Alex Chitty
Associate Professor, Adjunct
Contact
Bio
Alex Chitty (b. 1979, Little Havana, Miami, FL) (she/her/they/them) grew up between the United States and Britain. Chitty studied theater, dance, literature, botany, marine biology, and fine art at Smith College (BFA, 2001) and earned an MFA (2008) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Selected Residencies & Awards
2023: Writer-in-Residence, Writing Space, Chicago, IL; 2022: Artist Fellowship Award in Visual Based Arts, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Chicago, IL; 2021: DCASE Grant, Individual Artist Program Grant, Chicago, IL: 2020: Emergency Grants COVID-19 Bridge Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NY, NY; 2019: Artist Fellowship Award, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Chicago, IL; 2018: Artist Residency, Fundación Casa Wabi, Oaxaca, MX; 2017: The Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists, Nancy Graves Foundation, NY, NY; Artists-in-Residence, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Ohama NE; 2015: Artist Residency, Real Time & Space, Oakland, CA; 2014: Artist-in-Residence, Latitude, Chicago, IL; 2012: CAAP Grant, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL; 2011: Artist Residency, ACRE, Boscobel, WI; Artist Residency, Oxbow, Saugatuck, MI; 2007: Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, Department of Education, Washington DC; 2006: Artist Residency, The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2025: Mine, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL; Entirely opposite with moments of overlap, Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, University of Alabama, Burmingham, AL; 2022: Figs break open of themselves, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL; 2019: Becoming the Breeze: Alex Chitty with Alexander Calder, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; 2018: pulling flavor from the dirt, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL; After (the sun-drenched neutral that goes with everything), The Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; Living Architecture, 6018North, Chicago, IL; 2017: they will bloom without you, McCormick House at Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL; Expo In/Situ, Curated by Florence Derieux, EXPO, Chicago, IL; 2016: Slight Pitch, LUCE Gallery, Torino, Italy; The Sun Drenched Neutral that Goes with Everything, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL; Turning Forks into Spoons, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; 2015: Alex Chitty and Chris Bradley, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL; 2014: Orchid, ADDS DONNA, Chicago, IL; 2013: The Way They Wanted to Sleep, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL; Alex Chitty: Recent Work, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL; Platonic Year, Alderman Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; 2012: Alex Chitty: Recent Work, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL; Platonic Year, Alderman Exhibitions, Chicago, IL.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026: TBD, Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY; Chair-ish, Cleve Carney Museum, Glen Ellyn, IL; 2024: Dialogues, PATRON Gallery, Chicago IL; 2023: Bright day will turn to night, my love, Tiny Table Gallery, Chicago, IL; Amulleto, Mayfield Gallery, Forest Park, IL; 2021: Both And, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago IL; No Soft Edges: Women in Minimalism, GAVLAK Gallery, Palm Beach, FL; Traces on the Surface of the World, GAVLAK Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; 2020: State of the Art II, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; 2019: In the Hot Seat, KMAC Museum, Louisville KY; 2018: Local Comfort, LVL3 Gallery, Chicago IL; 2017: Objectifying the Photograph, NIU Art Museum, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL; Small Sculptures, Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, IL; Stranger Things, Depaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; 2015: Theory of Forms, PATRON Gallery, Chicago, IL; GYRE, Land and Sea Gallery, Oakland, CA; 2014: Almost Ergonomic, Studio 424, Chicago, IL; Fragments of an Unknowable Whole, OSU (Urban Arts Space), Columbus, OH; Lateral, The Mission, Houston, TX; Codification, LVL3, Chicago, IL; 2013: Ella Hatchet, Roots and Culture, Chicago, IL; No Show, West Pilsen Sculpture Garden, Chicago, IL; It’s Not You; It’s Me, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL; Grand Opening, Forever & Always, Chicago, IL; Better Favorite, ACRE Projects, Chicago, IL; 2012: Big Youth II, Bourouina Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
Personal Statement
I draw attention to how gender, emotion, politics, and culture are intrinsically embedded in the infrastructure of our everyday surroundings. This can take the form of sculpture, photography, writing, curatorial projects, workshops, lectures, or Instagram posts. My practice combines multiple artistic disciplines, materials, and techniques to re-contextualize what already exists. We question what we see and practice thinking about it differently. My work magnifies the subtler aspects of what culture may unconsciously overlook while deliberately pointing to the constructs behind what we we've been taught to think or believe.
Portfolio
Alex Chitty, Lifelong conversations between women, 2022. Fused stoneware bowls, cast birds from a hotel ashtray, African mahogany, soldered brass and black-oxide plated steel soldered brass.
Alex Chitty, Mine (midnight), Mine (morning), 2025. Collagraph Transfer on Kozo and Somerset Velvet White.
Alex Chitty, Hone (pulling flavor from the dirt), 2018/2025. Sunbleached canvas (Mies van der Rohe McCormick House) and welded aluminum.
Alex Chitty, Midnight Gardening, 2021. Oak, ceramic vessels (Noah Singer), glass vessels, powder coated steel, plant cuttings, potted plants, water.
Alex Chitty, The sundrenched neutral that goes with everything (unit 5), 2015-2016. Yellow ceramic pitchers, oak, glass, blackened steel and powder coated steel.
Alex Chitty, Ptng #12 (swipe), 2016. Altered spoons, cotton, nylon, plexiglass image holder, xerox print, teak hull plug, cast brass, painted steel, walnut, and nickel-plated steel.
Alex Chitty, The sundrenched neutral that goes with everything (unit 5), 2015-2016. Cast bronze (toy Popeye arm), marine-worm shells, cast duracal (palm trunk), brass, paper towel roll, lucite image holder, photograph, porcelain, black glassware, twine and cotton ribbon, oak, walnut, mahogany, smokey glass, blackened steel, and powder coated steel.
Alex Chitty, Lynx, 2025. Cast perfume bottle (white bronze), grey glass, and empty crate.
Alex Chitty, Men and their circumstances, 2023. Leather from a Mies van der Rohe chair, brass ashtray, and nickel-plated steel tubing.
Alex Chitty, for another who isn't but never ceases to be, 2016. Blush brushes, white bronze, 2 drinking glasses, brass, cotton rope, xerox copy and c-print cork, figured maple, aluminum, nickle-plated steel, powder coated steel.
Alex Chitty, Figs break open of themselves, 2022. Drafting table top, cast brass, horse hair, gold chain, jade grapes, cast bronze, pink vases, glass, lead Donald Duck figurine, photograph, digital print on canvas, plexiglass, oak, ebonized walnut, blackened steel, powder coated steel.
Alex Chitty, They will bloom without you (empty Chanel #5 perfume bottle), 2017. Cast bronze lily bud, steel, and steel I-beam.