Melina Ausikaitis
Wearable Sculpture
Melina Ausikaitis is a multidisciplinary artist and musician from Chicago. She has exhibited and performed all over the country and traveled the world playing in her band Joan of Arc. She is as much an inventor/historian as an artist. Check out her drawings, videos, sculptures, garments and Halloween costumes at melinaausikaitis.com
Kayce Bayer
Drawing by Design
Kayce is an artist educator, designer and mom. She studied Studio Art (and music, too!) at Florida State University, and earned her MFA from Memphis College of Art in Tennessee. Her practice is varied, working across media and collaborating with artists, writers, musicians, and community members to explore personal stories, histories, places, and art experience outside of institutional spaces. Kayce has over 15 years experience as an arts and design educator and is honored to spend her days with the amazing young people at The Chicago High School for the Arts! In all creative pursuits – as teacher, collaborator, maker – Kayce sees art as a place to inspire curiosity and critical literacy.
Whitney Bradshaw
Visual Arts Department Head + AP Photography Instructor
Whitney Bradshaw is an artist, activist, educator, curator, and former social worker. Bradshaw has been the head of the visual art conservatory at ChiArts since the fall of 2012. Bradshaw’s work has been exhibited widely including solo shows at the DePaul Art Museum (Chicago), The Lubeznik Center for the Arts (Michigan City, Indiana), The Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University, the Wave Pool Contemporary Art Fulfillment Center (Cincinnati), The Show Gallery (St Paul) and the Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago). Additionally, her work was curated into the Dock6 Design + Art 13, 2020 (Chicago), Female in Focus 2020 at the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, Colorado), and the Terrain Biennial 2020 (Chicago). She has also shown work at Box 13 Artspace (Houston), James Kearney Campus Gallery at New Jersey State (Trenton), Iceberg Projects (Chicago), Brooks Stevens Gallery at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (Milwaukee), Gallery 400 at University of Illinois Chicago and the Midway Art Fair (Chicago). Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the DePaul Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern School of Law, the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection (Cincinnati), and numerous other private collections. Additionally, her work has been published and/or reviewed in the New York Times, Columbia College’s 6×6 series, Time Out New York, New City, the MCA Chicago catalog for The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music 1965-Now, Esthetic Lens Magazine, the LA Times, The Calodian Record (Vermont), the Chicago Tribune, and WTTW’s Chicago Tonight did a segment on Bradshaw’s work in 2018.
Bradshaw was formerly the assistant curator of the renowned LaSalle Bank Photography Collection and the curator of photography for the Bank of America Collection. While curating for 13 years, Bradshaw was an adjunct professor in the photography department at Columbia College Chicago where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in theory and practice. In 1991 Bradshaw attained a BA in Sociology with a minor in Women’s Studies from Eastern Illinois University, a program she spearheaded and was the first to graduate with a degree in. From 1991-1997 Bradshaw worked in Chicago as a social worker. In 2001 she was named one of the top 10 MFA candidates and awarded the College Art Association Regional MFA Exhibition at UIC’s Gallery 400. She graduated with her MFA from Columbia College Chicago in 2001. You can learn more about Bradshaw’s work on her website, whitneybradshaw.com.
Mel Cook
Drawing II
Mel Cook is a visual artist currently living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Her work explores the relationship between language and femme bodies being pushed up against systems of (re)production. Charting the ever expanding constellation of gendered trauma her work seeks to create new trajectories for thinking and making within the field of painting. She attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2016), received her MFA from Illinois State University (2012), and BFA from Bowling Green State University (2009). Her work has been exhibited in Chicago at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Roots and Culture, Heaven Gallery, and LVL3. Nationally her work has been featured at Hathaway Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL, The Chicago Show at 56 Downing, Brooklyn, NY, Vital Signs MKE, Milwaukee, WI, Yeah Maybe, Minneapolis, MN, and Demo Projects, Springfield, IL. She has been an artist in residence at ACRE in Steuben, WI, Lazuli Residency in Corinth, VT, Ace Hotel Chicago, and The Center Program at Hyde Park Arts Center in Chicago, IL. Cook’s work has been reviewed in The Chicago Tribune, Artsy, Chicago Woman Magazine, Artnet News, and Vagabond City Lit. Public Collections include The Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Polsinelli Art Collection, and David Beitzel Fine Arts. Previously she has taught at range of institutions including Northwestern University and Illinois State University. She is currently teaching at Marwen.
Michael Criston Winfield
Sculpture II and Senior Studio
Interdisciplinary artist born and raised on the southside of Chicago. I received a BA in Art & Design in 2016 from Columbia College Chicago and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies in 2020 from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. My pedagogical approach reflects my work as an interdisciplinary artist invested in research, community, and “materials” that make up society. My art practice engages various modes of making from sculpture, printmaking, installation, performances, and material studies. My art practices are informed by a critical Black Queer lens, which is tied closely to my pedagogical method of teaching. Through a black queer lens I develop curriculum projects that ask students to investigate what is being hidden in the shadows of canonical events that often shape how students view the world. Through my artistic practice and pedagogical practice, I’m constantly influencing and being influenced by the world we live in. I value the unique potential of every learner, and foreground nurturing the students’ learning environments and imagination of expression.
Megan Greene
AP Drawing + Painting
A native of Buffalo, NY, Megan Greene graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1998, and earned an MFA degree from Rutgers University in 2002. Ms. Greene is represented by Regards in Chicago and Kinz Tillou Fine Art in New York. She is also the mother of twin girls.
Kyrin Hobson
Drawing I
A Los Angeles native, artist Kyrin Hobson enacts her various roles as protector of children, community educator and keeper of histories through painting, drawing and conceptually engaged social practice. Hobson’s Chicago studio is now her base of operations for art explorations which build upon experiences as a museum professional and scholar of the African Diaspora. Primarily self-taught in painting, the artist has a BA in Fine Art from UCLA and a MA in Museum Studies from NYU. Additional fine art study has included the Women’s Art Institute at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and studio intensives with Steven Assael, Stanka Kordic, and Karen Offutt. Kyrin is a grantee of the Sustainable Arts Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board and AS220. She has been in residence at the Millay Art Colony and published in The Edna Journal and Delicious Line. Recent exhibitions include ` Reclamation (Helen Day Art Center, Vermont), Visions of Venus/Venus’ Visions (Zhou B Art Center, Chicago), Black Creativity Juried Exhibition (Chicago Museum of Science and Industry). Hobson’s paintings and commissioned portraits feature in collections in the United States, France and Germany, notably including the University of California, Los Angeles, Tina Knowles Lawson and Dr. Elaine Schmidt and Steven Bennett.
Megan Kalmes
Painting I + Drawing III
Megan Kalmes is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago. Megan works traditionally with oil on canvas. Her paintings are figurative and often depict a feminine protagonist entranced within her own psyche – a sort of psychological landscape. Megan loves art history and embraces the fundamentals of painting and drawing. She believes that figuration can be more than a reflection of the self or of society; transcending beyond mere representation to a place of greater sensitivity and call upon the nature of being. The act of self-reviewing is present in Megan’s personal work and in her teaching. Her painting practice informs her communication with students providing enrichment and development from a place of emotional investment. Megan has taught with the Early College Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Megan also has experience with after-school programming working with vulnerable and at-risk youth groups. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Minor in Art History from Clarke University. Megan also holds Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio and an MFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Patrick Lentz
Digital Photography I
With a background in educational psychology and art, Patrick believes that the camera has the power to transform the way we understand the world and the people around us. By mixing practices of documentary photography, community organizing, and youth engagement, his goal is to encourage young people in Chicago to be their own storytellers through visual images.
His work ranges from documenting community actions and protests to exploring personal narratives around grief and nostalgia. Working with a mixture of analog photography and digital, he believes in the power of storytelling and sees it as an inherently political process.
As a recent undergraduate from University of Illinois at Chicago, he continues to examine the crossroads of education, photography, and social movements through curriculum development, and youth programming.
His work ranges from documenting community actions and protests to exploring personal narratives around grief and nostalgia. Working with a mixture of analog photography and digital, he believes in the power of storytelling and sees it as an inherently political process.
As a recent undergraduate from University of Illinois at Chicago, he continues to examine the crossroads of education, photography, and social movements through curriculum development, and youth programming.
Chris Lin Dao-Heng
Intro to Visual Communications + Sequential Art
Chris Lin is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, working in media including films, books, puppetry, music, and installation. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, he moved to British Columbia, Canada and received his BFA with honor from University of Victoria in 2005. After relocating to Chicago, Mr. Lin pursued an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in 2008. His exhibition history includes Contemporary Art Workshop, Eel Space, and OP Shop in Chicago, Verge Art Fair in New York, Deluge Contemporary Art and 50/50 Arts Collective in Victoria, BC, and Atlantic Centre for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL. His visual art and short stories has been published in Fiction At Work and Balliwik. Mr. Lin is the co-founder and collaborative director at Good Stuff House, a performance and publishing art collaborative, and the founding member and ukulele player of the folk-thrash-hop duo Hannis Pannis.
abalonemoney.com
Kera MacKenzie
Digital Media and Experimental Animation
Kera MacKenzie is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in film, video, live broadcast and installation. Her works have explored radical subjectivities, the mechanisms of empathy, suspense, liveness, and control. She has screened and exhibited at spaces including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Anthology Film Archives and UnionDocs (New York City), the MassArt Film Society (Boston), Microlights (Milwaukee), Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, La lumière collective (Montreal), Cellular Cinema (Minneapolis), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Nightingale, and Chicago Underground Film Festival (all Chicago). Kera has been an artist in residence at The Luminary (St. Louis), ACRE (Wisconsin), Culturia (Berlin), and most recently at Signal Culture (Owego, NY). She received her MFA in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. Additionally, Kera is a Founding Co-Director of ACRE TV, an artist-made live-streaming television network (ACRETV.org), and an educator.
Devin Mays
3D Material Studies
Devin Mays holds a B.B.A in International Business and Marketing from Howard University. After receiving his degree, he worked in advertising developing brand strategies and commercials for the better part of a decade. He returned to school to pursue an M.F.A in studio practice from the University of Chicago where he graduated in 2016. There he began an auto-ethnographic exploration of material and memory, which he often refers to as gestures. Since then he has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Lowe Art Museum, University of Florida; Nahmad Projects, London; NADA Miami, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; Regards Chicago and collaborated with the Rebuild Foundation as a designer and contributor for exhibitions and publications. He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL. http://regardsgallery.com/
Dave Musgrave
Sculpture I
BFA, 2011, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL; MFA, 2016, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Exhibitions: NURTUREart Gallery, NYC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Parson Paris Gallery, Paris; VideoFag, Toronto; Defibrillator, Chicago; Enemy, Chicago
Alison Rigell
AP Art History + Intro to Art History + Junior Professional Development
Alison Rigell is an artist, educator, and permanent student of all creative realms including, but not limited to: visual and performing arts, as well as the art of leadership. While she practices across many disciplines of art such as drawing, painting, performance, and sculpture, she also enjoys exploring all the ways in which creativity is present and can be used on a moment by moment basis of everyday life. Beyond her personal practice, Alison is a devout believer in the power of art beyond traditional expression and practice: regarding it highly as an ever expanding opportunity to address and resolve complex issues our world continues to face. She received the majority of her formal education at University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, earning a BFA in Art Education and then completing her second BFA in New Media at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia. She has since continued her education in and outside the classroom, teaching art to students from a range of diverse backgrounds and ages, through both traditional public teaching positions as well as community based arts initiatives. Alison is privileged to continue her growth as an artist and educator at ChiArts, and is honored to become a contributing member of such an important and gifted community. alisonlenore.carbonmade.com
Moises Salazar
The Mural and AP Sculpture
Moises Salazar is a non-binary queer artist from Chicago. Being first-generation Mexican American has cemented a conflict within Moises Salazar’s political identity, which is the conceptual focus of their practice. Whether addressing queer or immigrant bodies, their practice is tailored to showcasing the trauma, history, and barriers these people face. Reflecting on the lack of space and agency they possess, they present queer and immigrant bodies in environments where they can thrive and be safe. The spaces the figures inhabit are colorful, gentle, soft, and safe. The use of glitter, paper mache, and yarn are important in their work because of their cultural and personal value. The work of Moises Salazar is meant to represent the trauma, history, and current state that undocumented immigrants and queer folks face. It is by examining the intersections of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, queerness, and the United States history that Moises Salazar addresses the reality of the barriers that immigrants and queer individuals face with the intention to begin to dismantle the myths and stereotypes used to criminalize and dehumanize them. Moises Salazar has presented their work at Mana Contemporary Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, Sullivan Galleries, Hair + Nails, Salon ACME and NADA Fair 2020. They have been a recipient of the Luminarts Visual Art Fellowship, ArtAxis Haystack Fellowship and the NCECA Multicultural Fellowship. https://www.moisessalazar.com/
Ryan Swanson
AP Visual Communications
Ryan Swanson is a visual artist and designer. He received a BFA degree from Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ryan’s studio practice involves both fine and applied art. He is Director of Interactive Services for Point B Communications where he leads web design and development projects for clients like: Allstate, Hilton, London House, Chicago’s First Lady, Marriott and 360 Chicago. Additionally Ryan has run his own freelance design company for the last 10 years. He is also an artist, creating collages and the occasional sculpture.