A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Image of Jan Tichy

Jan Tichy

Professor

Bio

Associate Professor, Photography, Art and Technology (2010). BFA, 2002, Jerusalem School of Photography; MFA, 2007, Bezalel Academy of Arts, Tel Aviv; MFA, 2009, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibitions:  Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Kunsthalle Osnabrueck, Germany; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago; The Broad Museum, Michigan State University. PublicationsArtforum; Art in America; Frieze; Domus. Bibliography: Aesthetics of Terror; Chicago Makes Modern; After Architecture. Collections: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Magasin 3 Stockholm Kunsthall. AwardsNathan Gottesdiener Foundation; Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Personal Statement

Jan Tichy is a contemporary artist and educator. Working at the intersection of video, sculpture, architecture, and photography, his conceptual work is socially and politically engaged. Born in Prague in 1974, Tichy studied art in Israel before earning his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is now Assistant Professor at the Department of Photography. Tichy has had solo exhibitions at the MCA Chicago; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago; CCA Tel Aviv; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; No Longer Empty, NY and Chicago Cultural Center among others. In 2011, he created Project Cabrini Green, a community-based art project that illuminated with spoken word the last high rise building at the Cabrini Green Housing Projects in Chicago during its month long demolition. In 2014 Tichy started to work on a long-term, NEA supported, community project in Gary, IN—the Heat Light Water Project.

image credits: profile photo- Hynek Alt, documentation - Jan Tichy

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course explores the techniques and aesthetics of black and white photography, from exposure to final prints. Students will develop skills in analog darkroom and inkjet printing, contrast control, lighting techniques, and the impact of scale, paper, and film choices. Hands-on projects and darkroom experimentation will deepen technical abilities and creative expression. An adjustable film camera is required.

Class Number

1578

Credits

3

Description

This course embraces the concept of projection as a broad field of art practice. Starting with the magic lantern, the course investigates the history of projection related practices that shape the parameters of visual perception and communication. Deconstructing the concept of the screen, the course focuses on projection in sculptural and installation contexts.

Microcontrollers and Adobe software is used in unorthodox ways to shape visual elements for digital light projection. History of visual, technical and conceptual use of light is accessed to investigate the interactions of projections with objects and space.

Class Number

1139

Credits

3

Description

This course embraces the concept of projection as a broad field of art practice. Starting with the magic lantern, the course investigates the history of projection related practices that shape the parameters of visual perception and communication. Deconstructing the concept of the screen, the course focuses on projection in sculptural and installation contexts.

Microcontrollers and Adobe software is used in unorthodox ways to shape visual elements for digital light projection. History of visual, technical and conceptual use of light is accessed to investigate the interactions of projections with objects and space.

Class Number

1592

Credits

3

Description

Public Light and Space explores how artists use light to shape public environments, creating works that invite interaction, alter perception, and transform shared spaces. The course engages with histories and theories of public art while critically examining the dynamic role of light in selected movements and practices. Students will conceptualize and plan site-responsive projects for specific locations across Chicago, with attention to methods such as digital projection, controlled light sources, and light-responsive materials.

The course offers a distinctive opportunity: a collaboration with Public Sound & Space (led by Austen Brown) to produce new large-scale projection and sound works for Art on the Mart, the monumental projection site on the historic Merchandise Mart building. Each student team will design an original artwork to be exhibited nightly for six weeks, reaching an audience of nearly 300,000 viewers.

A sequence of technical workshops supports skill development, while visiting artists, critics, and community members provide feedback throughout the creative process. The semester culminates in the public debut of student works on one of the world's largest projection canvases.

Class Number

1124

Credits

3

Description

Public Light and Space explores how artists use light to shape public environments, creating works that invite interaction, alter perception, and transform shared spaces. The course engages with histories and theories of public art while critically examining the dynamic role of light in selected movements and practices. Students will conceptualize and plan site-responsive projects for specific locations across Chicago, with attention to methods such as digital projection, controlled light sources, and light-responsive materials.

The course offers a distinctive opportunity: a collaboration with Public Sound & Space (led by Austen Brown) to produce new large-scale projection and sound works for Art on the Mart, the monumental projection site on the historic Merchandise Mart building. Each student team will design an original artwork to be exhibited nightly for six weeks, reaching an audience of nearly 300,000 viewers.

A sequence of technical workshops supports skill development, while visiting artists, critics, and community members provide feedback throughout the creative process. The semester culminates in the public debut of student works on one of the world's largest projection canvases.

Class Number

1544

Credits

3

Description

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Class Number

2346

Credits

3 - 6