Recent Accomplishments: Faculty

Melika Bass presented her newest film, Creature Companion, in the Praire Gothic solo program at the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. A feature story about the film appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper. Creature Companion was screened on opening night of the Onion City Film Festival, alongside works by FVNMA alum Deborah Stratman. The Chicago Reader called Bass' film “A standout of the entire festival… strange and funny …the film brims with it the energy of a story about to be born.” Creature Companion also showed at the FLEX Film Festival alongside work by FVNMA alum Ben Russell, and in the showcase program, The Female Gaze, at Images and Views of Alternative Cinema in Cyprus, Greece. 

Jason Boulware was named Volunteer of the Year by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. Boulware teaches Social Practices: Video Collaboration in the Prison System at SAIC in collaboration with Illinois Youth Center Chicago, where he also works as a volunteer.

Jon Chambers is currently the artist resident at the Museum of Surgical Science. His solo exhibition is up until May 12, 2019.

James Connolly has been promoted to the rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor. His video, Aesthetic Catharsis, was screened at  "The way things are. The way things are going to be." at the Dikeou Pop-Up in Denver, CO on Friday, January 25, 2019. His video, 2019 Romp Through the Sandin Image Processor, was exhibited at Indiana University South Bend's Performing Media exhibition, February - March, 2019. The same piece was also presented inThe Midst exhibition at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in February. James performed his project RGB.VGA.VOLT at Indiana University South Bend on February 18, 2019 for their Performing Media Festival. An essay he wrote was published in the exhibition catalog for the  2019 Fuse Box Festival, running from April 16 - April 21. And excerpts of his project, Cracked Ray Tube, was screened at the "Video Worship" program at Comfort Station on April 17.

Snow Yunxue Fu has accepted the position of Assistant Arts Professor in the Department of Photography and Imaging at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. We are incredibly sad to see her go, but we celebrate her success!  Snow had a solo exhibition at the Chazan Family Gallery at Rhode Island College, Providence RI. She also presented her work in the Re-figuring Binary exhibition at Pioneer Works in NYC, which was reviewed in the New York Times; the An Inch of Time exhibition at the International Video and Animation Exhibition at the Art Gallery of the Cleveland University; and the touring exhibition of the Recommended Screening Unit of the 4th Shenzhen Animation Biennial in over two dozen of universities and art schools in China. Snow was a member of the jury of the Onion City Film Festival.

Gitanjali Kapila's first academic paper, Stuck in a Labyrinth (or a Tower) with the Minotaur and trying to get out: Princess Aurora and Imperator Furiosa as the heroes of the Multimyth, was jointly published by Columbia College Chicago and The University of Palermo in Buenos Aires as part of a two-volume series, one on Diversity and Design, the other on Gender and Narrative.

Sara Ludy has a solo exhibition titled, Unearth, at bitforms gallery in NYC, which runs through May 5. Ludy is also the commissioned artist for Lifewtr's Series 7: Art Through Technology.

Frédéric Moffet presented his new film, Horsey, at the Onion City Film Festival where it won one of the three Best of Fest Awards. The film also played at the Athens International Film and Video Festival. Another film, Fever Freaks, was presented in the Opening Night Program of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival and  ZINEGOAK, Bilbao International LGBTQI Film and Performing Arts Festival, with upcoming screenings at La Fête du Slip, Gender and Sexuality Festival in Switzerland and Alchemy, Film and Moving Image Festival in Scotland.

Mary Patten was part of the Hite Gallery's group exhibition, Organize your own: The Politics and Culture of Self-Determination Movements, at the University of Louisville, January - February 2019. In January of 2020, the exhibition will travel to the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture/PNCA, Portland, OR. Lisa Hughes reviewed the exhibition in Ruckus. In October, Patten spoke at Visual AIDS & QUEER, ILL + OKAY’S “Documents: Art, AIDS & Activism in Chicago,” at the Pride Arts Center, Chicago, IL. She also screened two works during this event, Hokey Sapp Does Spew (1991) and “Where’s ACT UP?” from ACT UP: the Outtakes (1995). She also presented work at Day With(out) Art, “Alternate Endings, Activist Risings” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Patten wrote two articles: “From the Speculative to the Living: Chicago Torture Justice Memorials” published in Walls Turned Sideways, edited by Risa Puleo and “Pictures from an Epidemic” published in Art AIDS America Chicago, edited Staci Boris. Patten also presented “A mirror, a hammer, or neither? Art and the fact of the prison” on the panel “Art and Justice: New Pedagogical Approaches” at CAA Annual Conference (organized by Courtney Long and Risa Puleo. The panel also included SAIC alum Ashley Hunt).

Casey Puccini premiered his new film, I Don’t Know When the Armageddon Is, at the Onion City Film Festival, which was highlighted in the Chicago Reader. The same film also screened at the Denver Underground Film Festival. His feature film I Don’t Care was screened in March at The Nightingale.

Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez will have a solo exhibition, Past Continuous Present, opeining August 22 at Terremoto - La Postal in Mexico City, Mexico. He will be part of a group show titled Dead Future(s) at Heaven Gallery in Chicago, IL beginning August 2 with faculty member Mev Luna, and SAIC alum Marcela Torres and Santiago X. Rodriquez will also be a fellow resident at Skowhegan this summer.

Chris Sullivan was a jury member at the Athens International Film and Video Festival and presented his acclaimed feature film Consuming Spirits.

Meredith Zielke was promoted to the rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor. Congratulations on becoming a mother in February!