Ronald Rael Lecture
Ronald Rael, still from Teeter-Totter Wall, 2019, single-channel video with sound, 3:00 min. Courtesy of Rael San Fratello,
Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Explore the Visiting Artists Program homepage for visitor information, recordings of past events, and more.
Join us for a lecture by architect Ronald Rael followed by an audience Q&A.
Ronald Rael is a trained architect, artist, activist, design technologist, multi-generational rancher, and traditional builder. His work blurs the borders between architecture, art, technology, land-based practice, and social justice. He writes books, forms startup companies, advocates for human rights at the US-Mexico border, creates software, invents novel materials and new forms of construction, and designs buildings as an applied research enterprise. His work often combines indigenous and traditional materials and processes with contemporary technologies to speak to the contrasts, contradictions, and complexities…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, Architecture, Interior Arch, Designed Objects. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Monday, October 19, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
An Evening with Lilli Carré
, Lilli Carré Evacuations, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.
In the unruly, shape-shifting films of animator, comics artist, and sculptor Lilli Carré (BFA 2006), bodies, lines, and even space refuse to stay put. Drawing on the elastic traditions of cartooning and experimental abstraction, her rebellious figures ignore commands, return the viewer’s gaze, leak into their surroundings, and disappear into murky swamps. Carré presents works from across her career, from Jill (2016), whose gawky computer-animated double—modeled on Carré herself—resists her maker’s commands, to the hand-painted Glazing (2021), in which a woman twists through poses borrowed from art history before shaking off the fantasies they impose. The program concludes with her latest works—the multiple award-winning Evacuations (2025), where painted smears haunt photocopied images of emptied public spaces, and 5000 Years of Counting Sheep (2026). Witty, seductive, and more than a little ominous, Carré’s works revel in the freedom and danger of…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Fall 2026 Norma U. Lifton Lecture with Jori Finkel
The Art History Department is pleased to present this year's Norma U. Lifton Lecture with Jori Finkel.
The Treachery of Biography: The Pitfalls of Writing Artist Profiles and Obituaries
Over the last two decades, Jori Finkel has written numerous profiles and obituaries of artists for the New York Times among other outlets. In almost every case, she has to make tricky decisions about how much of their "personal" life to include. Do you mention the children who interrupt studio visits, exposing an artist's other job as caregiver? What about long career gaps that successful artists aren’t supposed to have, or signs of dementia affecting older artists? These details are particularly fraught for women, LGBTQ artists and artists of color, who are at risk of being further marginalized when coverage strays from their work. Here, for the first time, Finkel will discuss how she grapples with the pitfalls of biography in her ongoing effort to counter and complicate the classic great-white-male genius narratives…
Organization: Art History, Theory, & Criticism. Building Address: 112 S. Michigan Ave. ACCOUNT-FUND-ORG # for billing: 522.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
MacLean Center Ballroom.
McKenzie Wark Lecture
McKenzie Wark. Photo by Z. Walsh,
Join us for a virtual lecture by scholar McKenzie Wark followed by an audience Q&A.
Click HERE to join via Zoom at 6:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Explore the Visiting Artists Program homepage for recordings of past events and more.
McKenzie Wark is best known for a series of books of 21st-century critical theory, including A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, and Capital is Dead. She has also written works that contribute to an alternate history of Marxism, including Leaving the Twentieth Century and Molecular Red. Her survey books on contemporary theory and problems in collaborative knowledge production are General Intellects and Sensoria. She also writes in an autotheoretical style in books such as Dispositions, Philosophy for Spiders, Raving, and Love and Money, Sex and Death. She is a professor of media and cultural studies at a university in New York.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program. Building Address: Virtual.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM.
Zoom Webinar.
An Evening with John Smith
, John Smith, Pyramids / Skunk (Hotel Diaries #5), 2006–07. Courtesy of the artist, Few filmmakers have unsettled the boundaries between documentary and fiction, abstraction and representation, and the personal and political as slyly—or as ingeniously—as British artist-filmmaker John Smith. A towering figure in experimental film and CATE’s very first visiting artist, Smith returns with a program pairing the 16mm deadpan masterpiece The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)—widely considered one of the most influential avant-garde films of the 20th century—with incendiary and deeply personal works made since his 2001 CATE debut. Two chapters from the extraordinary Hotel Diaries connect the anonymous spaces of international accommodations to war and occupation, while Dad’s Stick (2012) and the multi-award-winning Being John Smith (2024) reckon with family history, aging, fame, and making art amid political catastrophe. The Chicago premiere of Two Pids (2026) concludes the evening. Curated by Abina Manning, Video Data Bank’s…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, November 5, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Fall Undergraduate Exhibition
Fall Undergraduate Exhibition, November 6–18, 2026, SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington St. Public Reception: Saturday, November 14, 12:00–5:00 p.m. The Fall Undergraduate Exhibition showcases the culminating work of graduating seniors. This exhibition features the ambitious and innovative interdisciplinary work of our students, the next generation of artists, designers, scholars, and citizens. It is a living example of the crossing of disciplines and challenging assumptions that SAIC encourages in each student.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St.
Friday, November 6, 2026, 11:00 AM – Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 6:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries Lower Level 1.
Public Reception for Fall Undergraduate Exhibition
Public Reception, Saturday, November 14, 12:00–5:00 p.m. SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington St. Lower Level 1,
Please join us to celebrate SAIC's Fall Undergraduate Exhibition and the amazing work of students from our senior class. The exhibition will be on view in the galleries from November 6 through November 18.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St.
Saturday, November 14, 2026, 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries, SAIC Galleries Lower Level 1.
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. Lecture
Left: Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. EDUCATION is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom -- George Washington Carver, 8x6 inches, printed on chipboard. Right: Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. I TEACH! What’s your superpower? 8x6 inches, printed on chipboard,
Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Explore the Visiting Artists Program homepage for visitor information, recordings of past events, and more.
About the Event,
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. uses letterpress printing and typography as a tool of protest. His type-driven prints draw on the words of civil rights leaders including Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frederick Douglas, and Sojourner Truth to explore issues of race, capitalism, history, and politics. Join us for a lecture by Kennedy as he reflects on his practice, followed by an audience Q&A.
Presented in partnership with SAIC's Department of Visual Communication Design.
Biography,
Mr. Kennedy is suspected of Lettrist leanings and anti-archival activities.…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, Visual Communication Design. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Monday, November 16, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
Curator's Tour of "Style is the Body Thinking" with Michelle Grabner
Join SAIC's Crown Family Professor in Painting and Drawing Michelle Grabner for a tour of the exhibition Style is the Body Thinking, which she curated for SAIC Galleries. Michelle will lead public tours on Wednesday, September 9 at 12:00 p.m. Thursday, October 8 at 12:00 p.m. and Wednesday, November 18 at 4:00 p.m. SAIC Galleries is located at 33 E. Washington St. Meet in the galleries on Lower Level 2 for the tour.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St. Other Location Name: SAIC Galleries. Has the department chair or head approved the event and provided approprite funding? TRUE. Have you reached out to the Exhibitions Department for approval? TRUE. Have you reviewed this checklist? drive.google.com…: Yes. Have you reviewed the venue review checklist? drive.google.com…: Yes.
Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries Lower Level 2.
2026 Holiday Art Sale
Celebrate creativity, community, and the season of giving. 124 SAIC students (both undergraduate and graduate) will have work available for purchase with the artists receiving 100 percent of their sales. From paintings to jewelry, each one-of-a-kind piece is handcrafted. Whether you're looking for unique holiday gifts or simply want to support local artists, this event is the perfect opportunity. The SAIC Holiday Art Sale is free and open to the public.
Organization: Campus Life. Building Address: 112 S. Michigan Ave.
Friday, November 20, 2026, 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM.
MacLean Center Ballroom, MacLean Lobby - Tabling Area.