School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) Visiting Artists Program

01/07/2021

Raqs Media Collective, 11/17/20 - SAIC's Visiting Artists Program Lecture

Did you tune into Raqs Media Collective's Visiting Artists Program program on November 17th? In case you missed it or would like to revisit, a recording is available on our Youtube channel.
Raqs Media Collective, formed in 1992 by Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, argues for a mode of “kinetic contemplation” that rides a restless entanglement with the world. This translates into working with moving images to unsettle ways of ordering space and time through timelines, life-lines, latitudes, and longitudes.

Raqs Media Collective, formed in 1992 by Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, argues for a mode of “kinetic contemplation” that rides a ...

01/05/2021

Ebony G. Patterson, 10/27/20 - SAIC's Visiting Artist Program Lecture

Catch artist Ebony G. Patterson's Fall 2020 lecture on Youtube! Patterson’s multilayered practice—in painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video—uses beauty as a tool to address global, social, and political injustices.

Ebony G. Patterson’s multilayered practice—in painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video—uses beauty as a tool to address global, social, and ...

12/16/2020

Fall 2020 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer Nyugen E. Smith is exhibiting in PRIZM Art Fair, on view now through December 21! View his work at the link below.

Nyugen Smith (@bundlehouse) is a first-generation Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist who uses sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photography, sculpture, and writing to explore the experiences of African descendants in the diaspora. His work often explores themes such as memory, trauma, spiritual practices, language, violence, and the built and natural space around us.

View his work and others at #PrizmArtFair2020 using the link below
https://www.prizmartfair.com/

12/15/2020

Irma Boom, 10/13/20 - SAIC's Visiting Artists Program Lecture

In case you missed designer Irma Boom's Visiting Artists Program on October 13th, it is available on our Youtube page!

In this virtual studio visit, Alison Fisher, Harold and Margot Schiff Associate Curator of Architecture and Design at the The Art Institute of Chicago, and acclaimed graphic designer Irma Boom discuss SHV Think Book 1996–1896, Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor, and other exciting projects by Boom.

Irma Boom is an acclaimed graphic designer and bookmaker based in Amsterdam. Boom studied fine art and graphic design at the AKI Academy of Art & Design in E...

12/10/2020

Raqs Media Collective: Why do they call the answer to a question, a solution?

Have you checked out fall 2020 visiting artists Raqs Media Collective's new video works? The works are part of the Pandemic Circle, a trilogy of poetic videos that grapple with the lockdown's impact on daily routines and relationships.

Why do they call the answer to a question, a solution? (12 mins, video, spoken word), 2020 by Raqs Media CollectiveThe third video in the pandemic circle tur...

12/08/2020

Nasher Public: Nyugen E. Smith - at the Nasher

Opening soon! Fall 2020 Distinguished Alumni Speaker Nyugen E. Smith (MFA 2016) will present fourteen Spirit Carriers, a series of found object constructions that the artist began in 2016 at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Accompanying the installation is a musical composition that is part of ongoing, multi-part project called Masta My Language. Listen to Smith discuss the Spirit Carriers and the impact of the pandemic and the movement for social and racial justice at the link.

The work of artist Nyugen E. Smith examines the universal human experiences of memory, trauma, and spirituality through the multifarious impacts of colonialism on the African diaspora.  A first-generation Caribbean-American born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Haitian and Trinidadia...

12/04/2020

SAIC's Visiting Artists Program

Thank you for tuning in to our first virtual lecture series this fall! We were thrilled to host Fred Wilson, Ocean Vuong, Irma Boom, Ebony G. Patterson, Nyugen E. Smith, and Raqs Media Collective. Please enjoy a selection of SAIC Visiting Artists Program recordings on Youtube at the link below.

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11/30/2020

The Pandemic Circle by Raqs Media Collective

Premiering tomorrow! Two new video works by fall 2020 visiting artists Raqs Media Collective will premiere December 1 on the Stamps School of Art & Design Youtube Channel and EXPO CHICAGO programming microsite. "twentyfourbyseven" and "Why do they call the answer to a question, a solution?" will complete The Pandemic Circle, a trilogy than began with the video work "31 Days."

An online exhibition and screening of new videos commissioned by Stamps Gallery and presented in partnership with EXPO CHICAGO. Dec. 1, 2020 - Jan 31, 2021.

11/17/2020

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

TONIGHT: Tune in to view a virtual presentation by Raqs Media Collective followed by a Q&A with Srimoyee Mitra, director of the Stamps Gallery at Stamps School of Art and Design.

Raqs Media Collective, formed in 1992 by Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, argues for a mode of “kinetic contemplation” that rides a restless entanglement with the world. This translates into working with moving images to unsettle ways of ordering space and time through timelines, life-lines, latitudes, and longitudes.

For more information on how to join tonight's event via Zoom please visit saic.edu/vap

All events are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. Closed captions available.

11/10/2020

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

TONIGHT: Virtual presentation by artist Nyugen E. Smith. Join us ‪at 6:30 p.m.‬ for a lecture followed by an audience Q&A.

Nyugen E. Smith (MFA 2016) is a first-generation Caribbean-American (USA, Haiti, Trinidad, and Tobago) interdisciplinary artist based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Through performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photo, and writing, Smith deepens his knowledge of historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora.

For more information on how to join tonight's event via Zoom please visit saic.edu/vap

All events are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. Closed captions available.

Photo credits:
Nyugen E. Smith. Courtesy of the Artist.

Nyugen E. Smith, Bundlehouse: FS Mini No.2, 2019, mixed media and found object sculpture, 31 x 18 ½ x 18 ½ inches. Courtesy of the Artist.

Nyugen E. Smith, Bundlehouse Borderlines No.3 (Isle de Tribamartica), 2017, pen and ink, watercolor, thread, colored pencil, acrylic, graphite, gesso, metallic marker, colored pencil, tea, Trinidadian and Zambian soil on paper, 60 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the Artist.

11/05/2020

The Work and Art of Nyugen Smith, contemporary art, assem

Fall 2020 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer Nyugen E. Smith (MFA 2016) is a first-generation Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Through performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photo, and writing, Smith deepens his knowledge of historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora.

Join us live this Tuesday, November 10 at 6:30pm CT for a virtual presentation by artist Nyugen E. Smith followed by an audience Q&A. More info: saic.edu/vap

Fine artist in the New York metro area. Sculpture, installation, performance art, assemblage, mixed-media, educator, community engagement, found objects, poetry, Art, Interdisciplinary art, collabrations Nyugen Smith, Nyugensmith.com

11/02/2020

Raqs Media Collective — 31 days

Raqs Media Collective's "31 Days" takes the predicament of quarantine and seclusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to offer a meditation on a restless world in a quiet time. Watch at the link below.

Tune in to view a virtual presentation by Raqs Media Collective followed by a Q&A with Srimoyee Mitra, director of the Stamps Gallery at Stamps School of Art and Design. More info: saic.edu/vap

Raqs Media Collective 31 days A conversation in images, missives to selves and world, mood swings in lockdown and a share in the planet’s lucid dreams during a global pandemic. Gleaned from a month’s worth of the habit, within Raqs, of a regular chatter, the daily back and forth of things seen, ...

10/29/2020

Nyugen Smith - At The Core

Distinguished Alumni Lecturer Nyugen E. Smith (MFA 2016) is a first-generation Caribbean-American interdisciplinary artist based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Through performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photo, and writing, Smith deepens his knowledge of historical and present-day conditions of Black African descendants in the diaspora. Trauma, spiritual practices, language, violence, memory, architecture, landscape, and climate change are primary concerns in his practice. Smith explains his practice in the video at the link.

Join us live November 10 at 6:30pm CT for a virtual presentation by artist Nyugen E. Smith followed by an audience Q&A. More info: saic.edu/vap

Interdisciplinary visual artist, Nyugen Smith, goes deep into his ancestry to find a sense of identity.

10/27/2020

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

TONIGHT: Artist talk with Ebony G. Patterson. Join us at 6:30 p.m. for a virtual lecture followed by an audience Q&A.

Patterson’s multilayered practice—in painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video—uses beauty as a tool to address global, social, and political injustices. Most known for her large-scale tapestries and works on paper, each of her pieces begins with an elaborate photoshoot in the artist’s studio.

For more information on how to join tonight's event via Zoom please visit saic.edu/vap

All events are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. Closed captions available.

Image credits:

Ebony G. Patterson. Photo by Daniel Moody. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Ebony G. Patterson,...they stood in a time of unknowing...for those who bear/bare witness, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Ebony G. Patterson, . . . they were just hanging out...you know...talking about...(...when they grow up...), 2016. The Dean Collection, New York. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

10/26/2020

Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . .

Artist Ebony G. Patterson discusses her exhibition ...while the dew is still on the roses... Patterson explains how beauty is used as a ploy to seduce the audience into a more engaging act of looking.

Join us live Tuesday, October 27 at 6:30pm CT for a virtual lecture by artist Ebony G. Patterson followed by an audience Q&A. More info: https://www.saic.edu/vap

https://nasher.duke.edu/patterson Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . . is organized by Pérez Art Museum Miami. The exhibition i...

10/21/2020

a letter home: part II | bundlehouse

A Letter Home Hoping to Reach You Soon is a performance by Fall 2020 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer Nyugen E. Smith (MFA 2016). The artist leads a small ensemble of Haitian residents of Miami through a series of formations and actions to share knowledge and experience making. Watch the performance and read its accompanying poem at the link.

Join us live for a virtual presentation by artist Nyugen E. Smith on November 11 followed by an audience Q&A. More info: saic.edu/vap

This thirty minute performance at PRIZM ART FAIR, Miami 2016, aims to bring together three generations of Haitians to tell a story of belonging, longing, achievement and their contributions to global culture using C.L.R. James' seminal text, The Black Jacobins. This story will be told through instr...

10/16/2020

Ebony G. Patterson: …when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wailing…

Ebony G. Patterson's exhibition ...when the cuts erupt...the garden rings...and the warning is a wailing... is on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis through February 21, 2021. The exhibition includes two new works that expand on the artist's use of beautiful garden-themed constructions to trap viewers and reveal a complex entanglement of race, gender, class, and violence.
Join us live for a virtual lecture by Ebony G. Patterson followed by an audience Q&A on October 27 at 6:30pm CT.

The garden has figured as a recurring motif throughout Ebony G. Patterson’s practice. For her CAM exhibition, …when the cuts erupt…the garden rings…and the warning is a wai…

10/15/2020

Artists Like Jeffrey Gibson and Carrie Mae Weems Encourage Voting With New Billboards

"Art for Action" is a public art campaign to raise voter awareness. It includes contributions from fall 2019 visiting artist Jeffrey Gibson (BFA 1995) and Spring 1992 visiting artist Carrie Mae Weems.

Jenny Holzer and Tomashi Jackson are also participating in “Art for Action,” the largest non-partisan public art campaign to raise voter awareness.

10/13/2020

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

TONIGHT: Tune in to view a virtual studio visit with designer Irma Boom in conversation with Alison Fisher, associate curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Irma Boom is an acclaimed graphic designer and bookmaker based in Amsterdam. She has created over 300 books and is known for artistic autonomy within her field.

For more information on how to join tonight's event via Zoom please visit saic.edu/vap

All events are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. Closed captions available.

Image Credits:

Irma Boom: Biography in Books. Amsterdam: The University of Amsterdam/Lecturis, 2010. Courtesy of Irma Boom.

No. 5 Culture Chanel. Paris: La Martinière Publishing, 2013. Courtesy of Irma Boom.

Irma Boom. Photo by Tejo Krijgsman.

10/08/2020

8 Snippets of Design Wisdom from Book Designer Irma Boom

Curious about the design wisdom that acclaimed graphic designer Irma Boom has to share? Boom has created over 300 books and is known for artistic autonomy within her field.

Tune in this Tuesday, October 13 at 6:30pm CT to view a virtual studio visit with designer Irma Boom in conversation with Alison Fisher, associate curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago. More info: saic.edu/vap

Make a global impact with your design. Early-bird deadline: August 13 Amsterdam-based graphic designer Irma Boom is best known for her work designing book covers – but that’s not all. Boom, who has designed over 300 books for Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist, started out working for the Gover...

10/02/2020

TBA21 launching new book & platforms to support artists during lockdown. - FAD Magazine

TBA21-Academy has launched a new book designed by Fall 2020 Visiting Designer Irma Boom. The book documents the foundation’s work with artists over two decades exploring some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Tune in to view a virtual studio visit with Irma Boom on October 13 at 6:30pm CT. More info: https://www.saic.edu/events/irma-boom

Leading philanthropist Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza’s foundation, TBA21 is launching an important series of initiatives on different platforms this autumn

10/01/2020

Ocean Vuong 'Breaks Apart' The Immigrant Experience In His Debut Novel (HBO)

Ocean Vuong beautifully discusses their debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, at the video below.
Join us live this Tuesday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. CT. for a virtual book reading and Q&A with the writer. More info: saic.edu/vap

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” by the award-winning Vietnamese-American poet and novelist Ocean Vuong,is already one of the best-reviewed novels of 2019....

09/29/2020

Irma Boom: My Manifesto for a Book

Watch fall 2020 visiting designer Irma Boom discuss her uncompromising approach to book design. Boom is known for artistic autonomy within her field that challenges the conventions of traditional books in both physical design and printed content.

Tune in October 13 at 6:30pm CT to view a virtual studio visit with the designer in conversation with Alison Fisher, associate curator of architecture and design at the The Art Institute of Chicago. More info: https://www.saic.edu/events/irma-boom

Graphic designer Irma Boom is the woman behind some of the most stunning books to have been published in the last decade. Watch the internationally acclaimed...

09/25/2020

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Ocean Vuong: Becoming Briefly Gorgeous

Weekend listening: Fall 2020 Visiting Writer Ocean Vuong talks to Oonagh Cousins about creating words, finding the right image, writing at night and being uncomfortable.

Join us live October 6 for a virtual book reading by writer Ocean Vuong followed by an audience Q&A. More info: saic.edu/vap

The acclaimed young writer on creating images and being uncomfortable

09/22/2020

TONIGHT: Fred Wilson Lecture, 6:30–8:00 p.m. CT
Click link to join via Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/98505247830?pwd=aUxLTzNDSUxkWWVSbGRRVHM4bmVlZz09, Passcode: SAICVAP (closed captions available)

Join us live for a virtual lecture by artist Fred Wilson followed by an audience Q&A.