Maria José Murillo: Weaving as a Matrix of Re-existence
In this lecture, Peruvian artist and cultural worker María José Murillo presents weaving as the core of her practice: an embodied process through which she reaches simultaneously into the ancient past and toward the future to critically engage the layered complexities of her cultural identity. Her trajectory—from Peru to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and back to the Ande—shaped her engagement with weaving as a system of care, thought, and transformation. Working across backstrap, floor, vertical, and digital looms, she explores the haptic, structural, processual, and epistemic dimensions of textiles to reawaken ancestrality while juxtaposing Indigenous, colonial, and contemporary techniques alongside heterogeneous knowledge systems, which, although held in tension, interact reciprocally. Through material research, collaborative processes, and encounters with pre-Columbian and living textile traditions, her work positions weaving as a matrix of re- existence, where opposites neither negate nor…
Organization: Fiber and Material Studies. Building Address: 37 S. Wabash Ave.
Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM.
Sharp 327 SP 327.
Priit Pärn and Olga Pärn: Luna Rossa
, Luna Rossa, Priit Pärn and Olga Pärn, 2024. Courtesy of the artists and MIYU, Few figures have shaped the landscape of contemporary animation as profoundly as Estonian artist Priit Pärn. Since the late 1960s, his surreal narratives and expressive graphic style have influenced animators worldwide—from independent auteurs to Hollywood creatives. For the last 20 years, he has worked closely with Belarusian-born animator Olga Pärn, developing a collaborative practice that breaks new aesthetic ground while dissecting the psychological, political, and technological forces of contemporary life. This evening, the two join virtually from Tallinn to present their new film Luna Rossa (2024)—a darkly humorous thriller of shifting identities, coded encounters, and the surveilling gaze of a mysterious authority—alongside two of Priit’s defining works from the 1980s—The Triangle (1982) and Breakfast on the Grass (1987), widely hailed as one of the best animated films of all time. Followed by a virtual conversation and…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, February 12, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Graduate Exhibition One 2026
The culminating presentation of new and ambitious work by MFA candidates in SAIC’s class of 2026. Graduate Exhibition One is the first of two graduate exhibitions this spring.
You can find more information and artist profiles at SAIC Shows 2026,
Hours, Mondays–Saturdays 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
The galleries are open to the public. All visitors must present a valid government ID for entrance.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 11:00 AM – Thursday, February 26, 2026, 6:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries Street Level, SAIC Galleries Lower Level 2.
Post-Baccalaureate Annual Exhibition 2026
This presentation features the work of students completing the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio.
You can find more information and artist profiles at SAIC Shows 2026,
Hours, Mondays–Saturdays 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
The galleries are open to the public. All visitors must present a valid government ID for entrance.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 11:00 AM – Thursday, February 26, 2026, 6:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries Lower Level 1.
Norman Teague: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series
Norman Teague, Africana Rocking Chair, 2022. Designed by Norman Teague with leather craftsperson Yohance Lacour. The rocking chair is constructed entirely from basswood, ebony finished.
Join us for a lecture by designer Norman Teague followed by an audience Q & A.
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.
Norman Teague’s (MFA 2016) overarching goal extends beyond the mere act of design; it is a mission to rectify the narratives of design that falter with gaps, omissions, and oversights. His work seeks to reintegrate the history and ongoing contributions of foundational Black labor, Black craftsmanship, and Black design into our collective cultural identity. In this pursuit, Teague engages in a thoughtful dialogue with overlooked figures such as Chuck Harrison, the trailblazing African American head of design for Sears Roebuck. Harrison's legacy, marked…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, Alumni Engagement. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
Kioto Aoki: Findings
, If pinholes were right side up, I would be doing handstands, Kioto Aoki, 2024. Courtesy of the artist, “Wondrous, extraordinary things are activated and pulled out from the common, everyday objects and environments…in Kioto’s orbit.”—Daniel Hojnacki, Lenscratch, In the finely attuned 16mm films of Chicago-based filmmaker, photographer, and musician Kioto Aoki, everyday phenomena—sunlight pooling on a wooden floor, blades of grass shifting in a lawn—become the material for exquisite compositions of sensorial and perceptual play. Grounded in an improvisatory sensibility and the embodied physicality of analog filmmaking, Aoki often edits her works in-camera and hand-processes them in her own basement studio. For this special evening, she presents a selection of 16mm films and debuts a new 35mm slide work that draws from her photographic practice and turns more explicitly toward the archive and the relations between perception, culture, and history. Musicians Robbie Lynn Hunsinger and Jamie Kempkers accompany…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Michael C. Thorpe: An Insane Madman of Marvelous Living
Michael C. Thorpe describes himself as a painter working in fabric and thread upon a foundation of drawing which he views as the evolved practice of mark making akin to stitches of quiltmaking. Thorpe challenges himself to work with every mark he makes—“no erasing, no regrets,” he says. His compositions are born of long-term projects in which Thorpe is engaged—quilted paintings and works on paper that explore his surroundings, photography, abstraction, letters and words as subjects; sculptural constructions created by combining found objects and quilting debris; and performance pieces emerging from the dedication to an idea. The result is a figurative and conceptual art that is as ingenious as it is uniquely contemporary.
Michael C. Thorpe was raised in Newton, MA and earned his BA from Emerson College in Boston, where he studied Photojournalism. Thorpe and his work have been featured on NPRand PBS and in Artscope Magazine, Boston Art Review, The Boston Globe, CNN Style, Cultured Magazine, Howl, among…
Organization: Fiber and Material Studies. Building Address: 112 S. Michigan Ave.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM.
MacLean 302.
An Evening with Victoria Vincent
, Snooze Quest, Victoria Vincent, 2025. Courtesy of the artist. “A fever dream stitched together from hyperpop absurdism, DIY grit, and existential dread.”—Sam Gurry, LA Film Forum, Feral youth, alienated animals, and masked authorities populate the jittery, acid-colored animations of Victoria Vincent, which map the psychic fallout of life shaped by platforms, protocols, and perpetual crisis. Known online as “vewn,” Vincent has released dozens of short films over more than a decade, honing a singular visual style that is simultaneously handmade and hypermediated. Her characters—doubled, distorted, and often wounded—move through worlds of ambient violence and bureaucratic absurdity, their anxieties amplified by Vincent’s boiling linework and teeming backgrounds. The humor is dark, yet it gives way to fleeting moments of tenderness, solidarity, and connection. For this special evening, Vincent presents a selection of films spanning her body of work, from early internet releases to recent projects like Dirt…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, March 5, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer. Photo by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
Join us for a virtual conversation between author Robin Wall Kimmerer and Sekile Nzinga 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.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. Kimmerer’s newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, is a bold and inspiring vision for how…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, The Office of Community Enrichment. Building Address: Virtual.
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM.
Zoom Webinar.
JJJJJerome Ellis Lecture
JJJJJerome Ellis, Music for the Garden, 2024. Commissioned and produced by High Line Art, presented by the High Line and NYC Parks. Photo by Liz Ligon,
Join us for a lecture by artist JJJJJerome Ellis followed by an audience Q&A.
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.
JJJJJerome Ellis (any pronoun) is a disabled Grenadian Jamaican American artist, surfer, and person who stutters. Through music, performance, writing, video, and photography, Ellis asks what stuttering can teach us about listening, generosity, and justice. JJJJJerome has the great privilege of being married to poet-ecologist Luísa Black Ellis. They live in a monastery on a creek in traditional Nansemond and Chesepioc territory, a.k.a. Norfolk, Virginia. JJJJJerome dreams of building a sonic bath house! Concepts that organize the artist’s practice include: unknowing, improvisation,…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, Wellness Center. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
Volcanoes, Mountains, Forests: Malena Szlam and Jiayi Chen
, Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya, Malena Szlam, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Light Cone. Artist Malena Szlam and filmmaker Jiayi Chen present a special evening of films and performances that use analog technologies to create intensely sensorial experiences—reorienting how we perceive landscape and time. Born in Santiago, Chile, and now based in Montreal, Szlam crafts striking visions of volcanic terrains—from the active peaks and high deserts of the Andes to Australia’s ancient formations—where striated superimpositions, saturated fields of color, and propulsive soundscapes render the earth as a living, dynamic entity of overlapping temporalities. Originally from Chongqing in southwest China, and now living between Chicago and Houston, Chen composes luminous films and multi-projector performances that attune viewers to forest ecologies, seasonal cycles, and reciprocal relationships among flora, fauna, and land. For both Szlam and Chen, analog film mirrors the elemental materiality of their…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, March 26, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Lauren Lee McCarthy Lecture
Lauren Lee McCarthy, LAUREN. Photo by Jane Kratochvil, Sebastian Bach, courtesy of Ford Foundation Gallery,
Join us for a lecture by artist Lauren Lee McCarthy followed by an audience Q&A.
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.
Lauren Lee McCarthy is an artist examining social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. She creates performances inviting viewers to engage. To remote-control her dates. To be followed. To welcome her in as their human smart home. To attend a party hosted by artificial intelligence. McCarthy is the creator of p5.js, an open-source creative coding platform that prioritizes inclusion and access with more than 10 million users worldwide. She is also a professor at University of California, Los Angeles Design Media Arts. McCarthy’s work has been recognized by Creative Capital, United States…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program, Architecture, Interior Arch, Mitchell Lecture. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
Spring 2026 Undergraduate Exhibition
Public Reception: TBD,
The culminating work of graduating seniors. This exhibition features the ambitious and innovative interdisciplinary work of our students, the next generation of artists, scholars, and citizens. It is a living example of the crossing of disciplines and challenging assumptions that SAIC encourages in each student.
Hours, Mondays–Saturdays 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
The galleries are open to the public. All visitors must present a valid government ID for entrance.
Organization: Exhibitions. Building Address: 33 E. Washington St.
Friday, April 3, 2026, 11:00 AM – Saturday, April 11, 2026, 6:00 PM.
SAIC Galleries Street Level, SAIC Galleries Lower Level 1, SAIC Galleries Lower Level 2.
Cecilia Vicuña Lecture
Cecilia Vicuña, Cloud-net, 1998, street performance, New York. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by César Paternosto. © 2025 Cecilia Vicuña,
Join us for a lecture by artist Cecilia Vicuña followed by an audience Q&A.
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.
Cecilia Vicuña (born Santiago de Chile, 1948) is a visual artist, poet, filmmaker, and activist based in New York. She created the autonomous concept of "Precarious Art" in the mid-1960s in Chile to name what disappears. Her poetic work in space, performance, and visual arts is considered a decolonizing vision that anticipates ecofeminism.
“Arte Precario” stands as a new independent and non-colonized category for her precarious works composed of structures that disappear in the landscape, which include her quipus (knot in Quechua), envisioned as poems in space. She was a co-founder of Artists for…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.
An Evening with Maryam Tafakory
, Mast-del, Maryam Tafakory, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and LUX. The works of Jarman Award–winning artist Maryam Tafakory are gripping meditations on desire, erasure, and resistance. Layering imagery from post-revolutionary Iranian cinema, archival documents, autobiographical fragments, and found sound, Tafakory excavates speculative histories of female intimacy and solidarity censored by the state and excised from official records. Her tactile assemblages—swaths of saturated color, half-hidden figures, and text—reflect on the limits of representation while unsettling the West’s reductive understandings of Iranian life and history. She presents three recent works—Daria’s Night Flowers (2025), Razeh-del (2024), and Mast-del (2023)—charged portraits of pleasure and defiance in the face of coercion and oppression, alongside a special live performance that expands on questions of omission, absence, and memory. Followed by a conversation with Maryam Tafakory and audience Q&A. Presented with support from the…
Organization: CATE, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation, GSFC. Building Address: 164 N State St.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1.
Linda Sormin Lecture
Linda Sormin, Uncertain Ground, 2025, ceramic and mixed media installation, dimensions variable, Gardiner Museum, Toronto. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid,
Join us for a lecture by artist Linda Sormin followed by an audience Q&A.
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.
Linda Sormin’s ceramic and mixed media sculptures and site-responsive installations embody vulnerable and fragmented parts of human experience. Since the early 2000’s, Sormin has established a distinct visual and material language, using raw clay, fired ceramics, found objects, and interactive methods. She integrates writing, video, sound, and hand-cut paintings with clay, metal, and wood. Sormin’s research and writing cast light on how her work has always been influenced—though at times unwittingly—by cultural practices in her family histories rooted in Thailand, China, and Indonesia.
…
Organization: Visiting Artists Program. Building Address: 111 S. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago.