The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Artists | Beth Hetland, Isabella Kendrick, Elliott Mickleburgh, Kayl Parker, Cody Tumblin, and Cameron Welch

LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery, Nov 28–Jan 9, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 29, 4:00–6:00 p.m.

The SUGs Directors are pleased to presentTake Away, an exhibition featuring a wide variety of work in the form of multiples and editions that visitors are invited to freely interact with, dispense and disperse. Take Away critically challenges how seven artists have interpreted ways we interact with work, as the gallery becomes a site for distribution.  Though separate in their respective practices, these artists work together to evoke a spirit of change in the gallery.

Working in between intersections of minimalism and Classical archetypes, Cody Tumblin’s formal investigations have been transformed into malleable offset print stacks, resembling a large mosaic on the floor that invites viewers to rearrange and remove parts of the whole to create another visual composition.  The “stack” is an often used trope in the idea of the contemporary take away, but also acts as way to question use, value, and quality.  Kayl Parker’s Ranch also participates in this dialogue through a two-part floor and wall piece that posits two idyllic seeming landscapes, as an antecedent to what constitutes a “well-made” photograph.  Similarly questioning the value of an artist’s edition are Isabella Kendrick and Elliot Mickelburgh’s collaborative piece that makes clever use of children’s drawing practices – enforced by Kendrick’s signed and numbered genetic clones of a common houseplant.

Perhaps we understand the take away as an invitation to a pocket-sized conversation we hold onto for later, such as in Beth Hetland’s piece.  However, the freeness of interaction in this exhibition is not always so clear, the take away not necessarily carefree, or easy.  As Cameron Welch’s piece suggests, the take away may not travel outside the gallery, and if it does, it carries its own consequences.  Where these Take Away artists intercede has to do with the invariable lifespan of the work – some elements may expire more quickly than others whereby fostering a dialogue between the fixed and the mutable speaks to the state of the gallery at that very moment.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012–Sunday, September 23, 2012 Ryerson and Burnham Libraries (not open Saturdays and Sundays)

Richard Gray Gallery, in partnership with The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), is pleased to announce People vs. Space, a student exhibition that is the culmination of an intensive summer course led by Jaume Plensa, world-renowned Spanish sculptor and creator of the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The exhibition opens Friday, July 6 and runs through July 20, 2012. The artworks on view in People vs. Space were conceived and created by 11 SAIC undergraduate and graduate students, as well as two visiting international students. Throughout People vs. Space, students worked directly with Plensa to develop project proposals for public works integrating contemporary media with the core concerns of objects, spaces, communities, and interactions. This exhibition features the detailed models and proposals developed by class members.

For the purpose of the class, Plensa asked the students to concentrate on the roles of both the artwork and the artist in public spaces and how they are understood in contemporary contexts. Students were encouraged to explore the multiple ways in which artists can create new kinds of connections between people and space, art and society, and art institutions and communities. 

Plensa is the current William and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Established in 2006 by a generous gift from William and Stephanie Sick, this distinguished professorship enables internationally renowned artists and designers to visit and teach at SAIC. People vs. Space is the second course taught by Plensa at SAIC that has culminated in an exhibition through Richard Gray Gallery. This summer, Plensa’s co-teachers are SAIC faculty members John Manning and Bo Rodda (SAIC MFA 2010). “We are proud to recognize the contributions that Jaume Plensa has made to the cultural landscape of the city of Chicago, and we are thrilled that SAIC students have the opportunity to use their talents to work with Plensa on proposals for major new public art works in our great city,” stated William and Stephanie Sick.


Exhibition Opening and Artist Reception:
Friday, July 6, 3:30-5:00 pm
Richard Gray Gallery
875 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2503
Chicago, Illinois 60611

Sullivan Galleries
MFA Show April 28–May 18
Reception: Friday, April 27, 8:00–10:00 p.m.
A must-see presentation of the next generation of artists and designers, this exhibition features work by more than 130 students completing their MFA degrees at SAIC. Guest curators Steven Bridges, grupa o.k. (Julian Myers and Joanna Szupinska), Tumelo Mosaka, and Pablo Helguera transform the galleries into series of visual encounters and unconventional experiences. 

Graduate Presentations

Graduate Writing Program Readings
Mondays, through April 23, 12:00 p.m.
Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection
37 S. WabashAve., room 508

IMPACT: Graduate Performance Festival
April 28 and 29, 7:00 p.m. 
SAIC Performance Space, 280 S. Columbus Dr., room 012
Graduate students completing their degrees in Performance at SAIC present their thesis works, which cross the borders of theater, movement, and the visual arts, and collectively present a vision of the next wave of performance art. 

Film, Video, New Media, Animation, and Sound Festival
May 9–11, 4:30–10:00 p.m.
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. 
Encounter the next generation of film, video, and new media artists as SAIC students present their thesis projects in this festival of innovative live-action shorts, animation, feature-length narrative and nonfiction works, and experimental digital and audio pieces. 

*** Friday, April 13 ***
Opening Reception
4:30–7:00 p.m.
280 S. Columbus Dr. 
In this end-of-year exhibition first-year students from the Department of Contemporary Practices have the opportunity to propose and create site-specific work to be presented in and around SAIC’s Columbus building.
The exhibition runs through April 27.

INTER-ACTION
7:00 p.m.
SAIC Performance Space, 280 S. Columbus Drive, room 012 
In conjunction with the ARTBASH 2012 exhibition, Contemporary Practices students present live performance and sound works, all created in courses taught as part of the first year experience.

June 30 and July 1
Grant Park’s Butler Field
All SAIC students are invited to submit an application for the Gold Coast Art Fair, June 30 and July 1.
Applications are due May 1.
All SAIC enrolled students and 2012 graduates are eligible to apply, and 10 will be selected to participate. The $595 fee will be waived.

Click the links below for more information and to download the application.
Gold Coast Art Fair Exhibition Information

Gold Coast Art Fair Exhibition Application

Nick Schleicher (BFA 2011), Untitled (1035) (detail), oil on canvas. View the full image here.March 16, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Sullivan Galleries
33 S. State St., 7th floor

More than 270 talented SAIC students completing undergraduate degrees this spring exhibit their innovative work. 

SAIC promotes crossing disciplines and challenging received assumptions, and the results of this approach are showcased in this exhibition.

The exhibition runs through April 4.