School of the Art Institute of Chicago to Honor An-My Lê, Sanford Biggers, and Wu Tsang at Commencement Ceremony

May 3, 2024

CHICAGO—The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), a global leader in art and design education, will welcome world-renowned photographer An-My Lê to deliver the Commencement address on Monday, May 20, at the Wintrust Arena. Lê will receive an honorary doctorate alongside two other celebrated artists: alums Sanford Biggers (MFA 1999) and Wu Tsang (BFA 2004).

Lê is a MacArthur-winning photographer whose work addresses war’s impact on culture and the environment. Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Sanford Biggers works interdisciplinarily to speak to current social, political, and economic happenings while examining the contexts that bore them. MacArthur-winning Wu Tsang is a filmmaker and visual artist who combines documentary and narrative techniques with fantastical detours into the imaginary.

“Each year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating artists, designers, and scholars prepare to take all they’ve learned in college and turn their talents into positive contributions the world,” said SAIC President Elissa Tenny, “And this year’s honorary degree recipients, Commencement speaker An-My Lê and alums Sanford Biggers and Wu Tsang, provide sterling examples of how artists can and do make our shared society more beautiful, visionary, and wise.”

Since 1938, SAIC has awarded honorary degrees to an elite group of individuals who have made significant contributions to art, design, and scholarship. Past recipients include Mel Chin, Albert Oehlen, Jeff Koons (SAIC 1975–76), members of the Hairy Who, Tania Bruguera (MFA 2001), Yoko Ono, David Sedaris (BFA 1987), Theaster Gates, Patti Smith, founding members of AFRICOBRA, Marina Abramovic, Philip Glass, and Jeanne Gang.

In addition to remarks from President Elissa Tenny and Lê, the event will include messages from faculty, alums, and students. 

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An-My Lê is an internationally renowned photographer primarily based in New York. As a teenager in 1975, however, Lê fled Vietnam with her family, and they eventually settled in the United States as refugees. Her work often addresses the impact of war on culture and on the environment, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award. Her work has also been exhibited widely, including in the Whitney Biennial and Taipei Biennial as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Tate Modern, London. Most recently, Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières, a 30-year survey of her career, including her forays into film, textiles, and installation was presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lê is currently the Charles Franklin Kellogg and Grace E. Ramsey Kellogg Professor in the Arts at Bard College, New York.

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Image credit: Justin Lubke

Sanford Biggers (MFA 1999) is a New York-based interdisciplinary conceptual artist who works in sculpture, painting, installation, textiles, sound, video, and performance. His work is an interplay of narrative, perspective, and history that speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings while examining the contexts that bore them. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Morehouse College’s Bennie Trailblazer Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, Heinz Award for the Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Rome Prize in Visual Arts; additionally he has been inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and as a National Academician by the National Academy of Design. Biggers’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others. Biggers was also a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor and Scholar in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Architecture and has served as an associate professor of Sculpture and New Genres of Visual Arts at Columbia University.

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Image credit: Gina Folly

Wu Tsang (BFA 2004) is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist who combines documentary and narrative techniques with fantastical detours into the imaginary. Tsang is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and numerous other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Hugo Boss Prize Nominee, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship. Her projects have been presented at museums, biennials, and film festivals internationally, including at the Biennale di Venezia and Whitney Biennial as well as the Tate Modern, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Gropius Bau, Berlin; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. In addition to her bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Wu Tsang received a master of fine arts degree from University of California Los Angeles . Currently, she is a director-in-residence at Schauspielhaus Zürich.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

For more than 155 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world, and adults, teens, and kids in our Continuing Studies classes have the opportunity to explore their creative sides, build portfolios, and advance their skills. Notable alumni and faculty include Georgia O’Keeffe, Nick Cave, David Sedaris, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Cynthia Rowley, Michelle Grabner, Richard Hunt, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Jeff Koons.