Alumni

An exhibition of alumna Betsy Packard's (BFA 1976 Painting) work will be on view at Tephra ICA @ Signature Gallery, 11850 Freedom Drive, Reston, Virginia. Curated by Hannah Barco, "Ways of Thinking About Your Life" begins November 1st, 2024 thru February 9, 2025. More information here.

Woods Davy (MFA 1975) will have an exhibition "Denying Gravity." Craig Krull Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave. Suite B3, Santa Monica, CA Saturday, October 19 - Saturday, November 30, 2024. Opening Reception: Saturday, October 19, 2024 | 3-5pm Artist Talk & Book Signing with Woods Davy & Shana Nys Dambrot: Saturday, October 26, 2024 | 11:00 a.m.

Kim Vandenbroucke (BFA 2002 Industrial Design) was nominated for the third year in a row for the Toy and Game Innovator of the Year TAGIE Award! This year’s nomination is for Scrabble Together, a project with the games team at Mattel. The goal was to make Scrabble more family-friendly and accessible. “I hope this cooperative version encourages more people who may have been hesitant to dive into the classic word game to enjoy it with their family and friends. A huge high five to both the Mattel Games and IR teams for their incredible work, and to all the other inventors and designers up for this award—I'm lucky to know so many talented people!” Don't forget to vote: https://lnkd.in/g9zwUqfx    

Breaking the Code, the recent award-winning documentary film on artist Vernon Fisher, will be published online by Glasstire on Wednesday, September 18th. To celebrate the film's release, Brooklyn's Franklin Furnace is hosting a special virtual event featuring a screening of the film followed by a virtual post-screening discussion. The discussion will feature former Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian Institution Ned Rifkin, Glasstire Publisher Brandon Zech, filmmaker Michael Flanagan and Franklin Furnace Director Harley Spiller. The event will take place via Zoom from 6:00-7:30 pm ET on Wednesday, September 18th. Breaking the Code will be available to stream online via Glasstire TV following the Franklin Furnace screening. More information can be found at this link.  

Kuangming Qin (MFA 2024 Industrial Design) received a 2024 merit award from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). CONGRATULATIONS!

Giant Congratulations Ali Ibanez, Graphic Design (2024) for competing in the Paris Paralympics on the women’s basketball team. Go Ali! Also congratulations as well to Phillip Croft, Industrial Design (2025) and Isaiah Rigo, Industrial Design (2024) for making it to the paralympic trials for Track and Field.

Fresh Press Co-Founder and Graphic Design/DRI Associate Professor, Eric Benson, with e. ainsley (MFA 2021 Sculpture), Co-Studio Manager & Program Coordinator and  Meredith Hislope (Art Education major), Co-Studio Manager will be featured on Mid-American Gardner tonight at 7 PM on WILL.

Realist Artist Jennifer Cronin’s Upcoming Solo Exhibition Takes Us on a Cosmic Journey Chicago: Elephant Room Gallery is thrilled to present artist Jennifer Cronin’s 5th solo exhibition at the gallery entitled “Star Stuff”, opening on Friday, September 20th from 6 to 9pm. The exhibition will be on view through October 26th. The gallery is located at 704 S Wabash Avenue in Chicago’s South Loop Neighborhood. More information can be found on the gallery’s website: www.elephantroomgallery.com Jennifer Cronin is known for her uncanny realism from her large scale figurative oil paintings to her meticulous pencil drawings. Over the past few years, her work has moved into a magical realm of neon colors, mysterious shapes and luminism. Her latest body of work in “Star Stuff” takes inspiration from the night sky, finding pieces of cosmic mystery in our everyday landscapes. Even though the work is dark, it is not sad or complacent. It invokes a connection to something outside of ourselves: distant galaxies, the passage of time, and the mystery of our existence. “Star Stuff” is about all of us: where we are from, where we are and where we are going. For Cronin, this work is a reflection of her growth as an artist and as a human being. Cronin pulls inspiration for her subject matter from her own surroundings on frequent walks in her neighborhood in Chicago. “…I can still find pieces of it everywhere. The dotting of artificial lights across a landscape, or the mysterious je ne sais quoi of a liminal space in the alleyway. Stories of this urban landscape are not that different from the stories of an endless night sky. I can find it right here–reasons to be, moments of cosmic mystery, connection to something outside of myself, the thrill of being alive in this very time and space.” - Cronin   Jennifer Cronin is a Chicago-based visual artist known for her realistic paintings that explore the mystery and complexity of everyday life. Cronin’s work has evolved many times over, delving into psychology, income inequality, and climate change. Her most recent work celebrates the mundane, infusing quotidian scenes with a sense of magic and mystery. In support of her forthcoming body of work, Jennifer was awarded grants by the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and Chicago DCASE. Jennifer’s work has been featured on NPR, Newcity, and Sixty Inches from Center and included in exhibitions at the Elmhurst Art Museum, Museo Internazionale Italia Arte, and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Jennifer received her BFA in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is represented by Elephant Room Gallery in Chicago. The artwork in this series was funded by a grant from The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

Art & Design Studio Art Faculty Kira Dominguez Hultgren (Crafts), Ben Grosser (Digital Arts), Patrick Hammie (Visual Arts), and Laurie Hogin (Visual Arts) recently received an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award. BFA 2016 in Studio Art: Sculpture Alumna Jade Williams (New Art Forms) is also a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship. Congratulations to all!

Art and Design alumnus, George W. Lundeen (MFA '73) has been selected as one of the 2024 Alumni Award recipients through the Illinois Alumni Association.

Eric Benson with alumni Veronica Pham and E. Ainsley have article published in Advanced Materials Technologies. Silvestre, Sara L., Morais, Maria, Soares, Raquel R. A., Johnson, Zachary T., Benson, Eric, Ainsley, E., Pham, Veronica, Claussen, Jonathan C., Gomes, Carmen L., Martins, Rodrigo, Fortunato, Elvira, Pereira, Luis, Coelho, João, “Green fabrication of stackable laser-induced graphene micro-supercapacitors under ambient conditions: Towards the design of truly sustainable technological platforms,” Journal of Advanced Materials Technologies (2024).

Preetika Rajgariah (MFA 2018) was featured this April in Expo Chicago's 'Exposure' section, with a solo show at Bill Arning Exhibitions, Houston.

Alumnus, Nick Hand was recently cited in Forbes Magazine, "The Bicycle Day Dream Bike: A Carbon Fiber Hommage to Albert Hofmann" by Rob Reed. This bike was an homage to the discovery of LSD and Bicycle Day (April 19th 1943). Nick Hand, who received his BFA in Painting in 2005, owns TW Carbon in Kirkwood, MO. TW Carbon repairs damaged carbon fiber bicycles and custom paint on high end bicycles of all kinds. His shop works with non art based endeavors and all of his employees are classically trained artists with degrees from four years universities.  There is a metals and jewelry maker, a lithograph artist, a photographer, and Hand, an oil painter. IG: www.instagram.com/twcarbon FB: www.facebook.com/twcarbon

Brittany Bindrim (Graphic Design 2007 BFA) just dropped her debut album "Velella Velella." The album may be purchased here.

Gerry Hayes, MFA 1966 Painting will have an exhibition, "Art Reclaimed" at Curry College on January 22-February 26, 2024 Reception: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. Curry College, Shelley Hoon Keith Gallery, Curry College, Student Center, 1071 Blue Hill Avenue, Milton, MA 02186   Hayes' painting medium currently, and for the past several years has been in the area of 'painted reliefs'. He comments: "In recent artwork, I have added molded fiber relief forms - that are found in packaging, - to the surface of my paintings. 'Molded fiber', one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable packaging forms that is made from recycled paper and water. The pressed paper forms are most often thrown away or recycled with the boxes that they came in. By adding them to my art works, I take them from disposable to desirable. Found objects, yes, but I don't use them as they come. I cut, glue, combine and transform elements that fit the ideas for each painting. The painting of shapes with colors, completes the completed look of each work.  In addition, relief paintings are unique and set themselves apart from traditional, flat 2-dimensional painting. This hybrid of painting can be viewed as extending the tradition of Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades in Dada, to the ‘combines’ of American Pop artists of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and others." Gerry Hayes' career as been as an educator and a painter, installation sculptor and conceptual artist. Hayes' academic career has been at Pratt Institute where he served as graduate faculty, teaching seminars in painting, drawing, and printmaking. In addition, Gerry served as an administrator in the Undergraduate Painting and Drawing Department and later as Assistant Chair of the Fine Arts Department. In 2006, Professor Hayes resigned from Pratt and moved with his family, from New York City to Marblehead, Massachusetts where he currently lives and maintains a studio. Gerry’s work has been the subject of numerous group and one-person exhibitions at several national galleries and museums including the Denise Bibro's Platform Gallery, the Mitchell Algus Gallery, the Reese Palley Gallery, David Hall Fine Arts in Wellesley, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Krannert Art Museum. Hayes' work is also included in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hayes has been working with packaging materials in his paintings since 2017, and recently, REPURPOSED, a series of paintings presented on packaging materials was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the John Molloy Gallery in New York City. Art Reclaimed is Co-Curated by: Alison Poor-Donahue, MFA Professor and Chair, Visual and Performing Arts Department Jim Fitts, Professor, Graphic Design

Alumna Tammie Rubin (BFA 1999 History of Art and Crafts) received a Berresford Prize from United States Artists. Please visit here. The Berresford Prize is an unrestricted $50,000 award given annually to a cultural practitioner who has contributed significantly to the advancement, well-being, and care of artists in society. Introduced in 2019, the award was conceived of by several USA Fellows in response to the lack of acknowledgment for those who have dedicated their careers to the betterment of artists. Named for our co-founder Susan V. Berresford, this prize reinforces our commitment to artists by acknowledging the remarkable administrators, curators, scholars, and producers who are building platforms and creating conditions for artists to thrive. Each year’s recipient is selected by an internal nomination and review process.

BFA 2012 alumna, Leah Guadagnoli, was recently featured in the Wall Street Journal, with Mollie Katzen, author of the “Moosewood Cookbook.” Read article here.

The New York Times featured Art and Design alum, John Miller (MFA '98, Sculpture), in a recent article promoting his exhibit at the Lowe Art Museum in Miami, Florida. The article explores Miller's 'playful' work with glass, his journey through art - including his time at the School of Art & Design - and his inspirations. Read more in A South Florida Museum Showcases Burgers, Fries and Beers, Made of Glass.

Bea Nettles will be inducted at the 2023 Hall of Fame Induction & Awards ceremony on November 3, 2023. The IPHF annually awards and inducts notable photographers or photography industry visionaries for their artistry, innovation, and significant contributions to the art and science of photography. Visit the site here.

Liza Sylvestre, alumna of the School of Art & Design, and currently a multimedia artist and research assistant professor within the College of Fine and Applied Arts, has a new exhibit in the Collective gallery in Scotland. Sylvestre's exhibition, asweetsea "explores what it means to communicate. As an artist who is deaf, and whose child and partner are both hearing, Liza Sylvestre seeks to locate where her disability lives within their family structure," according to the gallery page. Read more in the Collective's Autumn Exhibitions announcement.