A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
SAIC faculty member Sonya Bogdanova stands outside next to stone sculptures.

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Sonya Bogdanova

Lecturer

Contact

Bio

Sonya Bogdanova (she/they) is a Soviet-born Jewish immigrant who came to the US after the collapse of the USSR. Based in Chicago, she has shown in the US and internationally. Exhibitions: Chicago Cultural Center; Northern Illinois University; Gallery 400; Tiger Strikes Asteroid; Mana Contemporary; Roman Susan; Ignition Projects; Parlour and Ramp; G-CADD; No Nation Tangential Unspace Art Lab; Sylvia Rivera Law Project (New York, NY); Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Gimpo, South Korea). MFA: University of Illinois at Chicago; BFA: School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Awards

2025, Artist Working Residency, Lakeside Inn, Lakeside, MI; 2024, Nina Frenkel Award for Faculty Excellence, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; 2023, Artist to Watch, Comfort Station, Chicago; 2022, Chicago Creative Worker Assistance Program Grant, DCASE & Allies for Community Business, Chicago; 2021, Artist in Residence, Holly & the Neighbors, Chicago; 2019, Art Department Scholarship, University of Illinois, Chicago; 2015, Artist in Residence, Jiwar Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Publications

Hailey Gates, “Art Show Honoring Soon To Be Demolished 1224 W. Loyola Ave. Ignites Community,” The Loyola Phoenix, July 31, 2024; Chris Reeves, “Cloud Atlas: A Review of Sonya Bogdanova at Ignition Project Space,” NewCity, May 22, 2023; Heather Higgins, “‘Invisible Architecture’ Explores Nature and Perception in Gallery Show,” The Loyola Phoenix, March 22, 2023; Astria Suparak, “Sonya Bogdanova,” Sidelong Glances + Ordinary Horrors, UIC School of Art & Art History, April, 2021.

Personal Statement

My work is concerned with the survival of ancient iconography and social traditions into the present day. Through my transmedial practice, I create objects and installations that recontextualize the past, drawing from my life in Eastern Europe and the Midwestern US and our interwoven politics of revolution, blowback, and conquest. I am also interested in psychoanalysis and its potential to link humans and symbols across time. I try to imbue objects with mystical potential to intuit who we are as people.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course introduces students to sculptural ideas executed in various ceramic hand construction techniques including slab, coil, press mold, etc. Students will explore how the unique physical characteristics of clay can contribute to the content of the work. Construction strategies will be examined in a conceptual context, investigating issues of space, technology, and architectural implication to build a dimensional perspective of personal and societal relevance. Emphasis will be on process, exploration, and discussion.

We will examine artists who've instrumentalized clay in inventive and boundary-pushing ways. Some of the artists we'll look at are Arlene Schechet, Annabeth Rosen, Ron Nagel, Huma Bhabha, Genesis Belanger and more. Readings and screenings will vary but typically include interviews with contemporary artists and critical essays by Eva Respini, Clare Lilley, Rosalind Krauss and more.

Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of assigned and self directed projects to be presented in a culminating midterm and final critique.

Class Number

1194

Credits

3

Description

Historically understood as the ecstatic experience of religious consciousness, mysticism has grown to encompass all visionary human experience and the pursuit of ¿ultimate truth¿. We will travel down several veins of this rhizomatic structure in the hopes of understanding its complex form. This course combines two modalities: extensive studio time and reading/discussion of mystical, esoteric, and occult texts. Emphasis will be on ceramic hand building, process, and conceptual exploration. Some of the topics and figures discussed will be mystery, magic, paganism, surrealism and dreams, folk horror, denkbild, parapolitics, pre-Columbian relics, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Louise Bourgeois, Rene Magritte, Huma Bhabha, Arlene Shechet and others. You can expect to produce a body of work consisting of assigned and self-directed projects to be presented in a culminating midterm and final critique.

Class Number

2130

Credits

3