Seven SAIC Community Members Named 2026 Guggenheim Fellows

Seven School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) community members are among the 223 artists and scholars named to the 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship class. The honorees are Professor Emeritus Anne Wilson, student jaamil olawale kosoko, and alums Sonya Clark (BFA 1993), Claire Sherman (MFA 2005), Guanyu Xu (BFA 2016, MFA 2019), Christopher Harris (MFA 2000), and Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (MFA 1997). Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to support mid-career individuals pursuing independent work across more than 55 disciplines. 

Wilson is a professor emeritus in Fiber and Material Studies who works with sculpture, material drawings, and performances grounded in a textile language. Clark is a fiber artist known for using hair, textile, and craft to explore Black American history, commodities, and culture. Sherman explores the natural world through paintings, drawings, and prints. Xu, a Beijing-born, Chicago-based artist, works across photography, new media, and installation to negotiate questions of queerness, power, personal freedom, and identity across national borders. Harris is a filmmaker and and associate professor of film and video production. Muñoz is also a filmmaker who explores subjects like anarchist communities, the relationship between artwork and work, and post-military land. kosoko is a Nigerian American author, performance artist, educator, and curator.