In 2018, AIADO continued to make its mark on Chicago and the world. From our graduate Thesis exhibition in Chicago, to our students shows in Milan, New York, and Venice; to the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, our students, faculty and alumni are defining discourse and driving new and vital questions with their work. AIADO courses, programs, and exhibitions are leading SAIC’s mission to educate “citizen artists and designers".
AIADO at 10
A celebration of the first decade of graduates from the Department, AIADO at 10 is a series of programs and activities held throughout the Spring of 2018 featuring AIADO alumni.
Including exhibitions in the AIADO Gallery, a two-day symposium at the School, and alumni meet-ups at the School’s Design Show at the Block 37 center in May, and at student exhibitions in New York, Milan, and Venice, AIADO at 10 brought together alumni, students, and faculty to reflect on our past and to imagine, and enact, our future.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The University of Chicago at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
As co-commissioners, the two institutions are organizing Dimensions of Citizenship, the exhibition they proposed as the official United States contribution to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, on view from May 26 through November 25, 2018.
Particularly important in today's context, Dimensions of Citizenship will grapple with the meaning of citizenship as a cluster of rights and responsibilities at the intersection of legal, political, economic, and societal affiliations.
Designer Artist Citizen Site: Exploring Belonging
Designer Artist Citizen Site: Exploring Belonging is an exhibition featuring the work of twenty School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) students on themes of citizenship and the built environment. The exhibition is the culmination of a spring course at SAIC, during which students became familiar with the curatorial approach to the U.S. Pavilion while focusing on developing their own critical positions around the role of art and design in questions of citizenship.
AIADO in Design 50
Newcity released its 2018 "Design 50" issue, which recognizes the leading voices in Chicago design. More than 20 members of the SAIC community were recognized, including faculty and alumni of AIADO. Ann Lui, Iker Gil, Norman Teague, Paola Aguirre, Petra Bachmaier, Pete Oyler and Nora Mattingly, Peter and Sharon Exley, Tim Parsons and Jess Charlesworth were all acknowledged for their contributions to architecture and design. Ann Lui was presented with the additional distinction of being the 2018 Designer of the Moment.
Sight Unseen Presents
For Sight Unseen OFFSITE 2018, students in the Designed Objects program have self-produced a collection of ceramic drinkware. Drinking vessels–from military canteens to wine glasses–are inextricably linked to larger histories of art, craft, and design, and highlight complex relationships between material innovation, marketing, religion, war, gender, health and wellness, and mass consumption.
2018 whatnot collection: Potluck
Aptly titled Potluck, the 2018 whatnot collection presents an assortment of ideas. Through material, form, scale, and function, designers in this year’s whatnot studio have thoroughly considered the relationship between food and borders and employed design as a medium to explore how the food we consume is deeply entwined with global systems of production and profit, personal and cultural identities, politics, ethics, and the environment. The 2018 whatnot collection was exhibited during Salone del Mobile (April 17-22, 2018) at Spazio Rossana Orlandi (via Matteo Bandello 14, Milan).
Alumni Exhibitions
This semester, AIADO put on three alumni exhibitions in the Gallery Hallway on the 12th floor. Exhibitions included work by Steven Haulenbeek (MFA Des Ob 2006), Jade Boudreaux (MArch 2016), Norman Teague (MFA Des Ob 2016) and Jennifer Park (Lecturer in AIADO).
2017-18 Mitchell Lecture Series
This semester, the Mitchell Lecture Series brought in an array of designers, architects and curators. From Chen Chen & Kai Williams, a design studio that invents new techniques and materials or takes common industrial supplies and develops off-label applications to James Shen, co-founder of Beijing-based People's Architecture Office, a multi-disciplinary studio focused on social impact through design.
Design Show 2018
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago celebrated the opening of the Design Show 2018 showing graduate work in Architecture, Interior Architecture, Designed Objects and Design for Emerging Technologies and welcomed guests from the city and design community.
Andres Hernandez, Jennifer Park, and Norman Teague Among Obama Presidential Center Collaborators
Internationally-acclaimed SAIC faculty members and alumni round out the list of architects and designers assigned to Jackson Park's forthcoming Obama Presidential Center. Andres Hernandez (MA 2004, Art Education), who currently serves as resident artist for the Museum of Contemporary Art's SPACES program, will work with Norman Teague (MFA 2016, Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects) and Jennifer Park (Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects) as part of the Chicago-based network of creatives assigned to the project.
