Abakanowicz Fellows

Elisa Elena Benzo is a Venezuelan-American visual researcher and aspiring curator, with a background in fashion styling and creative direction. Her artistic and scholarly praxis is an ever-evolving, trans-disciplinary amalgam that seeks to understand the alchemic potentialities of art and their social and political applications. Her process consists of an embodied, critical exploration — of self, other, systems, place, cosmos — made tangible in rituals, movement, meditations, a-ha moments, jotted-down notes, reflections, conversations, photographs, and audio and video recordings. Currently, she is expending a lot of psychic energy trying to imagine the formal and metaphysical qualities of a future community arts space.

She is presently pursuing an MA in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is the ’21-22 McMullen Arts Leadership Intern in Innovation and Creativity, Department of Learning and Public Engagement, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Johnny Doley grew up surrounded by oak trees in Virginia, and now lives in the arms of an ash tree in Chicago. An avid birder, he spends his free mornings at Montrose Point, hanging out with the vireos and flycatchers. Johnny’s artistic practice revolves around connecting with the many different non-human neighbors that we share space with. He aims to re-examine the human-centered concept of nature, question the hierarchy with which we assess living beings, and advocate for an expanded awareness of the multitudes of non-human beings who we cross paths with every single day. Johnny has received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Boston University and was a Stoeckle Fellow at Yale Norfolk School of Art. He is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I find pleasure in traveling. I dance my way between corny walls and cheesy bridges, translating the double bind, to trip to triple binds. I draw and I paint, and sometimes illustrate at a pace, or a multiple character word rate.

For me, it would be ignorant to not consider classic works of the past and to find ways to acknowledge patterns, tropes or notable shifts that rhyme with today’s breath. When I make the time to write, draw, or paint, I always begin from life and memory, and that guides the feeling, that directs a gesture, which leads to the library, then back to the painting.

“…Jumping borders at ease, jumping borders with pleasure…” – Guillermo Gómez Peña

Kelly R Johnston is pursuing an MFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Johnston regularly exhibits internationally and extensively in the U.S. south. Notably, Johnston received the 2020 Durham Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant, the 2019 Emerging Regional Artist Residency at Artspace in Raleigh, opened a solo exhibition at the Durham Art Guild SunTrust Gallery and participated in residencies and workshops at the Vermont Studio Center, Torpedo Factory Art Center, the Hambidge Center, and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center.

Johnston’s work explores traditionally feminized modes of labor at the intersection of production and materiality. They examine these tensions by utilizing natural materials and identity objects (hair, teeth or other personal effects), incorporating mixed-media processes to create visceral sculptures and installations.

Meghan McCray is an arts administrator with experience in management, museum fundraising, and corporate sales. In her professional role as Associate Director, Member and Visitor Engagement at the Art Institute of Chicago, Meghan leads a team committed to providing a  welcoming and meaningful experience for all. Meghan’s research interests include articulating alternative organizational forms by challenging mainstream organization theory and practice. Meghan received a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010) and is currently a MA candidate in the Arts Administration and Policy program (2022) and Graduate Fellow of the Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I’m currently a third year student in the BFA Program specializing in Sculpture. Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, I’ve spent the majority of my life in and around Inglewood, the Valley and other culturally diverse parts of California. A little bit about my history - my dad grew up and attended college during the civil rights era in the south and on east coast, my mother on the other hand spent the first twenty something years of her life in the Philippines before traveling to the US to become her family’s primary bread-winner. My parents met in the late 90’s by chance, my mother was a secretary who was picking up papers at my fathers office and a few years later tied the knot. In doing so, they blended their families from previous marriages and had me (much to everyone’s surprise). My practice, as a result, has become an inquiry into what it means to be American, especially since my greatest influences (my parents) have such specific and extreme perspectives on what holding this identity means.  Among many things, I'm interested in conversations between artist and audience concerning the American Dream, how “inalienable rights” actually function in our day to day lives and how racially significant icons and symbolism have evolved to adapt to today’s social climate.

Sarah Sekles is an artist and designer currently based in Oslo, Norway. In her artistic practice, she has explored her origin and heritage through different materials and mediums, using a wide range of crafting techniques while visualizing personal memories.

Research methods, e.g. revisiting personal history through dialogues, interviews or archiving systems, imagining public spaces as resources of ideas, formulating a catalog of own experiences, creates and shapes the base of her practice.

Sarah Sekles has completed her Bachelor of Arts in Product Design in Berlin. She has worked as an artist assistant of Reijiro Wada and Tomas Saraceno, as well as a freelance Designer on several commissioned projects.