio I-II, and Magdalena Moskalewicz's Post-Critical Museology have been meaningful classes to me. What inspires you: A summer night’s breeze, the smell of (good) coffee, “Quinta Anauco” by Aldemaro Romero, full moons, and the smell of tea leaf candles. One sentence that describes your work: Juggling multiple roles to make exhibitions happen. Advice for incoming students: Casual conversations are never casual.
Favorite class or teacher: One of my favorite teachers here at SAIC has to be Beth Hetland (Writing). Beth truly cares for each of her students, and I'm just so happy I was able to take classes with her. I struggled to figure out what to do with my practice after SAIC and she has prepared me for that. What inspires you: My Assyrian identity and how I can create representation through my art. Exploring my identity as a Middle Eastern American and the struggles and confusion that comes with that. Dream job: Working in animation as a character designer, 3D modeler, or making comics and publishing my own graphic novel. Advice for incoming students: Please just take your time and enjoy every single second here at SAIC.
Something you learned at SAIC: That I am a good art teacher. Favorite class or teacher: The materials lab in the painting and drawing department. It has proven to be one of the most interesting spaces to learn about the history and physical attributes of paint. One sentence that describes your work: Cyber-craft. Dream job: To run my own painting studio. Advice for incoming students: Be as kind as possible to each other; support each other at all costs.
MEET THE GR A DUATI N G CL ASS
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Something you learned at SAIC: I know myself better: I know how to love and accept myself. I gained the confidence and assurance to carry myself as a queer person, artist, immigrant, and as everything I am. Favorite class or teacher: Daniel R. Quiles (Art History, Theory, and Criticism) is an amazing professor who shows a great amount of care and appreciation for students that engage with his course work. What inspires you: I am inspired by my past, my culture, my people, my languages, and my lived experiences. My family is extremely important to me, and much of my practice is informed by family history. Advice for incoming students: You want to get shown? You want to get published? You want an internship? You better work!
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Class Notes 2010s
CL ASS N OTES
Model, artist, and activist Emily Barker (SAIC 2010– 15) was featured in Vogue discussing her image and publicity on Instagram. Jesse Berlin (BFA 2004) was profiled by the Arizona Daily Star in a series about local artists. Tyler Blackwell (BFA 2013) curated two exhibitions at Blaffer Art Museum in Houston this past fall: Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Jacqueline Nova: Creación de la Tierra. The New Art Dealers Alliance presented a new contemporary art fair last fall, the Chicago Invitational. Alums that participated included Josh Dihle (MFA 2012), Tony Lewis (MFA 2012), Raven Munsell (Dual MA 2014), Jack Schneider (BFA 2014), and Vincent Uribe (BA 2013). Daniel Granitto (BFA 2014) is included in the 10th issue of Friend of the Artist, an international, juried collection of works by contemporary artists presented as a hardcover book. Brett Hanover’s (BFA 2010) film Rukus was been screened at South by Southwest, Anthology Film Archives, SF Indie Fest, the Nashville Film Festival, and the American Fringe series at the Cinémathèque Française.
Molly Hewitt’s (SAIC 2010– 14) film Holy Trinity premiered at Chicago’s Music Box Theater in September. Joel Kuennen’s (MA 2010) piece “How to lose someone,” a poetic guide to experiencing loss and understanding the absence of someone you love, was published by the Creative Independent. Benjamin Larose (MDes 2016) won second place in the 2019 Miami University Young Sculptors Competition. Nick Mahshie’s (MA 2017) work was on view in Mt. Sinai Skolnick’s Surgical Towers in Miami Beach, Florida through February 2020. Betelhem Makonnen (MFA 2019) was announced as the recipient of the third annual Tito’s Prize. Viraj Mithani (BFA 2015) had work in the exhibition Boomerang at Tao Art Gallery in Mumbai, India, curated by Sneha Shah (BFA 2015), and was also featured in Elle Decor India. Alejandra Alonso Rojas (Post-Bac 2012) was announced as a finalist of the 2019 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/ Vogue Fashion Fund, and Xiang Gu (MDes 2019) and Emily Shen (MDes 2019) were named CFDA Fashion Future Graduate Showcase recipients.
David Heo (BFA 2014, MFA 2018) was featured in Chicago magazine about his solo exhibit at Boundary Gallery in Chicago and the origins of his art career.
Sniedze Rungis (BFA 2004) was announced winner of the Kalamazoo Ladies Library Association’s stained glass window design contest. Negin Sharifzadeh’s (BFA 2010) solo show Appearance Stripped Bare was exhibited at A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn. Ayesha Singh’s (MFA 2018) work was featured in the inaugural exhibition at the CEPT University Sculpture Park in Gujarat, India. Sumakshi Singh (MFA 2003) was featured in Vogue India for her dreamlike installation for the Hermès store at the Chanakya in New Delhi, India.
2000s Genesis Belanger (BFA 2004), Teresa Burga (MFA 1970, HON 2018), Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995), and Diane Simpson (BFA 1971, MFA 1978) were featured in Artsy’s annual list of the 50 most influential contemporary artists. Kate Dumbleton (MA 2008) was included on Newcity's annual “Music 45” list for her work as executive director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Nia Easley (BFA 2006, MFA 2018) was featured in Block Club Chicago discussing her project researching the history of an area within Avondale, which was once a Black settlement.
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell (MFA 2017) was named a 2019 Kresge Artist Fellow. Orkideh Torabi (Post-Bac 2014, MFA 2017) was featured by Galerie discussing her artwork. Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the Joyce Foundation, and the American Express Foundation announced Gibran Villalobos (Dual MA 2015) as one of Chicago’s “Inaugural Arts & Culture Leaders of Color Fellow.” The Chicago Tribune named DePaul Art Museum Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm (MA 1999) its Chicagoan of the Year in museums. Zipiao Zhang (BFA 2015) was included on Forbes “30 under 30 Asia 2019” list.
Emily Shen (MDes 2019)
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
Adam Liam Rose (BFA 2012) was appointed co-director of Ortega y Gasset Projects.
Nia Easley (BFA 2006, MFA 2018) leading a tour as part of her project, IT’S JUST OK. Photo: Milo Bosh
Isaac Facio (BFA 2001, MFA 2017) discussed the significant connection between astronomy and art in an interview with Time magazine. Amber Ginsburg (MFA 2009), Adela Goldbard (MFA 2017), and Sonja Henderson (BFA 1992) were among artists in the exhibition, Envisioning Justice: New Visions Beyond Incarceration by Chicago Artists & Communities.
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Martha Mulholland (BFA 2008) was featured in Architectural Digest discussing her project of styling a 3,600-square-foot home. Brit Parks (BFA 2000, MFA 2014) has several new writings being published by New River Press: SMEAR and WHEN THEY START TO LOVE YOU AS A MACHINE YOU SHOULD RUN. Darrell Roberts’ (BFA 2000, MFA 2003) solo exhibition SUCCULENT was on display at Thomas McCormick Gallery in Chicago. Felipe Smith (BFA 2000) created the Marvel character Ghost Rider, which will have its own live-action series, Ghost Rider, debut on Hulu in 2020. Edra Soto (MFA 2000) was awarded the inaugural Foundwork Artist Prize, and her recently commissioned public project, Screenhouse, is on view for a two-year exhibition in Millennium Park's Boeing Gallery North.
Ni’Ja Whitson (MFA 2007) was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Visual Design for the piece, Oba Qween Baba King Baba.
1990s Petra Bachmaier (BFA 1999), Rodrigo Brum (MFA 2016), Assaf Evron (MFA 2013), Sean Gallero (SAIC 1993–98), and Samaa Waly (MFA 2017) were among the recipients of Graham Foundation grants.
Christine Tarkowski’s (MFA 1992) public project, When we call the Earth by way of distinction a planet and the Moon a satellite, we should consider whether we do not, in a certain sense, mistake the matter. Perhaps–and not unlikely—the Moon is the planet and the Earth the satellite! Are we not a larger moon to the Moon, than she is to us?, is on view in Millennium Park's Boeing Gallery South.
Katherine Bernhardt (BFA 1997) was profiled in the article “Paint it Loud” in GQ.
Zurich Esposito (MS 1998) was appointed to the City of Chicago’s Zoning Board of Appeals by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Jacob Hashimoto's (BFA 1996) installation, In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust, 2019, at Chicago’s Willis Tower was coordinated by Cortney Lederer (MA 2009).
Damon Locks (BFA 1991), Norman Teague (MFA 2016), and Santiago X (MFA 2018) were announced as recipients of the 2019 3Arts Awards. Geoffrey Mac (BFA 1999), who appears as a designer on the 18th season of Project Runway,
and Elizabeth Metzger Sampson (MFA 2009) were included on Newcity’s 2019 “Lit 50” list. Dread Scott (BFA 1989) was awarded $100,000 by the Soros Equality Fellowship for his performance Slave Rebellion Reenactment. Ann Wiens (BFA 1986) was appointed vice president for marketing and communications by the California College of the Arts.
1970s Nancy Bowen (BFA 1978) participated in Open House New York at Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Frank “Critz” Campbell III (BFA 1990) was promoted to head of the Department of Art at Mississippi State University.
Michelle LaFoe (Post-Bac 1992) was interviewed by Surface magazine about establishing OFFICE 52.
Edra Soto (MFA 2000), Screenhouse, 2019. Photo: Georgia R. Hampton
was profiled by Entertainment Weekly.
Christine Tarkowski’s (MFA 1992) work at Millennium Park. Photo: Georgia R. Hampton
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (MFA 1998, HON 2011) was highlighted in ARTnews for his ability as a Thai artist to reach audiences internationally.
1980s Catherine Edelman (MFA 1987), the owner of Catherine Edelman Gallery, was featured in Chicago Gallery News. Jerry Brennan (BFA 1984), Donald G. Evans (BFA 2002), Eileen Favorite (MFA 1999), Eric Kirsammer (BFA 1986),
Phyllis Bramson (MFA 1974) was recently featured in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tonight for her organization of the exhibition, What Came After: Figurative Painting in Chicago 1978–1998, on display at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Alums included in the exhibition are Michiko Itatani (SAIC 1983–91), Robert Lostutter (SAIC 1958–62), Jim Lutes (MFA 1982), and Mary Lou Zelazny (BFA 1980). Donald Sultan’s (MFA 1975) retrospective, Dark Objects, Works 1977–2019, was at Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London.
CL ASS N OTES
The Washington Post featured Rashid Johnson (SAIC 2003– 04, HON 2018) in its What Are You Working On? series.
CL ASS N OTES
In Memoriam
Ed Clark (BA 1951) was a noted abstract painter who achieved his distinctive effect by using a push broom to sweep paint across the canvas. Clark, whose career spanned seven decades, was known for experimenting with vibrant colors, paint application, and medium—many of his works featured ovals and shaped canvases, a practice that he was credited with helping to pioneer. Sharon Couzin (BFA 1976, MFA 1978) was a filmmaker, visionary artist, and educator who taught at SAIC for more than 30 years and served as chair of the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation for 10 years. Couzin was influential in building the experimental film community in Chicago, and she helped found the Experimental Film Coalition, which launched the Onion City Film Festival, held regular screenings, and published several periodicals. Dana Fradon (SAIC 1940–45) was a prolific cartoonist who contributed nearly 1,400 cartoons to the New Yorker, helping define its brand of satirical, wry, and sometimes ridiculous humor in a prolific magazine career. Marilyn Madden’s (SAIC 1986–88) home in Chicago featured a personal library of around 5,000 titles and a collection of antiques and outsider art. Her own artwork has been shown in several Chicago and regional galleries, and she continued work in painting and collage until the very end of her life. James Uhlir (MFA 1966) conducted Thunderhead Creative for 40 years and created paintings, sculptures, pottery, ceramics, lithographs, and photographs.
Theresa DiCesare (BFA 2006)
1960s
John Downs (SAIC 1955–58)
Gladys Nilsson’s (BFA 1962, HON 2016) solo exhibition Gladys Nilsson: New Work was on display at Chicago’s Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Sierra DuFault (SAIC 2006–09) Nita Engle (SAIC 1944–47) Martin Esteves (MFA 2003) Thomas Fawell (SAIC 1948–50) Robert “Jackson” Kennedy (BFA 2017) Lydia McDonald (BFA 1976) Ruth Muehlmeier (BFA 1948) Carl Newlin (BFA 1959) Barbara Prignano (MFA 1971) Kade Schaffer (MFA 1999) Franz Schulze (BFA 1949, MFA 1950, HON 2014) Nancy Witek (SAIC 1996)
Faculty: Dana Carter (Adjunct Associate Professor) Barbara Crane (Professor Emeritus) Thomas L. Sloan (Professor Emeritus)
Newcity’s review of EXPO CHICAGO 2019 featured six alums for their innovative use of materials and varying subject matter: Kay Rosen (SAIC 1967–71), as well as alums Julie Boldt (MFA 2019), Rosemary Hall (MFA 2019), Ed Oh (MFA 2019), Parvin Peivandi (MFA 2019), and Marie Ségolène (MFA 2019), whose work was featured in the SAIC Booth curated by Sarah Skaggs (MA 2016) and current graduate student Sophie Jenkins.
1950s Iconic fashion designer Halston (SAIC 1952) is celebrated in a new documentary to be released on June 7. Kay Hofmann (DIP 1955) was featured in ArtNews discussing her work and exhibition pour toujours at Patron Gallery in Chicago. Jim Zver (BFA 1957) had two pieces in the exhibition Ink and Clay 44, which was displayed at Kellogg Gallery in Pomona, California.
Q&A with Emil Ferris (BFA 2008, MFA 2010)
Emil Ferris (BFA 2008, MFA 2010). Photo: Whitten Sabbatini
Were there any SAIC faculty members who influenced you? There were quite a few and if I try to name them all, I’ll most certainly leave one or two out and feel completely terrible. First and foremost, most of the instructors at SAIC are working artists and thinkers who have achieved things within the world. Being in the sphere of people who are writing, performing, sculpting, painting, and just generally changing the art world by means of their dedication and uniqueness is invigorating. Why do your writings and illustrations focus on such dark subjects? Fiction—and dark fiction in particular—is necessary for our well-being. We use dark fiction to face ourselves and the devastating and terrifying aspects of our social past in ways that are comparatively safe. It’s important and extremely cathartic.
How does your writing speak to the larger concerns of society? I think everyone is connected. I mean everyone. I think there are no unimportant people or worthless experiences. Writing and visual art create empathy. What can readers learn from the situations your characters face? I think my characters find that art makes it possible to heal and heal stronger than before the injury. My path as an artist has taught me this. You encountered a number of obstacles on the way to publishing your first novel. What advice would you have for students to help them when they encounter obstacles? Just keep going. I say these words to myself every day. It was the only advice to take when I was going broke three years into a four-year project, or when 48 out of 50 publishers said, “No, thanks,” or when I was told that it’s possible pirates may have taken all the copies of my lost-at-sea book (I’m serious. It’s crazy but true). So, the three most important words to say to yourself when you encounter obstacles is, "Just keep going."
F EATURED EV EN T
EMIL FERRIS (BFA 2008, MFA 2010) is an artist and writer whose first graphic novel, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, has received critical acclaim and numerous awards. In 2001, she contracted West Nile Virus from a mosquito bite and became paralyzed, nearly losing her ability to draw. She learned to draw again and enrolled at SAIC, the school where her parents met, allowing her obsession with drawing and art to take over. She describes those experiences as the main inspiration for the novel. Ferris returns to SAIC for her Distinguished Alumni Visiting Artists Program lecture on February 11. For a full listing of VAP lectures, see the calendar on pages 56–59.
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This Spring at SAIC Public Events
EV EN TS
All events are free unless otherwise noted
January SCRE E NI NG From Asia, With Love: Contemporary Cinema from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China January 24–May 5 Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
February E XHIB ITIO N Post-Baccalaureate Annual February 1–15 Reception: January 31, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sullivan Galleries E XHIB ITIO N Spaces With(in): Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling Exhibition February 1–15 Reception: January 31, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sullivan Galleries
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
SC REENING 30th Annual Festival of Films from Iran February 1–23 Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase SC REENING Vaginal Davis February 6, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Society for Contemporary Art Tickets for purchase E X HIB ITION We Don’t Want Your MTV February 10–15 Sullivan Galleries
TAL K Emil Ferris: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series February 11, 6:00 p.m. Visiting Artists Program The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium
SC REENING Lori Felker February 13, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
February 13, 12:00 p.m. Fiber and Material Studies Mitchell Lecture Series Sharp Building, room 327 TA LK Glenn Belverio February 14, 12:00 p.m. Sullivan Galleries EVENT Presidents’ Day at SAIC February 17, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Admissions Event Columbus Drive Building SCRE E N ING Avant-Noir February 20, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase SCRE E N ING South by Southeast February 22, 12:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
March SC REENING Mariah Garnett March 5, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
April
TA LK Suzanne Anker March 10, 6:00 p.m. Visiting Artists Program The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium SC REENING Beatrice Gibson March 12, 6:00 p.m Conversations at the Edge. Chicago Filmmakers, 5720 N. Ridge Ave. Presented in partnership with the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival Tickets for purchase
SC REEN I NG This Set of Actions Is a Mirror April 2, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
EVENT Spring Art Sale April 3–4, 12:00–7:00 p.m. SAIC Ballroom E X HIB ITION ARTBASH 2020 April 3–17 Reception: April 3 SAIC Shows 2020 The LeRoy Neiman Center
TA LK Christian Campbell
February 27, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
March 24, 6:00 p.m. Visiting Artists Program Conversations at the Edge The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium
March 6–April 2 Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
February 25, 6:00 p.m. Visting Artists Program The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium
SCRE E N ING Linda Mary Montano
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SC REENING 23rd Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival
TA LK Industrial Facility
February 25, 7:00 p.m. Writing Department Visiting Artist Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior St.
TAL K Ian Cheng
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TA LK T’ai Smith
SC REENING 20th Annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival E X HIB ITION Spring Undergraduate Exhibition March 14–27 Reception: March 14, 12:00–6:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sullivan Galleries
April 4–16 Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase TAL K Trenton Doyle Hancock April 6, 6:00 p.m. Visiting Artists Program The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium SPRIN G 2 02 0
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E XHIB ITI O N IMPACT Performance Festival
TAL K Tsai Ming-Liang
E X HIB ITION Fashion 2020
April 9 & 11 SAIC Shows 2020 Defibrillator Gallery and the Zhou B Art Center 1029 W. 35th St.
April 21, 6:00 p.m. Visiting Artists Program The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium
May 8 Exhibition: 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Venue Six10 at Spertus Institute E X HIB ITION Visual and Critical Studies Undergraduate Thesis Symposium
EV EN TS
SCRE E N ING Wong Ping April 9, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Presented in partnership with the Open Practice Committee in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago Tickets for purchase
May 9, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sharp Building, room 327 E X HIB ITION BFA Writing Program Reading E X HIB ITION MFA Show April 25–May 13 Reception: April 24, 7:00–9:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sullivan Galleries
May 9, 5:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 The LeRoy Neiman Center
May TA LK Slicing the Eyeball: Early Cinema and Imagist Poetry by Zachary Tavlin April 14, 4:15–5:45 p.m. Liberal Arts Lecture Series SAIC Ballroom
TA LK McKenzie Wark and Legacy Russell April 16, 6:00 p.m. Conversations at the Edge Gene Siskel Film Center Presented in partnership with the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation Tickets for purchase
E X HIB ITION Art Education Master’s Symposium for Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Arts in Art Education Programs May 6, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Gene Siskel Film Center E X HIB ITION Film, Video, New Media, Animation, and Sound Festival May 6–9 SAIC Shows 2020 Gene Siskel Film Center
SCRE E N ING 25th Annual Asian American Showcase
E X HIB ITION Apprentice Teaching Presentations and Celebration of the BFAAE & MAT Programs of the Art Education Department
April 17–30 Gene Siskel Film Center Tickets for purchase
May 7, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sharp Building, room 327
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
E X HIB ITION Design Show May 9–26 Reception: May 9, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020
E X HIB ITION MFA Writing Program Reading May 12, 4:30–7:30 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020
June EVENT Transfer Day June 5, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Admissons Event Sullivan Center, suite 1201
June 2020 Tickets for purchase
July E XHIB ITIO N Low-Residency MFA Show July 10–26 Reception: July 9, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SAIC Shows 2020 Sullivan Galleries For all SAIC events, persons with disabilities requesting accommodations should visit saic.edu/access.
About Public Programs TA LKS Visiting Artists Program Formalized in 1951 with the establishment of an endowed fund by Flora Mayer Witkowsky, the Visiting Artists Program hosts public presentations by some of today’s most compelling practitioners and thinkers to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and culture. All events are free and open to the public. Learn more at saic.edu/vap. The Grayce Slovet and William Bronson Mitchell Lecture Series Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects (AIADO) The Mitchell Lecture Series bring leaders and emerging voices in architecture, design, and other disciplines from around the world to SAIC for lectures, workshops, and studio visits. For the spring 2020 schedule, visit saic.edu/aiado. Conversations on Art and Science The Conversations on Art and Science series is a forum for exploring
interdisciplinary and critical perspectives on art, science, design, and technology. Lectures and panel discussions bring noted artists, designers, and scholars to campus to discuss myriad perspectives on art, science, design, and technology and sustain the diverse conversations within the work of SAIC students and faculty. All events are free and open to the public. Learn more at saic.edu/artandscience. E X HIB ITIONS SAIC Shows 2020 SAIC celebrates our talented students completing their undergraduate and graduate degrees this year. Each year, students exhibit, present, or screen works that are a result of their focused efforts throughout their studies at SAIC. For more info, visit saic.edu/shows. Exhibitions at SAIC The Sullivan Galleries brings to Chicago audiences the work of acclaimed and emerging artists, while providing SAIC and the public opportunities for direct involvement and exchange with the discourses of art today. With shows and projects often led by faculty or student curators, it is a teaching gallery that engages the exhibition process as a pedagogical model and mode of research. For a full schedule, visit saic.edu/sullivangalleries/events. SITE SITE is a student-run organization at SAIC for the exhibition of student work. For a full schedule, visit saic.edu/site.
Locations
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All events take place on SAIC’s campus unless otherwise noted. The Art Institute of Chicago Rubloff Auditorium 230 S. Columbus Dr. Gene Siskel Film Center 164 N. State St. 312.846.2800 siskelfilmcenter.org Admission $12 general public $7 students $6 members $5 SAIC students and faculty, and staff of the Art Institute. Conversations at the Edge program is free for SAIC students.
EV EN TS
EVE NT Gene Siskel Film Center Annual Gala
SITE Columbus 280 S. Columbus Dr., room 103 SITE Sharp 37 S. Wabash Ave., suite 106 Sharp Building 37 S Wabash Ave. *The LeRoy Neiman Center is located on floors 1 and 2 Sullivan Galleries 33 S. State St., 7th floor saic.edu/exhibitions
SC REENINGS
Venue Six10 at Spertus Institute 610 S. Michigan Ave.
Conversations at the Edge Organized by the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with SAIC’s Gene Siskel Film Center and the Video Data Bank, Conversations at the Edge is a dynamic weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists. For more information, visit saic.edu/cate.
Photo credits, in order of appearance: Helen Lee (MFA 2019) at IMPACT Performance Festival 2019; © Emil Ferris; Artwork by Bella Walters (BFA 2019); Carolyn Lazard, A Recipe for Disaster, 2017, image courtesy of the artist; Still from Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí; Artwork by Xavier Robles Armas (MFA 2019); Artwork by Yen-Ping Wen (March 2019).
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SAIC celebrates our talented students completing their undergraduate and graduate degrees this year. All events are free and open to the public.
Apprentice Teaching Presentations and Celebration of the BFAAE & MAT Programs of the Art Education Department May 7
Post-Baccalaureate Annual February 1–15 Spaces With(in) February 1–15 Spring Undergraduate Exhibition March 14–27
Fashion 2020 May 8
ARTBASH 2020 April 3–17 IMPACT Performance Festival April 9 and 11 MFA Show April 25–May 13 Art Education Master’s Symposium for Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Arts in Art Education Programs May 6 Film, Video, New Media, Animation, and Sound Festival May 6–9
Visual and Critical Studies Undergraduate Thesis Symposium May 9 Design Show 2020 May 9–26 BFA Writing Program Reading May 9 MFA Writing Program Reading May 12 Low-Residency MFA Show July 10–26
SAIC.EDU/SHOWS
From the Archives
FR OM THE A RCHI V ES
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ARTISTIC FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES WAS NOT ALWAYS A GIVEN; the ability to express ideas freely was hard won. Jane Heap (SAIC 1902–05), a painter born in 1883 in Topeka, Kansas, was an important figure in this fight. Heap lived her adult life in Chicago openly with her partner, Margaret Anderson. Heap and Anderson first met in 1916, after which Heap became co-editor of Anderson’s publication The Little Review.
The Little Review was one of the first American publications dedicated to distributing modernist and avantgarde visual art from Europe. After the publication serialized James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1918, it was subsequently censored by the government, and Anderson and Heap were both convicted on obscenity charges. This
censorship ultimately led to the United States v. One Book Called Ulysses decision in 1933, a factor in the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on obscenity (and artistic freedom) in Roth v. United States decades later. The 1957 court case paved the way for the Supreme Court’s broad ruling on what constitutes obscenity today and gave artists and writers much greater leeway under US law.
Jane Heap is pictured here, labeled in the middle, outside the Jockey Club de Paris along with friends including Man Ray, Mina Loy, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound, Jean Cocteau, and James Joyce. Photo: Library of Congress
Heap, pictured here outside of the Jockey Club de Paris with friends (including James Joyce, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound, and Man Ray), was by all accounts a magnetic and creative personality. Though relatively unknown today, her commitment to freedom of expression, both personal and artistic, shaped our government’s modern views on artistic freedom. SPRIN G 2 02 0
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ON SAIC.EDU/MAGAZINE This issue of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago magazine explores courage and its place in the arts. Courage is a critical trait for a citizen artist, someone with an ethos of civic engagement. Courage compels citizen artists to create work that is not separate from the culture we live in and the society we build together. To champion this idea, SAIC hosts events to explore pressing issues of our time and engage with experts and leaders from around the globe. In October, SAIC and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting hosted “The Struggle for Justice: 1619 Project and the Changing Narrative on Mass Incarceration.” Nikole Hannah-Jones, lead writer on the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project” issue, gave a keynote about her reporting which reexamines the history of slavery in the United States and marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved people in America. Learn more about the people and stories featured in this issue and view photos on saic.edu/magazine. STAY CON N ECTED
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