Artist and SAIC Faculty Member Greg Bae Has Died

Via SAIC Interim Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs Shawn Michelle Smith  and Chicago Artists Coalition

SAIC alum and faculty member Gregory Bae (MFA 2012) passed away recently. He is remembered by those who worked with him as a generous leader and friend who traveled widely, always making time to connect with fellow artists and devoting himself to organizing for justice.

While a student in the Department of Painting and Drawing, Greg shared his welcoming nature as a graduate admissions student ambassador and later, as a faculty member and a reviewer for undergraduate admissions. Greg began teaching for the department in fall of 2019 and has since also taught in Contemporary Practices and Continuing Studies, finishing his most recent class, online, earlier this month. 

His own practice was multidisciplinary, often using accumulated detritus to speak to the impact of global forces (both physical, like gravity, and diasporic) and investigate the malleability of time and the magnetism of presence. He was the co-director for Bill's Auto, an exhibition space founded in 2018, and most recently curated an exhibition at Buddy, the new artist-run venue at the Chicago Cultural Center. In active response to anti-Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAAPI) sentiment, Greg was central to the organization Chicago API Artists United (CAAU), successfully raising funds for Asian Americans Advancing Justice and mobilizing generations of AAAPI artists to stand in solidarity against injustice.

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CAC is saddened to learn of the sudden passing of artist and SPARK Grant recipient (2018-19), Greg Bae. Greg shared with CAC Executive and Artistic Director, Teresa Silva, recently that the SPARK Grant funds spearheaded a solidarity support group for Asian and Asian-American artists. Greg is a true artists' artist and community builder.

Painter Louise Fishman, Graduate of University of Illinois, Champaign Has Died at 82

Louise Fishman, whose stylish paintings synthesized modernist abstraction with her identity as a queer Jewish feminist, died in New York on Monday at 82.

For much of her career, Fishman’s art went under-recognized by the mainstream art world, but in recent years, it has been the subject of various solo shows, including surveys at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and Cheim & Read gallery in New York, her longtime representative.

The Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois is scheduled to open an exhibition of Fishman's work in one month, on August 26.

Lighthouse Art Space Calls for Artists to Apply for Van Gogh Residency 

Via PR

Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago, the venue housed in the Germania Club Building, announced a call for artists for the ongoing Artist-In-Residence program at 108 W. Germania Place. The program is designed to enable both established and emerging artists to engage with the legacy of Vincent van Gogh, in connection with Immersive Van Gogh running now through Sept. 6.

Artists are encouraged to create and cultivate work during their residency around the theme of van Gogh – all while surrounded by a community of art enthusiasts at the Immersive Van Gogh venue. This is a unique opportunity to build connections, network, collaborate and share work with other artists and the general public. Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago has named artist, gallerist, curator, poet and global advocate Arica Hilton as the original Artist-in-Residence. Hilton has been creating work in the Germania Club’s light-filled studio, utilizing her signature acrylic-on-acrylic reverse painting technique to create works in a neo-luminist style composed of recycled plastic, gold leaf and mirrors.

Local artists are invited to apply for a four-week-long residency over varying dates. The selected candidate will be compensated for their time and given prime access to interact with and sell their work to the tens of thousands of ticketholders for the event.

Apply here

Evanston Arts Council Approves Mural by Ben Blount Highlighting Racial Justice

The Evanston Arts Council voted unanimously July 13 to contribute funding to a new mural slated to reflect Evanston’s commitment to racial justice.

The mural will appear on the viaduct walls on the west and north sides of the Washington/Custer intersection. The two walls, immediately off Chicago Avenue, have been empty since the fall of 2019.

Evanston artist Ben Blount was chosen to develop the new mural. Blount created a “Black Lives Matter” poster last year that caught the eye of the Main-Dempster Mile’s Placemaking Committee, purchasing 200 of them to put up in storefronts around town.

The Art of Banksy Has A Site - Again

The Art of Banksy, the largest touring exhibition of authentic Banksy artworks in the world, announced the Chicago exhibition will be held on the 4th floor of 360 N. State St: a 45,000-square-foot space that was the home of other public exhibits. The public opening has been delayed from its original start but will now be Saturday, Aug. 14.

The Art of Banksy will feature more than 80 works by the elusive street artist including many of his most recognizable images.

It was previously announced that the exhibition would take place at Epiphany Center for the Arts.