A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
A headshot of SAIC faculty member Stevie Hanley

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Stevie Hanley

Assistant Professor, Adjunct

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Bio

Stevie Cisneros Hanley has been anchored in Chicago for 13 years where they work as an artist, curator, educator, and member of the Bargaining Committee of the newly unionized School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They teach Queer Color, a Research Studio class awarded the Pulitzer Campus Visit and a Course Enrichment Grant to work with Indigenous cultural preservationists and producers, such as Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu and Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu. Hanley is co-chair of the 2023 Terrain Biennial. They have had solo shows at the International Museum of Surgical Science, University Club of Chicago, M LeBanc, and Center of Endless Progress Berlin. Hanley has participated in numerous international exhibitions including Tüyup, Istanbul; Artist House Jerusalem, Jerusalem; La Mama Galeria, New York City; Lodos Contemporary, Mexico City; Julius Caesar Chicago; September, Berlin; NADA Miami; Iceberg Projects, Chicago; and CANARY, Los Angeles, Twins Gallery Laundry, and the Poetry Foundation. Hanley is currently exhibiting in NO BIOS, for Visual AIDS in New York City. As a multiracial person of Mexican (Zacatecas), Irish, Indigenous Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli), and Punjabi ancestry, I seek to uplift marginalized voices and cooperate in post-colonial community building. I've never fit neatly into privileged cultural or ethnic categories, which led me to find belonging and build my art practice in the margins and peripheries of diverse worlds. Like me, my artwork refuses to be easily categorized, thriving instead in layers of complexity, contradiction, and humor.

Education: MFA in Painting and Drawing, 2014, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BA in Psychology and Fine Art, 2006, University of California, Berkeley.

Awards and Residencies: MASS MoCA Artist Residency, Winter 2023; Poor Farm Artist Residency, Summer 2023; DCASE Individual Artist Grant from the city of Chicago, 2018-2019; OX-BOW Fall Artist in Residence, 2017; George and Ann Siegel Fellowship Recipient, 2014; MFA Deanʻs Scholar in Painting and Drawing, 2012-2014; TAKT Residency, Berlin, Germany, 2006-2009.

Publications: Contributing writer for The New Art Examiner, Chicago, 2019 to present. Also publish under the alias, SCR2W; WWW, Visual AIDS, July 2023; Print Volume 10 of Ugly Duckling Press's Emergency Index of performance art from 2020 and 2021; New American Paintings, 2017, Midwest, Issue #131; Out There Magazine, Great Britain, 2017 Print and Digital edition; Inside/ Within, April 2016.

Solo & Two-Person Exhibitions (Selection): 2025, Puʻuhonua, Uncle Charlies Avocado Hale, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi (Forthcoming); 2025, Miscegenation Coloring Book, Siblings Gallery, Chicago (Forthcoming); 2024, Carnival Against Power, Two-Person Exhibit with Vesna Jovanovic, Inferno, New York City (Forthcoming); 2021, Temperance, Twin Gallery Laundry, Chicago; 2019 Parallel Inversion, University Club of Chicago; 2019, Ghost Sex, M. LeBlanc Gallery, Chicago; 2016, Synaesthetica, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; 2015, Creeping Towards the Light, Julius Caesar, Chicago; 2014, Perverted Living, Flat Space Chicago, Chicago; 2012, Held Open, September Gallery, Berlin; 2011, Stray dogs run wild […] The Center for Endless Progress, Berlin; 2010, Rent Boy, Vico Disco, New York, NY; 2010, Rain Down the Harvest, Lucas Carrei Gallery, Berlin; 2009, Pool of Birds, Rote Lotte, Berlin; 2008, Spilt a Rock and You Will Find God, Galerie Studio St. St., Berlin; 2007, When Old Pennies Become a Tool to Count the Dead, The Clown Gallery, Berlin; 2005, Visions of Utopia, Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, CA.

Group Exhibitions and Performances (Selection): 2024, Spring 2024 Ceramics Faculty Exhibition, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; 2024, Post Cards from the Edge, Visual AIDS, New York City; 2023, NO BIOS, Visual AIDS & EFA Project Space, New York, NY; 2023, Selektons and Selections from the Bill Arning Queer Art Collection, Houston, TX; 2023, Kuriositätenkabinette, Kōstlin Sammlung, Berlin; 2022, Nice Work 2, Sulk Gallery, Chicago; 2022, OPEN DOOR series, Poetry Foundation, Chicago; 2022, Abstract Lunch, Abstract Acres, Fennville, MI; 2021, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, as part of the Successful Failures: Thirty Years of Lumpens, Radical Media mm. and Building Community, Chicago Cultural Center; 2021, Moloch, M LeBlanc Gallery; 2021, The Long Dream, as a member of the Quarantine Times collective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; 2021, The Care Bear Police, Iceberg Projects, Chicago; 2020, Blue Print Annual Benefit, Spudnik Press, Chicago; 2020, Templates for Public Art, Limited Time Engagement, Online Video Game Opening; 2020, THIS IS FAIR NADA, with M LeBlanc, Online; 2020, CORE-Official Announcement and Exhibition of Represented Artists, M LeBlanc, Chicago (Forthcoming); 2020, Mr. Clean Orgy, Quarantine Times, Online; 2020, Sex Work in the Academy and Art World, Public School, Los Angeles; 2020, Psychic Plumbing, CANARY, Los Angeles; 2020, What Remains, DFBRL8R, Chicago; 2020, Prairie Benefit Auction Group Show, Prairie Gallery, Chicago; 2020, Switching Codes of Pleasure, Panel Discussion and Exhibition, High Concept Labs, Chicago; 2019, NADA Miami Art Fair, with M. LeBlanc Gallery, Miami (Forthcoming); 2019, Eldorado, Schwules Museum, Berlin; 2019, NADA Chicago Invitational Art Fair, with M. LeBlanc Gallery, Chicago; 2019, Psychic Plumbing, The Dunes Resort, Saugatuck Michigan; 2019, Siblings, Siblings Collective; 2019, Censored, The Condo Association, Chicago; 2018, Gødbottom, Inerferno, New York; 2018, Roy G Biv, Aurora Public Art Commission, Aurora, IL; 2018, And Eat It Too!, The Condo Association, Chicago; 2018, Stich, The Condo Association, Chicago; 2017, Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL; 2017, Rise from the Rubble: Weather the Winds, Chicago Artist Coalition; 2017, Refrigerator Bed, Köstlin Sammlung, Berlin; 2017, Dangerous Professors, Triumph Gallery, Chicago; 2017, Corporate Lunch, Condo Association, Chicago; 2017, THAWALLS, Performance in hosted by Tha and Three Walls, Chicago; 2017, Animal Farm, Dalton Warehouse, Los Angeles; 2017, Benefit Auction for LGBT Refugees, Schwules Museum, Berlin; 2017, Split Eye Geometry, Google Headquarters, Chicago; 2017, The City Beautiful, Donnelley Foundation, Chicago; 2016, Cosmos Pornography, Art Helix, New York City; 2016, Contempo Casuals, SHIM, Chicago; 2016, Date, Date, Date, Fountainhead Lofts, Pilsen, Chicago; 2016, Shit of My Soul Quilt, Christie’s Auction House Midwest Offices, Hancock Building, Chicago; 2016, Haunted House, International Museum of Surgical Science; 2015, Little Dancer Aged 14, Iceberg Projects, Chicago; 2015, Dissemination of Blind Light, curated by La Kiesha Leek, Chicago Artist Coalition; 2015, Peregrine, Lodos Contemporary, Mexico City, Mexico.  

Writing & Curatorial Work: Co-chair of the Board, 2023 Terrain Biennial: Mycelium Connection, 2022-present; Contributing writer, The New Art Examiner, US Division, 2017-present; Founder and co-owner, Siblings Collective, formerly The CONDO ASSOCIATION, 2017-present; Curator, Godbottom, Chicago and New York, 2018; Curatorial assistant, Schwules Museum, Berlin, 2007-2012.

Personal Statement

Stevie Cisneros Hanley, affectionately described as “The Dainty Satanist” by Vaginal Davis, is a Chicago-based artist, curator, educator, and union organizer. Hanley’s practice bridges disciplines, presenting art that challenges hierarchies and envisions postcolonial futures. They have exhibited nationally and internationally, creating cultural exchange in unexpected spaces—from sex clubs to churches—while inviting audiences to engage with the transformative potential of art.

As a multiracial artist of Mexican (Zacatecas), Irish, Indigenous Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli), and Punjabi ancestry, Hanley embraces a pluralistic identity. They reject reductive categorizations, embodying the philosophy that “a part can still be whole.” Through an interdisciplinary approach involving drawing, painting, writing, sewing, and collaging, Hanley explores ancestral silences (Hāmau) as spaces of reciprocity, love, and wisdom.

Anchored in Chicago for the past 13 years, Hanley teaches courses such as Queer Color and Feminist and Queer Clay Strategies at SAIC, where they have been recognized with a Pulitzer Campus Visit and a Course Enrichment Grant for their collaborations with Indigenous cultural preservationists like Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu. As co-chair of the 2023 Terrain Biennial, Hanley has fostered community-driven art experiences while contributing to global exhibitions in cities including Berlin, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Hanley’s work has been showcased in venues such as the International Museum of Surgical Science, the Poetry Foundation, and Iceberg Projects, as well as in experimental contexts like the Center of Endless Progress in Berlin and the CANARY gallery in Los Angeles. Currently, they are exhibiting in NO BIOS for Visual AIDS in New York City.

Committed to uplifting marginalized voices and fostering postcolonial community building, Hanley’s practice celebrates the fluid interplay between identity, history, and artistic expression.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

**This course is for College Arts Access Program (CAAP) students only and is closed to outside registrants.**

Art does not stop when the piece is finished- showing work to the public is a large part of the artistic process and should be considered as deeply as the making itself. In this course, students discuss traditional and contemporary presentation methods, from high end galleries and museums to online exhibitions to artist-run shows. In addition to in class examinations of what an exhibition can be and its impact on how artwork is viewed/received, students organize and assemble their own exhibition: from marketing to presentation choices to artist statements to installation to opening reception. Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC's Sullivan Galleries and Student Union Galleries, the Cultural Center, and other Chicago venues help inform discussion and research. Students should have finished, portfolio-quality work that they are ready to exhibit prior to taking this course, as it does not cover studio time or techniques.

Class Number

2371

Credits

1

Description

In this hands-on studio course, students will not only develop new works of art to round out their portfolios for upcoming college applications but they will also select, revise, and edit their existing works. Through dynamic workshops and one-on-one meetings with SAIC faculty and admissions staff, students will discover the most effective way to document and organize their work and represent their unique points-of-views as artists to the colleges of their choice. This course also places emphasis on studio time and support from faculty to create final projects that will enhance student's overall portfolio presentation. Additional resources such as artist presentations, and virtual visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and other cultural institutions supplement the course curriculum.

Class Number

2421

Credits

1

Description

This course is your chance to mix traditional techniques with cutting-edge digital methods as you experiment with everything from drawing and sculpture to image transfer, collage, laser cutting, and 3D printing. Begin with exciting mini-projects and hands-on demonstrations to spark your imagination and get your ideas flowing. You'll refine your concepts through engaging discussions before completing a final project reflecting your unique style and interests. Plus, you'll explore the latest trends in art, showcasing inspiring work from contemporary artists pushing boundaries today.

Class Number

2346

Credits

1

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers.

In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership.

Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1306

Credits

3

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers.

In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership.

Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1242

Credits

3

Description

The course Research Studio II builds on the learning outcomes from Research Studio I, asking students to continue to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities.

This spring the entire Contemporary Practice department will have a shared umbrella topic for our RSII courses: Contemporary Now. All RSII classes will engage with the present and what is happening right now. With the world moving so fast - a pandemic, fires burning across the US west, people marching in the streets across the globe, and the storms that seem to keep coming, it is critical we ask questions of ourselves as artists, designers, educators and cultural producers: What responsibility do we have at any moment in history? How can the diversity of our practices: research, study, making and actions, address the present and design the future we want to see?

In RSII courses students will investigate this shared departmental thematic through the intersection of their own practice and the pedagogical practices of their faculty. All RSII classes are interdisciplinary, faculty have provided a subtitle, and a short description to describe the lens through which their class will explore the theme of Contemporary Now.

Class Number

1287

Credits

3

Description

In this course students explore color theory through independent projects with the aid of faculty and various research methods. Color theory is studied psychologically, spiritually, aesthetically, and politically. This course pulls from a diverse range of color theorists and methodologies such as: Josef Albers Interaction of Color, Coloraid, AfriCOBRA, Gilbert Baker, Betty Edwards, and more. Traditional color theory is unpacked and expanded to account for how color has been weaponized and venerated in participation to power, suppression, race, cultural difference, gender, sexuality, and queer peoples.

Class Number

1205

Credits

3

Description

This class engages with feminist and queer theory to explore non-traditional methods of engaging with clay. Students will cultivate strategies for producing artwork in dialogue with conversations on the body as a medium, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course, students will draw from assigned text, research, and art historical references as a source for contextualizing their own practice. Projects will explore the use of form, formlessness, and performance as processes for manipulating ceramic material.

Class Number

1002

Credits

3