Class Notes

Group Shows/News

Petra Bachmaier (BFA 1999) and Sean Gallero (BFA 1998) of Luftwerk Studio had a two-person exhibition, Exact Dutch Yellow, at Chicago Cultural Center’s Exhibit Hall.

Luiza Kurzyna (BFA 2005) and Elise Rasmussen (MFA 2007) were part of A.I.R. Gallery’s 15th Biennial exhibition, Friend of the Artist.

Congruent Space and their design coordinator Jeffrey Kaya (BFA 2021) hosted an off-site installation by art collective Goodbye Tomorrow in partnership with EXPO Chicago titled Z-Space. The installation includes works from SAIC alums including Jeffrey Kaya, Jordan Ferguson (BFA 2022), Noah Sherbin (BFA 2022), and Zach Weber (BFA 2021).  

Erica Maria Littlejohn (MFA 2022), Corey Smith (MFA 2021), Ruby Que (MFA 2022), and Val Thompson (BFA 2024) took part in the group exhibition SPACORE at Co-Prosperity in Chicago.

Rio Chen (MDes 2021) and Rahma Shahid (MDes 2021) founded randr research institute in 2021 and are launching the second online exhibition from their online residency program.

Heather Lyon (BFA 2002, MFA 2004), Erin Woodbrey (MFA 2014), and José Santiago Pérez (MFA 2015) were selected to have their works featured in the 2023 Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) Biennial exhibition in Rockland, Maine.

Jessica Campbell (MFA 2014), Lilli Carré (BFA 2006), Julia Schmitt Healy (BFA 1970, MFA 1972), Richard Hull (MFA 1980), Aya Nakamura (Post-Bacc 2011, MFA 2013), Rachel Niffenegger (BFA 2008), Deb Sokolow (MFA 2004), Ruby T (MFA 2016), and Erin Washington (MFA 2011) took part in the second Western Exhibitions Drawing Biennial.

2020s

Sungho Bae (MFA 2021), Sofía Sánchez Borboa (MA 2021), Molly Blumberg (MFA 2020), Sophie Buchmueller (MA 2022), Denny Mwaura (MA 2021), Ruby Que (MFA 2022), Sophia English (BFA 2019), Youree Kim (BFA 2017), Alex Kostiw (MFA 2016) and Shonnah Pryor (MFA 2012) received 2023–24 HATCH Residencies with the Chicago Artists Coalition.

Alé Campos (MFA 2022), Alexis de Chaunac (MFA 2022), Abraham Cone (BFA 2021), and Olya Salimova (BFA 2022) received the 2023–24 BOLT Residency opportunity through the Chicago Artists Coalition.

Johnny Jiasheng Chen (MFA 2022) was one of the winners of LIT Lighting Design Awards 2022.

Decheng Cui (MFA 2020) opened 4C Gallery, focused on Chinese conceptual art in Los Angeles. The first exhibition is Cui’s solo show, Metaphysical Series. 

Emilia Nicholson-Fajardo (MA 2020) became a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 

Veronica Anne Salinas (MFA 2020) was selected to present a soundwalk at New Music Gathering 2023 at Portland State University in Oregon. She also facilitated a deep listening workshop at CAMPBIENT, an annual sound art residency in Seattle.

Qianwen Yu (MFA 2020) created The Blueness in Zhuang, a stop-motion animation using indigo dyes on cloth about the cultural heritage of the Zhuang people and their hometown of Guangxi. The animation is featured on Fiverr.

2010s

Min Baek (BFA 2017) had a two-person exhibition, Rough Growth, at Helen J Gallery in Los Angeles. 

Katie Chung (BFA 2014) had her work featured in the window of the Lush Chicago storefront. 

Biraaj Dodiya (BFA 2015) was featured in the two-person show Shadow Speak at Bureau in New York.

Assaf Evron (MFA 2013) had a solo exhibition, Collages for Mies van der Rohe, at David Salkin Creative in Chicago. 

Sun Yunxue Fu (MFA 2014) showed her project, Daughter I.C.E. Metaverse Home, with AiKa at NFT Paris 2023. 

Gordon Hall (MA, MFA 2011) took part in two group exhibitions: [Voicings] at Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut, and Behind abstract forms at Fragment Gallery, New York.

Tsehaye Geralyn Hebert (MFA 2014) received the Kendeda Award for her play The C.A. Lyons Project.

Lee Hodge (BFA 2015) was named a 2023 Luminarts Fellow in Creative Writing–Poetry by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation in Chicago. 

Kelly Kroener (MFA 2010) is part of a two-person exhibition, Beneath the Firmament, with Malik Purvis at Special Feature in Chicago. 

Yang Mai (MFA 2016) held the solo exhibition 好！(SAY-SO) at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing, China. He also participated in an online group exhibition, Abstract, Distortion and Fragmentation International Juried Exhibition, at Li Tang Gallery in New York.

Al-Qawi Nanavati (BFA 2017) had a solo exhibition at Voices Studios in Dubuque, Iowa. 

Cody Norman (BFA 2016) held a solo exhibition, GLAM.GLOM.GLOOM, at Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa.

Lydia Peabody (MA 2017) was named associate curator of the Peabody Essex Museum where she recently curated Gio Swaby: Fresh Up.

Sneha Shah (BFA 2015) became a Forbes 30 Under 30 for Arts & Culture 2023 (Europe) honoree as the founder of Curaty, an art advisory firm driving social consciousness in building and managing art collections.

Cassie Tompkins (BFA 2010) showed new fiber and ceramic work with Peter Ronan in an exhibition named Pink Moon at Roman Susan Art Foundation in Chicago. 

Hope Wang (BFA 2018) is a 2023 recipient of the Luminarts Fellowship in Visual Arts. Fellows receive $10,000 each and continued support from the foundation through professional development, artistic opportunities, and additional project grant funding. 

Michael Webster (MFA 2012) was selected as a 2023 South Arts' State Fellow, representing South Carolina. The exhibition with all nine State Fellows will take place at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi, before traveling to other venues in the south.

Andrew Norman Wilson (MFA 2011) held an exclusive two-week screening of his video installation Workers Leaving the Googleplex at the MoMA in New York.

Erin Woodbrey (MFA 2014) was part of the two-person exhibition Here After with Megan Biddle at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia. She had an online exhibition, Three Autumns and Two Winters, at Viral Ecologies and took part in the group exhibition A Good Jawn at White Columns Online.

Angela Xu (BFA 2018) graduated from law school with a juris doctor degree and earned a certificate of concentration in environmental law from Stetson University.

Sarp Kerem Yavuz (MFA 2015) celebrated his 10th career solo exhibition, Shadows of the Empire, at the High Line Nine Galleries in New York.

Kat Zagaria Buckley (MA 2017) curated two exhibitions at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery: Veronica A. Perez: shadow / echo / memory and Embodying Softness/Excavating Delight.

2000s

Jean Bundy (MFA 2007) became the editor of AICA-E-MAG, a magazine that showcases art critics all over the world.

Annika Connor (BFA 2002) was featured in Galerie residency’s Meet the Artist session, in which they displayed their paintings and gave an artist talk.

Jemal Diamond (MFA 2003) was invited to Triton Museum’s Salon 2023 and had his curatorial debut with This is not Art at Visual Philosophy in San Jose.

Denise Duong (BFA 2009) showcased her work at JRB Art at the Elms in Oklahoma City as part of their Past, Present, Future exhibition. 

Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee (BFA 2008) was named a Creative Revolutionary in CODAworx’s 2023 list.

Lisa G. French (BFA 2001) was part of a group show with the Mojave Artists of Color Collective at Compound Yucca Valley, California. 

Laura Fuller-Cooper (MA 2000) exhibited her collage work Visually Poetic at the Next Act Theatre Gallery in Milwaukee.

Erin Garrity-Duffey (BFA 2004) had her first solo gallery show, Working Memory, at Madron Gallery in Chicago. 

Noelle Hamlyn (BFA 2009) held the solo exhibition Noelle Hamlyn: Lifers at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the largest museum in Canada. 

Christopher Harris (MFA 2000) was a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.

Mie Kongo (BFA 2006) held the solo exhibition Concordance at 65GRAND in Chicago. 

Kim Leutwyler (BFA 2009) held the solo exhibition Queer Corporeality at Nanda/Hobbs Gallery in Chippendale, Australia.

Erica Lord (MFA 2006) was one of six artists chosen for Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023, at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was the first year Native American artists were chosen to be part of the invitational.

Alyssa Miserendino (BFA 2004) released her debut album, Oropendola, with Joshua Bruner.

Jeff Musser (BFA 2000) was featured in Art and Cake, a contemporary art magazine focusing on the Los Angeles Art Scene. 

William J. O’Brien (MFA 2005) had a two-person exhibition with Sasha Feldman, Clayjà Vu, at Ki Smith Gallery in New York.

John Opera (MFA 2005) had two solo exhibitions: The Observers at DOCUMENT, Chicago, and Blue Dream at DOCUMENT, Lisbon. He also had a solo museum exhibition, Redux, at Elder Gallery at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln. 

Susannah Papish (MFA 2002) co-authored the book Invisible Labors: Reviving Histories of Women’s Land Work in the Blue Island Ridge Communities, Chicago, Illinois with Melissa Potter.

Heidi Parkes’ (BFA 2005) diary quilts were featured on the cover of Threads magazine.

Jean-René Rinvil (MFA 2002) was selected as a winner of the 1st Budapest International Art Show for his painting Fanm Vanyan (Selfless), which was showcased at the Golden Duck Gallery in Budapest.

Stephanie Sauer (MFA 2008) co-curated Paper Is People: Decolonizing Global Paper Cultures at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

Carrie Schneider (MFA 2007) had a solo exhibition, Sphinx, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. 

Edra Soto (MFA 2000, Post-Bacc 1998) received the Latinx Artist Fellowship, an award administered by the US Latinx Art Forum. She also held the solo exhibition The Myth of Closure/El Mito del Cierre at Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. 

Karen Tam (MFA 2002) held a solo exhibition Swallowing Mountains / Avaler les montagnes at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal. She created a temporary outdoor winter installation, Dragons Chasing the Moon, in Montreal’s Chinatown. Tam also moderated a discussion, Conversation Pieces on Chinoiserie, Materiality, and the Lure of Objects, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 

Josh Tuininga (BFA 2000) is releasing his graphic novel, We Are Not Strangers, this year with a book launch taking place in Seattle. 

Matt Wedel (BFA 2005) exhibited his sculptures in the show Phenomenal Debris at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Kyle Wood (BFA 2007) created the podcasts Art Smart and Who ARTed, which have been selected by the Airwave Media podcast network.

1990s

Catherine Arnold (MFA 1991) won the 2023 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize for her book, Receipt for Lost Words, which came out in May.

Michele Brody (MFA 1994) was part of a group exhibition Scaling Nature at Bronx River Art Center in New York. 

william cordova (BFA 1996) led an artist lecture at Illinois State University’s University Galleries. Cordova also participated in a show The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Justin Dauer (BFA 1998) released his second book, In Fulfillment: The Designer’s Journey, which covers practical, real-world examples and tactics to ensure fulfillment serves as a guide toward where, what, and why one creates.

Mari Eastman (MFA 1996) had a solo exhibition, Mari Eastman at Green Gallery, at the Green Gallery East in Milwaukee.

Lora Fosberg (MFA 1991) had a solo exhibition, Smoke Show, at Zolla / Lieberman Gallery in Chicago.

Darlene Gambotz (BFA 1990, Post-Bacc 1992) had a posthumous retrospective of her work shown at the Chicago Art Department entitled A Woman For All Seasons. 

Paul Haggard (BFA 1992) did a mural commission in the Groupon building (formerly the Montgomery Ward building). 

Laura Kina (MFA 1994) had a solo exhibition, Over the Rainbow, One More Time, and gave an artist talk at the Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery in Riverside, Illinois.

Fern Logan (MFA 1993) and her studio won The Coramino Fund, a program supporting Black and Latinx entrepreneurs across the country.

Leah Oates (MFA 1997) participated in exhibition Group Show #3 at Gallery 1313 in Toronto. Her work was featured in the 2022 smallWORKS exhibition at the Garrison Art Center, Garrison, New York. She also took part in the exhibition Open/Unfiltered at A Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. 

Shin Yu Pai’s (MFA 1999) chart-topping podcast, Ten Thousand Things, with KUOW Public Radio was listed as one of the top 10 podcasts of 2023 so far by Mashable. She also received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship to support her work as the City of Seattle’s Civic Poet. She has two forthcoming books, Less Desolate and No Neutral.

Amanda Ross-Ho (BFA 1998) had her first UK solo exhibition, UNTITLED PERIOD PIECE, at Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland.

Dread Scott (BFA 1990) gave an artist talk at Case Western Reserve University’s Tinkham Veale University Center, co-organized by CWRU and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Andrea Stanislav (BFA 1990) showcased her interactive performance Reflect - Palm Desert at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert, California. 

Oli Watt (MFA 1998) was part of the two-person exhibition BTWXT #1 at Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago.

Apichatpong Weersaethakul (MFA 1998, HON 2011) held a solo exhibition A Planet of Silence with Kiang Malingue at both Kiang Malingue Sik On Street and Kiang Malingue Tin Wan in Hong Kong.

1980s

Neil Andersson (MFA 1987) had a two-person exhibition Spring Landscapes at Jeffrey Moose Gallery in Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

Danniel Anthon (MA 1989) self-published a book, The Magic Carpet Ride: Art Therapy in the ‘Real’ World: A Reflective Memoir. The book covers his 35-year career as an artist and art therapist.

Nancy Bechtol (MFA 1984) held a solo exhibition no RAIN no RAINBOWS at ARC Gallery. Bechtol also participated in a two-person exhibition Opposites Attract at August House Chicago.

Shawn Hall (BFA 1987) had a solo exhibition D.O.T.S. (Discrete Organic Temporal Suspensions) at Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans.

Janet Jaffke (BFA 1982) had a solo exhibition, Raw Hope, at Evanston’s Noyes Art Gallery.

Margaret Krug (MFA 1983) announced her 2023 drawing program Drawing to See at Tenuta di Spannocchia in Italy. 

Carol Neiger (BFA 1980) participated in an Open Studios session named Reinventing Eden at the Jewish Art Salon.

Connie Noyes (BFA 1981) had a solo exhibition we are built in water at the Evanston Art Center in Evanston, Illinois. 

Ellen Soffer (MFA 1983) held the solo exhibition Ellen Soffer: Pink Sky at artspace in Shreveport, Louisiana. Additionally, an artist talk was held with the curator, Kelly McDade.

1970s

King Cormack (BFA 1977) had a solo exhibition, King’s Big Art Show, at Kane Space in Wicker Park, Chicago.

Julia Schmitt Healy (MFA 1972) had her wood-grained series featured at EXPO Chicago 2023 with Western Exhibitions.

Rosalinda Kolb (MFA 1976) had her work Exile Series #11 exhibited in Music as Image and Metaphor at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn.

1940s

Ruth Waddell (BFA 1949) held an open studio at Waddell Studio and Sculpture Grounds in Arizona.

We make a substantial effort to include as many SAIC alum accomplishments in “Class Notes” as possible. Due to the enormous talent and wide reach of the SAIC community, there may be alum updates that were not included. Please click here if you would like to submit your updates, news, and accomplishments for consideration to be included in “Class Notes” in the next issue of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago magazine. Please note, SAIC reserves the right to edit submissions.

In Memoriam

Morris Dorenfeld (BFA 1961)

Jeffrey Michael Foley (MFA 1980)

E. Richard R. Fowler (SAIC 1962)

Mary Ann Gardner (BFA 1990)

Mary Carol Geimer (MA 1958)

William J. Grant (SAIC 1994–95)

Joan L. Halper (BFA 1954)

Tom P. Heflin (SAIC 1955-56)

Donald G. Kalec (SAIC 1994)

Jeanne R. Malkin (BFA 1987)

Geraldine M. Palmquist (SAIC 1992)

Norman Perman (BFA 1951)

Young-Ju Park (HON 2016)

James A. Rose (BFA 1990)

Elaine V. Sager (SAIC 1974–78)

John J. Sarsfield (BFA 1959)

Erik Weisenburger (BFA 1992)

Katherine Y. Wilson (BFA 1982)

Maria J. Wilson (BFA 1969)

Benjamin N. Yamada (BFA 1963)

Allan R. Zirlin (BFA 1960)

Darlene Gambotz (BFA 1990, Post-Bacc 1992) ■