CHICAGO—This spring, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), a global leader in art and design education, will host a distinguished lineup of visiting artists who exemplify the boundary-blurring nature of contemporary art. Beginning in February, SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program lecture series will feature a diverse group of artists including: Rodney McMillian, who explores the complex and fraught connections between history and contemporary culture; Aaron Williamson, an artist and writer whose work is informed by his experience of becoming deaf and by a politicized sensibility toward disability; and Emory Douglas, who worked as the revolutionary artist and minister of culture for the Black Panther Party. The spring season kicks off on February 5.
This spring, SAIC will present the following visiting artists:
- Elmgreen & Dragset have been working together since 1995 at the crossroads of art and architecture, performance and installation.
- Bouchra Khalili’s projects investigate strategies and discourses of resistance as elaborated, developed and narrated by members of political minorities.
- Emory Douglas worked as the revolutionary artist and minister of culture for the Black Panther Party in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1967 through the early 1980s.
- Aaron Williamson is an artist and writer whose work is informed by his experience of becoming deaf and by a politicized sensibility toward disability.
- Rodney McMillian (Post-Bac 2000) explores the complex and fraught connections between history and contemporary culture, not only as they are expressed in American politics, but also as they are manifest in American modernist art traditions.
- Among the leading pioneers of the eco art movement, Newton Harrison works with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to uncover ideas and solutions that support biodiversity and community development.
- Brooklyn-based artist Martha Rosler works in video, photography, text, installation and performance. Her work often addresses actual and virtual matters of the public sphere and landscapes of everyday life, especially as they affect women.
The Visiting Artists Program, founded in 1868, is the oldest public program at SAIC. In addition to bringing some of the leading artistic voices to SAIC, the program plays a critical role in informing the curriculum by arranging studio critiques and roundtable discussions with students, providing them with direct access to world-renowned speakers working across disciplines.
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Schedule
All presentations are free and open to the public, begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. and take place in Rubloff Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago, 230 South Columbus Drive, unless noted otherwise. All seating is first come, first served and reservations are not required. For more information, visit saic.edu/vap.
Elmgreen & Dragset
Tuesday, February 5, 6:00 p.m.
Bouchra Khalili
Wednesday, February 20, 6:00 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the Society for Contemporary Art and SAIC’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Emory Douglas
Tuesday, March 5, 6:00 p.m.
Aaron Williamson
Tuesday, March 19, 6:00 p.m.
Rodney McMillian: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series
Wednesday, April 3, 6:00 p.m.
Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Office of Alumni Relations.
Newton Harrison
Tuesday, April 9, 6:00 p.m.
Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Conversations on Art & Science Series.
Martha Rosler
Tuesday, April 16, 6:00 p.m.
Presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alums and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons and LeRoy Neiman.
Press/Media contact
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