I am excited to announce that Artdose is expanding. We decided to branch out a bit into the design industry, focusing on architecture, functional, and interior. We want to give this the same attention and care as we do with the visual arts. This new journey welcomes new collaborations, partnerships, and content. Since the beginning, Artdose has navigated the publishing industry with a growth mindset and taking creative risks. Its goal has been to develop a strong foundation (as long as it takes) to become relevant for our readers and sustainable for the future. We look forward to this next chapter. – Frank Juárez, publisher.
CO-EDITOR’S NOTE
Change is a sign of growth and transformation. It signifies an awareness of meeting the need of the current moment. Art truly knows no bounds, and we experience it daily: on a community bulletin board at a coffee shop, at the Guggenheim, or in a classroom. Art exists in our homes, on a clothing rack at a thrift store, and on public streets and billboards.. Artdose celebrates the creative pursuits of visual artists, galleries, and projects in the Midwest. With a welcoming spirit and an opportunity to expand representation, Volume 39 proudly highlights something new for us: the world of design. From the simplicity and elegance of Emily Duke’s lamps to the eccentric and bold energy of House of No Era, it’s clear that design is diverse, essential, and not something to be underestimated. The intersection of form, function, and aesthetics is an exciting pathway for Artdose, and we are eager to explore this new connection and build a stronger creative community with art + design at the forefront.
Rachel Hausmann Schall
Co-editor @hoorachel
MAILING
Artdose Magazine LLC
P.O. Box 1125
Sheboygan, WI 53082-1125
SUBMISSIONS
Visit artdosemagazine.com for submission guidelines. All inquires should be sent to artdosemagazine@gmail.com.
Limited quantities available in listed arts centers, museums, studios, and galleries.
Cover: Allison Wade, Framework for Offerings #5 (shards), 2025, Steel, paint, ceramic, magnets, 21 x 30 x 7 in.
Allison Wade: Place for Awkward Elegance
By Frank Juárez
Connecting with artists, galleries, art museums, and institutions is one of the best ways to navigate the Contemporary Art landscape. Nowadays, making those connections is as simple as following an artist on social media, subscribing to a gallery’s newsletter, attending receptions and events, participating in artist-in-residencies, and engaging in other types of programming. We do this to stay engaged, inspired, and informed. I met Allison Wade in 2011 when I was a participant in the Teacher Institute in Contemporary Art (TICA) Program in Chicago. She was the teaching assistant. Since then, we have remained in contact.
Wade’s creative practice actively responds to the world around her. Through inquiry, exploration, and experimentation, she searches for visual cues that can stimulate conversation. For example, objects such as a bike rack or lamp post share a language that bridges art, design, and functionality, which transfers into sculptural ideas and elements. Using those observations provides the opportunity to create a new context in how we interact with sculptural forms in our daily lives.
Wade’s sense of play is evident in how she constructs her work using line, color, form, and materials such as wood, textiles, ceramics, and found objects. Lately, she has been working with metal. This medium presents a pathway in which she intuitively moves pieces around to see how they may fit. Each configuration is an attempt to solve a new formal question or challenge, giving her the satisfaction of completing her investigation.
There is a presence of graphic design aesthetics and physics that exists within her work. Her understanding of composition and balance is present. As Wade puts
it, she aims to make “a place for awkward elegance.” Sculpture can be challenging to understand. Wade finds a way for the viewer to create a connection.
Allison Wade (b. 1973, Dallas, TX) is a visual artist and educator whose practice is material-based, intuitive, and formally focused. She combines ceramics, textiles, wood, and metal into unexpected arrangements that explore the intersection of flatness and form. Wade’s process, which she likens to syntax, is closely aligned with writing. Deploying an idiosyncratic visual language, she explores the structural and formal contingencies of her materials and sculptures.
Wade received an MFA from the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a BA in English literature from Stanford University. She has been a visiting artist/ lecturer at Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Ceramics Department, Kansas City Art Institute, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Miami University, among others. Residencies include Ragdale, Loghaven, Watershed Ceramics Residency, Ox-Bow, ACRE, and the Vermont Studio Center, where she was supported by a John Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. Wade’s work has been shown internationally and nationally, notably at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and she is represented by Devening Projects. She currently resides in Chicago, where she is Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Art Theory & Practice at Northwestern University.
Visit allisonwade.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at IG: @allisonlwade1.
It’slikely that you’ve heard the saying, “If a tree falls in the woods, but no one is around to hear it, does it actually make a sound?” This mind-bending phrase forces one to consider their own perceptions and experiences under a philosophical umbrella. In my line of thinking, this familiar turn of phrase exemplifies the indispensability of the arts writer.
Artists use their work as a way to communicate with the world and to express their ideas. Arts writers build bridges between the artist, exhibition, arts institution, and members of the general public. The arts writer is the person 50 yards away from the fallen tree, calling out to let others know the news, or screaming to watch out for another one. Arts writers make necessary, critical, and insightful connections by underscoring the significance of contemporary art and artists today. They get people excited about art and encourage curious readers to explore new perspectives.
Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working with journalist, critic, and filmmaker Mary Louise Schumacher. Her film Out of the Picture chronicles the stories of several arts writers in the United States during a period of dramatic change for journalism. It has screened around the world since its debut in 2024. This film is the first feature-length documentary about arts writers and culminates over 10 years of Mary Louise’s research. The film includes a segment about Mary Louise’s personal experience losing a position at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after almost two decades of being the only full-time art and architecture critic in the city. Mary Louise’s story is an all-too-familiar encounter for the entire arts journalism industry, and unfortunately for artists,
galleries, and arts writers, it’s not a problem that can be solved overnight. Out of the Picture brings up thought-provoking questions around arts criticism and its definition and purpose in an ever-changing landscape of media consumption, especially considering the decline of print media in recent history.
Arts writers ... get people excited about art and encourage curious readers to explore new perspectives.
After a screening of the film hosted at the Grand Theater in collaboration with the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, I left with an array of questions myself. As both an artist and writer, I related to many of the challenges the film brought into the spotlight. What exactly is art criticism? Who is it for? What is its purpose? How do we access it? Why should we care about it? How is it changing with the times? How can we continue to support it?
Out of the Picture calls out a reality that arts writers have been grappling with for years. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling motivated to continue pushing for conversations about the need for more arts writing in the Midwest–in any format. I think picking up a copy of Artdose magazine is a great way to forge ahead, and perhaps by the next issue, the arts writers will be even louder about the trees that have fallen in the woods.
Visit outofthepicturemovie.com to learn more.
Left: Rachel Hausmann Schall and filmmaker Mary Louise Schumacher during Q&A after the screening of Out of the Picture in Wausau, WI. Right: Out of the Picture Marquee sign at the Grand Theater Wausau. Photos: Grand Theater Wausau.
Roland Santana: Building Connections
Linda Marcus
Roland Santana isn't interested in perfection. The Chicago-based painter and mixed media artist embraces the unexpected whenever he creates. "I enjoy cracks. I love seeing what paint can do over time, how it ages and the patina. It's really awesome that the material can have a life of its own."
Santana makes paintings, drawings and mixed media works often from unconventional materials such as silicone, latex and concrete. His knowledge and love of materials emanates from working with his dad in construction. Santana says his dad taught him the functionality of building materials and their aesthetic values. "Working with materials is a very humbling experience. it can teach you a lot. I see it almost as a religious practice and it just teaches you so much about life."
He says he didn't really start making art until he went to school. "I was seeing it more like, maybe I can use it to say something and using it to express myself aesthetically and creatively," And the more Santana worked with paint, the more he realized its potential. "As I progressed, I fell in love with the traditional, I fell in love with paint as a material and its history."
The artwork Santana creates is dreamlike, with vibrant colors and textures which transport the viewer. "I think all art is spiritual. I think there's a lot of mystery in it. I don't think we know how to speak about it. It can open a lot of windows and doors to possibilities that we don't think about. We are bombarded with a lot of ways to think and see but when you have that moment to think and to translate it to a canvas, it can work." The vibrant colors in
Santana's work may at first sight appear joyous, but he says it's much more complicated than that. "It may look joyous, but it could come from a place of struggle."
"Working with materials is a very humbling experience. it can teach you a lot. I see it almost as a religious practice and it just teaches you so much about life."
Santana actively experiments in his studio. "I don't keep the studio too safe. I'm always experimenting and risking or taking risks with materials. I take my time with works. I go back to old works. I can destroy it or keep going. It's like building a puzzle. And the sensation of working with paint, with or without a brush, or fingerpainting all adds to the creative experience," says Santana. "The role of the artist is to give them, the viewer, that experience of being the artist and lending them the brush and the tool to bring them closer to the experience." And that idea of the experience extends even to the naming of his artwork by using Spanish to honor his Guatemalan and Bolivian heritage. Santana especially loves it when nonSpanish speakers try to pronounce the titles. "I love non-Spanish speakers attempt to say the titles. I like people getting out of their comfort zones. Titles are like Post It notes. It's like a cool name and I post it up and then it's a whole another art piece. The titling is another way of playing."
Left: Roland Santana in studio. Photo: Aliya Haq.. Right: Spilling Atmosphere, 2024, Oil on Canvas, 11 x 16 inches. Photo: Roland Santana.
Outsider art, fashion, his friends, and other nontraditional artists inspire Santana. He says, "I constantly want to shift and bounce and be a chameleon and go to different communities and try different mediums. It isn't just painting, its music and sound. I think I'm a professional observer."
"It isn't just painting, its music and sound. I think I'm a professional observer."
Santana is interested in building bridges and creating community by creating opportunities for artists who have none. Santana created "Rupture" an online visual artist directory listing of BIPOC artists in the Chicago area. He also regularly opens his studio to visitors and other artists. "It's about giving it away. It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there to find enjoyment for opening spaces and providing opportunities for others." But Santana embraces it fully. He says it's all
part of living an artist’s life. "I'm excited to continue this lifelong journey. It's not always romantic. It's about taking that step and seeing the world a lot bigger than you think it is and it all starts with yourself and if you let it, it can lead to those bigger questions you want answered."
Visit rolandsantana.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @iii.____.iii.
Above: Roland Santana in studio, Photo: Aliya Haq. Below: Warm Body, 2024, Oil on Canvas Board, 8 x 10 in. Photo: Roland Santana.
House of No Era Isn’t Following a Script—It’s Writing Its Own
By Carly Sioux
Atfirst glance, House of No Era might look like a vintage furniture studio. But founder Carly Sioux is doing something far more layered—blending design, music, art direction, and storytelling into a practice that refuses to stay in one lane. Based in Cincinnati but rooted in the rhythms of cities like New York, Miami, and New Orleans, No Era's work doesn’t subscribe to any one era, trend, or timeline. That’s by design.
“The name itself is about timelessness,” Sioux says. “I pull from wherever I want, without being boxed into one style or period. It’s instinctive.” That instinct reveals itself across every facet of the brand. Whether directing experimental videos to promote a new design drop, styling an editorial shoot in the studio, or building out playlists to accompany design campaigns, House of No Era approaches the work more like a conceptual artist than a traditional interior designer.
The result is part set design, part retail experience, part visual diary. “People aren’t just buying a chair or lamp,” Sioux explains. “They’re buying into a whole atmosphere—the music, the clothes, the mood. I’m not just staging rooms; I’m creating moments for people to live inside.”
House of No Era is unapologetically driven by creative intuition rather than seasonal direction. Sioux's sourcing process is rooted in impulse, not algorithms. Pieces are selected and styled not with trends in mind, but to bring a vision to life—one that’s often forming in the background long before it’s fully realized. It’s never nostalgia,” she adds. “I’m anti-nostalgia. It’s about the now, the raw, the real.”
Though the brand spans multiple cities, Sioux is deeply aware of how each region shapes their practice. No Era’s most recent design series, Brutalist Pop Tropics, pulls from New Orleans’ sensual humidity, New York’s relentless energy, and Cincinnati’s architectural edge. “Each city brings its DNA to the table,” she notes. “And I blend them how I see fit, depending on the story I’m telling.”
“I’m anti-nostalgia. It’s about the now, the raw, the real.”
Muses tend to be artists, weirdos, and cultural outsiders—the ones who instinctively get it. Sioux is drawn to collaborators who bring rebellion, eccentricity, and a willingness to play. “I’m building something, but it’s not about fast growth. I’m not chasing clout. I want people to buy what they love, understand where it came from, and be part of something that doesn’t feel disposable.”
Even as Sioux scales, her ethos remains rooted in intention. “I keep the next moves quiet,” she says. “Too many people watching can throw off the energy. I share when it’s real, not when it’s still forming.
In a world of rinse-and-repeat interiors, House of No Era stays slippery by design—unclassifiable, untamed, and always in motion.
Visit houseofnoera.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @houseofnoera.
Redd Theory, Feat. Redd (Detroit) for House of No Era. Photo: House of No Era.
House of No Era HQ. Photo: House of No Era.
Ampersand Supply Co.
Ampersand Supply Co. strives to engage our community by supporting the needs of artists & makers & creators of all kinds. We are an inclusive supply shop that serves your most innovative project ideas. Come visit us in the Uptown District of Sheboygan on 8th Street and enjoy the Malibu of the Midwest! Check the website and follow us on Facebook & Instagram for upcoming events and workshops.
Tues-Thurs: 10 am - 6 pm, Fri & Sat: 9 am - 4 pm, Sun: 10 am - 2 pm; 1212 N. 8th Street, Sheboygan, WI 53081; 920.287.3268; ampersandsupplyco.com
Art Preserve
The Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is the world’s only museum dedicated to the preservation and celebration of artist-built environments—spaces and places that have been significantly transformed by an artist to embody and express aspects of their history, place, or culture. More than 30,000 works by 40 artists are on display, including award-winning, artistdesigned washrooms. Admission and parking are always FREE.
Tue, Wed, Fri: 10 am – 5 pm, Thu: 10 am – 8 pm, Sat and Sun: 10 am – 4 pm 3636 Lower Falls Road Sheboygan, WI 53081; 920.453.0346; jmkac.org
James Watrous Gallery
The James Watrous Gallery is dedicated to amplifying Wisconsin artists. Located on the third floor of Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison, the Watrous focuses on solo and curated exhibitions that feature contemporary Wisconsin artists. As a program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, the gallery aims to draw connections between art and other disciplines.
Thursday-Friday 12 - 6 pm, Saturday 11 am - 5 pm, Sunday 12 - 5 pm; 201 State St, Madison, WI 54703; 608.733.6633 x25; wisconsinacademy.org/gallery
John Michael Kohler Art Center
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) is a nationally acclaimed visual and performing arts complex located in Sheboygan. Year-round offerings include rotating original exhibitions and thematically aligned live performances, community events, and art-making experiences for all ages and abilities. Experience includes a friendly café, a gift shop, and a hands-on art studio. Admission and parking are always FREE.
Tue, Wed, Fri 10 am – 5 pm, Thu 10 am – 8 pm, Sat and Sun: 10 am – 4 pm 608 New York Ave, Sheboygan, WI 53081; 920.458.6144; jmkac.org
Kim Storage Gallery
Located in the heart of Milwaukee, the Kim Storage Gallery is a vibrant space celebrating the creativity of Wisconsin and beyond. This gallery features a diverse mix of museum-quality artwork, ranging from innovative pieces by emerging local talents to esteemed works by established artists. It's a dynamic hub where art enthusiasts can explore the evolving landscape of contemporary art in an inviting and accessible environment.
Tuesday-Saturday 10 am - 5 pm, Viewings by appointment; 207 E Buffalo St, Ste 404, Milwaukee, WI 53202; 608.381.6905; kimstoragegallery.com
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum
The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, known for its internationally renowned "Birds in Art" exhibition each fall, offers diverse and ever-changing exhibitions year-round, sculpture garden, Art Park, dynamic programs for all ages and life stages, and a commitment to always-free admission that provides barrier-free access to the visual arts
Tues-Fri 9 am - 4 pm, First Thur. of each month 9 am - 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun 12 - 5 pm, Closed Mondays & holidays. 700 North Twelfth Street Wausau, WI 54403; 715-845-7010; www.lywam.org
Rahr-West Art Museum
The Rahr-West Art Museum is a City of Manitowoc facility that preserves and enhances its collections and historic mansion. The museum's purpose is to engage the dynamic learning opportunities in the visual arts, and enrich life in the area by serving as a cultural resource.
Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 4 pm, Saturday - Sunday 11 am - 4 pm 610 N. 8th St. Manitowoc, WI 54220; 920.686.3090; rahrwestartmuseum.org
Rountree Gallery
Rountree Gallery is an all-volunteer, non-profit art gallery and art hub in the Southwest region of Wisconsin. Rountree Gallery hosts dynamic local and regional art exhibits in a professional gallery space within a historic building on a vibrant Main Street. Follow Rountree Gallery on FB or IG to stay up to date on call for arts and upcoming shows.
Thursdays and Fridays: 4 - 7 pm, Saturdays: 10 am - 2 pm 120 West Main Street, Platteville, WI 53818; rountreegallery.org
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
Located in a scenic park in Brookfield, Wisconsin, just 20 minutes from Milwaukee, the Wilson Center focuses on three main disciplines: Performing Arts, Arts Education and Visual Arts. The Wilson Center hosts a full performance season, year-round art exhibits by Wisconsin artists, an outdoor Arts Park, many permanent art installations and artist talks with each new gallery show. Join us in summer for our free Starry Nights Concerts.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday: 11 am – 6 pm. Hours may be limited during performances. 262-781-9520. 3270 Mitchell Park Drive, Brookfield, WI 53045; wilson-center.com/ploch-art-gallery
Two Fish Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Our gallery is also our studio, home, classroom, and garden. We focus on fine craft, fine art, and fair trade works. The gallery and gardens are open year round with specific hours and events are listed on our website. Clay is our specialty with a wide range of functional, sculptural, and garden works.
Varies by season. Please check our website; 244 East Rhine Street, Elkhart Lake, WI 53020; 920.876.3192; twofishgallery.net
The Radical Kitchen: Domestic Space as Curatorial Practice
By Isabela Pinheiro
The Nook, an art gallery quietly tucked into the corner of a St. Louis' home's kitchen, might seem like nothing more than a charmingly domestic scene: a kettle on the stove, a cat rolling on the floor, papers strewn across a worktable. But this is no ordinary retreat. Conceived and curated by artist Emily Mueller, The Nook is an experimental project that subverts the boundaries between public and private, art and life, domestic and public. It's a space where domesticity becomes fertile ground for artistic reflection and creative disruption.
The space itself is layered: it is a kitchen, studio, and gallery all at once. A clay vessel in progress rests beside glass jars and handwritten notes; a pan is in the oven while sheets of pulp dry nearby, soon to become material for new works. Visitors are offered a warm cup of tea or coffee, invited not just to view an artwork, but to live with it, to inhabit the atmosphere it co-creates.
...the kitchen has carried the weight of gendered expectations, often associated with passivity, nursery, care work, and invisibility. Yet The Nook refuses this script.
That intimacy is precisely what gives The Nook its radical edge. Historically, the kitchen has been dismissed in cultural narratives, imagined as “a woman’s place,” the ideal setting for the proper, domestic woman. As the symbolic heart of the so-called “cult of domesticity,” the kitchen has carried the weight of gendered expectations, often associated with passivity, nursery, care work, and invisibility. Yet The
Nook refuses this script. Rather than acknowledging this stereotype as limitation, it subverts it. It proposes that domestic space is not a constraint but a catalyst, asking: what if the space historically assigned to women’s care becomes the ground for critical engagement and artistic encounter?
Mueller’s curatorial approach is as intentional as the space itself. Drawing from her experience and a broad network of artists, she seeks creators who might thrive within The Nook’s intimate, offbeat conditions. Often emerging or underrepresented, these artists are invited to treat the domestic setting not as background, but as material, something to be folded into the work’s conceptual or formal language. In this sense, The Nook, the kitchen becomes a stage, a site of emotional, aesthetic, and conceptual resonance, where creativity is not confined but made possible by the domestic setting. Mueller’s curatorial practice doesn’t mask the domestic, it foregrounds it, allowing the gallery to operate not in spite of its setting, but because of it. The result is a porous space that invites intimacy, presence, and reflection, where the supposed limitations of the domestic become the conditions for artistic agency.
This dialogic spirit extends to the artworks themselves, which do not arrive as static monuments but as temporary guests. Their presence is contemplative, but also conversational. Thus, The Nook offers a radical proposition: that intimacy is a form of criticality, and that the domestic, far from being marginal, can be a site of artistic centrality. Here, to be at home is to reframe. To enter The Nook is to step into a space where care, creativity, and critique are not only possible, but inseparable.
Visit www.thenookstl.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @thenook.stl.
Left: Installation view of The Nook Gallery. Photo: Isabela Pinheiro; Right: Marla Sweitzer, Untitled, Tile 49, 2024. Oil on ceramic, 8.25 × 7 inches. Photo: The Nook Gallery.
Emily Duke: Truth to Material
By Frank Juárez
Living with art brings us joy and connection. Visiting artist studios, attending exhibitions, watching live online auctions, and engaging on social media are great ways to support local artists and businesses. Each piece an artist shares with the community reflects years of experience and vision, leaving you with a deeper understanding of the artist’s perspective. Art is about connection.
Emily Duke is a ceramic artist whose work transforms this idea of connection into something tangible. Her practice focuses on illuminated ceramic pieces, like table lamps and candle accessories, made for design showrooms and client homes. To Duke, light is not just decorative; it’s an essential element that flows through the forms she crafts. Illuminated objects add a dynamic layer to life—this ongoing dialogue between the object and its environment is what led Duke to focus her studio practice toward making lighting that invites human interaction and integrates with daily life.
"...light is not just decorative; it’s an essential element that flows through the forms she crafts."
Honesty, optimism, and craftsmanship shine through in every step of Duke’s creative process, from conceptual design to the final presentation of her work. She brings a sense of intentionality to everything she creates, grounding her artistic practice in the belief that the process itself is just as important as the finished piece. At the same time, Duke is keenly aware of the challenges
involved in balancing the artistic and business aspects of running a working studio. While the creative side of her practice is fulfilling, it requires a level of organization and systems to ensure that the work continues to flow smoothly.
Ultimately, Duke’s commitment to her craft lies in staying true to the materials she works with while reimagining her art’s possibilities. For her, it’s about creating pieces that resonate, invite interaction, and reflect the beauty of the material world and human experience. Duke continues to reimagine what her work will look like and what it means to stay true to the material.
Emily Duke is an artist with an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a BFA from the College for Creative Studies (Detroit). She has built a career blending her skills in ceramics with a passion for creating unique lighting. Her sculptural work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The Sculpture Center (Cleveland) and the Kohler Design Center.
Duke has participated in numerous artist residencies, including the Arts/Industry Residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Chulitna Lodge Research Institute in Alaska, Ox-Bow School of Art, and Belger Crane Yard.
Each component of Emily Duke Studio lighting is designed and crafted with precision in Sheboygan, WI.
Visit emilydukestudio.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @emilydukestudio.
Left: Emily in her studio. Photo: Jonas Sebura; Center: (Foreground) Hexagon Chip Carved Table Lamp, 2025, Red earthenware clay, cherry wood, aged brass, linen & electrical components,18.5 (h) x 14 (w) in. Photo: Emily Duke; Right: Taper Chip Carved Table Lamp, 2025, Red earthenware clay, brushed brass, linen & electrical components, 21 (h) x 14 (w) in. Photo: Emily Duke.
Staying Relevant in a Changing Art Market: Lessons from Zolla/Lieberman
Gallery
By April Behnke
It’s not often you find a gallery about to celebrate half a century in business. Longevity in the art world is rare, yet Chicago’s Zolla/Lieberman Gallery has thrived by adapting to market shifts while staying true to its vision.
I stopped by their River North space to learn how they do it and what advice they have for emerging galleries and artists looking to make their mark.
The gallery opened in 1976, a time when Chicago lacked a strong art market. But their turning point came with co-founder Roberta Lieberman’s discovery of Deborah Butterfield, then based in Madison, WI, whose equine sculptures caught national interest.
“We gave Deborah her first show, and that’s when things really took off,” explained Director Brian Gillham.
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery has since kept up the pace, attuning to shifts in collectors’ tastes while remaining steadfast in their relationships with artists and collectors, many of whom, like Butterfield, have been with them for decades. Now, with so many years of experience under their belt, Zolla/Lieberman Gallery has wisdom to share with emerging galleries.
Even in today’s digital world, personal connections remain essential, Gillham shared. “Build trust. Artists want to know they can rely on you, and collectors that they’re buying from someone with a long-standing reputation who’ll go the extra mile.” Be realistic and secure in who you are too, he said.
“Galleries need a distinct vision from the start. There should be something real behind your efforts.”
And what about advice for emerging artists?
“There is so much art out there and not enough galleries,” Gillham said. “Target spaces that align with where you are professionally, not where you want to be.”
"Build trust. Artists want to know they can rely on you..."
Acknowledge that galleries are run by individuals. “When reaching out, know the gallery and the person you are contacting. Use their name,” he highlighted.
Lastly, a strong, cohesive, and substantial body of work is essential. “You need a vision that feels scalable and sincere,” he continued, “but you also need enough work to consistently fill a gallery’s space.”
Galleries and artists alike would be wise to heed Gillham’s advice. Zolla/Lieberman Gallery remains a Chicago mainstay for a reason. To celebrate their upcoming anniversary, the gallery is organizing a special exhibition for summer 2026, featuring artists from their long history, including Deborah Butterfield, Vernon Fisher, and David Kroll.
For owner William Lieberman, the show will reflect a proud history and gratitude for the artists who have graced their walls. “It’s a memorial show for me, a chance to reflect on what my mother began and all the great work that’s come from that.”
Visit zollaliebermangallery.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @zlgallery.
Left: Riva Lehrer - The Mutual Mirror: Sky Cubacub by Riva Lehrer, 2024, charcoal, acetate, acrylic, Japanese papers, organdy, thread, metal, gilding, 34¼ x 47¾ x 2 in.; Right: Installation view of Purvis Young’s exhibition, Messenger of Salvation & Liberation, at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery from January 31 – March 8, 2025.
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Same Difference, Partial Installation View, 2024. Photo:
Robert Chase Heishman.
Ten Years of Cheese
By Rachel Hausmann Schall
In a state where funding for the arts has been struggling for many years, programs like the Grilled Cheese Grant play an integral role in putting unrestricted funds into the pockets of visual artists. As a team member of the Grilled Cheese Grant for the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of co-organizing this annual community event and fundraiser for emerging artists in Wisconsin–and it all happens with one of the Midwest’s most loved sandwiches: the grilled cheese.
Since 2023, fine art foundry Vanguard Sculpture Services in Milwaukee has hosted the Grilled Cheese Grant. With a donation at the door, attendees receive a ballot and a sandwich ticket. Community members can peruse the galleries and determine which one of the five artist finalists they will vote for. They can place an order for a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich (including toppings like pickles, tomatoes, or onions!) made from high-quality local ingredients as they enjoy the ambiance of the foundry surrounded by in-progress sculptures. Attendees can take a tour of the space, participate in a raffle, and engage with other community members before a public announcement of the results at the end of the event. The money raised through donations acts as grant funding for the five artists, who are ranked first through fifth place based on the public vote. Each artist receives money to support their creative practice based on the total amount of funds raised. The more grilled cheeses there are, the more money is awarded!
In 2025, Siren Harris was named the first-place winner of the Grilled Cheese Grant and received over $2,700. Siren’s work blurs the lines between fine art and wearable sculpture. Using cast-off materials or leftover scraps from bronze pours, Siren welds wearable objects that would be impossible or painful to wear. She says,
“My work is meant to be a form of therapy. The ability to take off and step away from the wearable piece, and in turn, the discomfort caused by it, is the point. In this way, it’s like armor, providing the healing I need by means of alleviating the very pain it reflects.”
“I don’t want to make things that I’ve seen before. I’m trying not to be repetitive. I want to make something that’s new and brings people to life.”
Creating impossible objects means that Siren’s work lives between two worlds: a white-walled gallery space and being worn on a body as an accessory. It’s this dichotomy that made her work a popular choice for attendees of the Tenth Annual Grilled Cheese Grant. Siren explains, “I don’t want to make things that I’ve seen before. I’m trying not to be repetitive. I want to make something that’s new and brings people to life.” With a striking installation in Vanguard Sculpture Services’ gallery space, Siren wowed visitors with her specificity and authenticity, taking home the first-place trophy. This grant comes at an integral time in Siren’s career as she enters her senior year at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in the New Studio Practice program. The Grilled Cheese Grant has funded Siren’s important welding gear and supplies for a future project, proving that all types of emerging artists in Wisconsin can benefit from a much-needed slice of cheese.
Visit grilledcheesegrant.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @grilled_cheese_grant.
Left: Grilled Cheese Grant 2025 first place winner Siren Harris. Photo: docMyArt.; Right: Tenth Annual Grilled Cheese Grant at Vanguard Sculpture Services. Photo: docMyArt
Maria Burundarena: Compression, Erasure and Abstraction
By Linda Marcus
Making "garments for buildings" is Maria Burundarena's dream. The Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist uses installation, fiber, collage, photography and projection to create fractured, unknowable but familiar landscapes to fully engage the viewer's senses.
Burundarena is interested in the democratization of art, making art more accessible. She creates installations in public spaces, by first researching and then visiting them multiple times to observe the light and its daily routines. "I love making work in public spaces because the experience of the audience you reach is so different than a white cube gallery or a museum. I'm interested in the people on the street, people who live in the neighborhood and see that corner or street every day and watch how I intervene with my materials."
She uses photographs and a method of illegibility, erasure and compression to create dynamic, colorful inviting spaces. She is constantly refining and reworking images and materials until she creates what she needs. Often, she won't know exactly what it will look like until it is finished. " I'm like an artist who can only see what it is after I make the work"
"I'm not very interested in being straight forward. I'm trying to create a connection where the viewer really has to come closer or go further away in order to understand what they see."
Burundarena's desire is to create an experience where the viewer is fully engaged and immersed. "I think the constant in my work is to disorient the viewer. I'm not very interested in being straight forward. I'm trying to create a connection where the viewer really has to come closer or go further away in order to understand what they see." And what they see are spaces with reflective surfaces and vibrant colors. She often uses light to enhance the experience.
Burundarena grew up in the 90's and was fed a steady diet of television and video games. The familiarity of screens and its use of RGB (Red, Green & Blue) to make up a screen is part of her DNA. For her, color is powerful. "I believe color has the ability to shake your soul and for me it's like an explosion." Burundarena is also interested in layering, compression and building up meaning. She often uses things most of us wouldn't notice. According to Burundarena, " I'm interested in how small gestures work in space, constantly refining it to find meaning."
She credits her background in fashion design and her knowledge of art and materials that has allowed her to create new environments. "As artists, we operate with materials loaded with meaning. Through art we can engage with different feelings, and it can take us to other spaces and places in a matter of seconds. I'm very interested in the capacity of art to do this. It's a different scenario than everyday life. It's like a world I'm creating, and it needs to be understood by living in it.
Burundarena work isn't necessarily political, but she also acknowledges how difficult it is to escape politics. She says art can present an alternative and also has the ability to heal." A big goal of my work is to create
Compound Yellow, xerox prints, foil, metal structures and colored lights, dimensions variable. Photo: Maria Burundarena .
alternative landscapes to everyday life, especially now, in a world where we are all suffering. Art has the ability to reflect what's happening, but it can offer healing too."
Viewers are often so enamored with Burundarena’s installations. Because the artwork is often ephemeral, Burundarena says people want to see themselves in the work and using a cell phone to document the art is a double-edged sword. She also says there is a tension between taking photos and experiencing the work. "Maybe in being you cannot put words to it, but it's something you feel. I'm very interested in operating in that reaction and those affects and in discovery. The best thing I can aim for is to have people remember what they see and how they felt. I want them to remember the emotion of the art piece, the emotion in it and behind it."
Visit mariaburundarena.com to learn more and connect on Instagram at @mariaburundarena.
Top: Maria Burundarena, Silver Peninsula, 2022, Demolished concrete remains of Meigs Field Airport wrapped in emergency blankets. Northerly Island, Chicago, dimensions variable. Photo: Maria Burundarena. Bottom: Maria Burundarena, Messages for All - Mensajes para Todxs, dimensions variable, animated collages on Zaz Gallery LED billboard, NYC. Photo: Maria Burundarena.
Matthew Braunginn
Within these creations, Matthew rejects ideas of destruction and, instead, is infused with his emotional experiences, presenting a radical act of masculine creation during a time when masculinity is used to destroy. His work is also a celebration of Black art. Creating each piece within Black music’s vibrant and soulful sound— Soul, R&B, Jazz, Funk, or Hip-Hop. It is a celebration of life, all while we live in a time where the very idea of diversity, his existence, is being targeted, and people are embracing masculinity in its most destructive forms. These works repudiate those notions and ideas, instead embracing their inversion.
In a weighty, abstract expressionist style, using primarily acrylics and exploring oils with bold and intense colors, you will experience profound emotional and human resonance. As much as they are his creations and all that comes from within him, they change with each observer. Explore each shape, color, shade, movement, and layer, reach deep within yourself, and see what reaches out to and from you.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
Left: Dilla Made Sade Some Eggs, 2024, Acrylic on wood, 36 x 48 in., $3,500; Top Right: (RE)Unions in Creation, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 in., $3,000; Bottom Right: Summation Soliloquy of Maybes, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 46 in., $3,500.
Roberta Condon
Left: To the Point, 2025, Pine needles, willow, waxed linen, 12 x 9 x 7 in., private collection; Top Right: Backbone, 2025, Longleaf pine needles, zippers, waxed linen, 25 x 15 x 15 in., private collection; Bottom Right: Overgrown, 2024, Pastel, 18 x 24 in., private collection.
Roberta Condon is an award-winning artist recognized with a Master Pastelist ranking by both the Pastel Society of America and the International Association of Pastel Societies. This ranking is for only those artists who have lifetime achievements in national and international juried shows.
Her pastel paintings are in the permanent collections of the National Arts Club in Manhattan, Barton College in Nebraska, and multiple hospitals and public spaces. The work has toured throughout the Midwest at Museums, Universities, and fine galleries.
Enjoying the same high reputation as a basket maker and a member of the National Basket Organization, she is an award-winning artist in this medium as well.
Terri Field
Terri Field’s Reminiscence series comes from her own experiences with nostalgia - the one-two punch of “oh I remember that” and the intense desire to go back to certain points in our past. Her work focuses on bygone generations, contemplating times when life moved at a slower pace, less interrupted by technology.
Finding antique fabrics, playful elements at thrift stores that connect her to her past, and leaves while on daily walks, she composes photos to paint from. With minimalist yet bold compositions, she invites the viewer to remember their past.
Terri explores the uniqueness of each generation while highlighting the common threads that connect us all. Her work honors the evolving nature of family, culture, and time, recognizing that certain experiences and emotions are timeless.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
terri@terrifield.com
Left: Oldest of Three, 2025, Oil on canvas, 8 x 10 in., $950; Top Right: Laundry Day, 2022, Oil on wood box frame, 5 x 5 in., $250; Bottom Right: Peanut Butter & Jelly, 2023, Oil on wood box frame, 5 x 5 in., $250.
Kristine Hinrichs
Left: Doors Opened, 2024, Archival pigment print, 16 x 20 in., $350; Top Right: Faces in the Crowd, 2024, Pigment print on three silk panels, 25 x 17 x 5 in., $550; Bottom Right: Standing Strong, 2024, Pigment print on three silk panels, 25 x 17 x 5 in., $550.
Kristine Hinrichs is a Milwaukee-based photographer whose work focuses on the urban environment. Her work often makes use of reflections and shadows to highlight how elements of the urban environment affect and are affected by each other, much like a funhouse mirror, one element reverberating off the other. She believes that these elements do not exist by themselves, but only in context. She has a long-term project to document essential workers moving within the city, “Essential, Invisible” – generally before dawn, while most people are still sleeping. Her silk panel pieces are noteworthy. She prints her photographs on silk, hanging them in a series of three panels that provide a three-dimensional effect. She also produces hand quilted and woven pieces from her photographs.
Hinrichs has not missed a day photographing since July, 2011. That provides for a level of continuity and allows her to notice and document subtle changes in the people and urban landscape. She believes that the images find her. Hinrichs’ award-winning work has been exhibited nationally and throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
Angela Johnson
Left: Where the water’s edge and hope exist, 2022, Photograph, archival pigment print, 18 x 12 in.; Top Right: Three Leaves, 2022, Photograph, wet cyanotype on watercolor paper, 9 x 12 in.; Bottom Right: Darkness envelopes, 2023, Photograph, archival pigment print, 12 x 18 in.
Angela Johnson is an artist, creativity coach and educator based in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned a master’s in art education, an MA in Art, and an MFA with a focus in photography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her photo-based work explores themes of place, specifically nature and how we interact with it, ideas of balance, and telling stories through individual and collective memories. As part of her daily practice she walks/ hikes with her camera and a focus on being present, marking and noticing small interactions or occurrences that may otherwise be missed or unnoticed.
Megan Woodard Johnson
Tumble, 2024, Mixed media on panel, 36 x 36 in., $3300.
Megan Woodard Johnson is a mixed-media artist living and creating in West Bend, Wisconsin. Johnson’s work hangs in private and corporate collections across and beyond the United States and is represented in multiple US galleries. She has shown work in numerous juried group and solo exhibitions, taught workshops, and completed multiple artist residencies, including the prestigious year-long Residency at Saint Kate - The Arts Hotel, in Milwaukee, WI, from September 2024 through August 2025.
Johnson’s abstract mixed media paintings are inspired by and reflective of the way our full, beautiful lives are comprised of little rules we try to follow, layered with unplanned detours and lively interactions. She works by combining expressive, luscious applications of paint and drawn line with collected materials such as vintage packaging, ledgers, workbooks, and hand-written records. This piecing together of materials results in energetic compositions that evoke joy, spark curiosity, and reward close inspection.
Johnson maintains a full-time studio practice that yields a consistent inventory of work on paper, canvas, and panel, in all manner of sizes. She also welcomes commissions and fine art reproduction requests.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
Left: This is 4, 2024, Acrylic, latex, 23K gold leaf, and oil pastel on canvas, 48 x 36 x 1.5 in., NFS; Top Right: Dawn, 2024, Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 36 x 48 x 1.5 in., $1,800; Bottom Right: Untitled, 2023, Acrylic, oil pastel, and satin varnish on canvas, 30 x 40 x 1.5 in., $1,300.
Issis Macias, a self-taught artist and daughter of Mexican immigrants, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her creative journey is deeply rooted in the community and the diverse array of artists she has encountered throughout her life. In 2020, amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, Macias navigated a major career shift and the transformative experience of becoming a new mother. During this time, she turned to painting with renewed purpose—using creativity to process change, find healing, and reinvent herself.
Through her intuitive, abstract practice, Macias explores personal experiences, matrilineal resilience, and generational trauma. Her work transforms the intimate into the universal, offering vibrant visual expressions of healing and transformation. She maintains strong ties to Los Angeles through ongoing artistic collaborations. Macias was named the 2025 Latina Artist of the Year and, in 2024, received the Micaela Salinas Artist Fellowship, sponsored by Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development. She is also a 2023–2025 Bridge Work artist at Arts + Literature Laboratory, a 2023 Forward Art Prize finalist through the Women Artists Forward Fund, and a member of the Madison Art Guild. Her work is held in private collections across the United States, Mexico, and Europe.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
My art explores how clothing shapes and organizes the female body, recognizing that this organization is inherently political. Women’s bodies remain central to social and political discourse, and through my work in clay, resin, painting, photography, and video, I examine how the material qualities of women’s clothing and fashion language shape both personal and political experiences. Fiber is my partner in this exploration: sometimes I work in harmony with its properties; other times, I stretch, knot, sew, or pull it into new forms. I believe fiber retains its history, even as it is transformed. Through abstraction, I reveal the subtle histories embedded in everyday materials, evoking a sense of both personal and political memory.
I am a self-taught artist who did not pursue formal art education until my sixties, though I have been sewing since I was young. Decades of making my own clothing — garments for work, play, weddings, and funerals—shaped my understanding of how intimately what we wear is woven into our lives. Before I had studio practice, I had a sewing machine and a bag of notions. Through sewing, I connected with a lineage of women for whom this craft was their primary creative expression. My dedication to fiber as a medium is a feminist homage to that history.
I begin and end with cloth, but my work defamiliarizes this material, transforming the question of "how to dress" into a deeper question of "how to live."
Cyndie Rauls
Left to right: Butterfly Effect, 2025, Fiber art and assemblage, 46 x 17 x 4 in.; Girl, 2025, Fiber art and assemblage, 40 x 17 x 3 in.; All I Loved, 2025, Fiber art and assemblage, 43 x 12 x 4 in.; 3’s a Magic Number, 2024, Fiber art and assemblage, 67 x 27 x 4 in.
Cyndie Rauls lives in the Driftless region of Wisconsin. A W.V.A. professional artist, Cyndie assembles clothing, toys, and ephemera from the 1970s into vignettes of her childhood. She filters stories of profound childhood sadness through a lens of quiet beauty and employs joy as an ultimate act of rebellion. Through texture, form, and the inherent narratives embedded within each object, she invites the viewer to linger and discover subtle messages hidden within each piece. Her work reflects a spectrum of emotion as complex and multifaceted as childhood itself, and serves as a testament to the enduring power of objects and their ability to hold stories.
Upcoming Solo Show
Pump House Regional Arts Center, La Crosse, WI, September 10 – November 11, 2025
Curated Group Show
Overture Center Playhouse Gallery, Madison, WI, November 24, 2026 - February 21, 2027
Left: Time of Awakening, 2024, Acrylic on paper permanently mounted on cradled birch panel, 30 x 22 in. (courtesy Kim Storage Gallery); Top Right: Prophecy, Atonement, In Stillness Become Clear (included in 5-10-100: Women Artists Forward, at James Watrous Gallery, 2024); Bottom Right: Beneath a Darkening Tempest (detail), 2024, Acrylic on cradled birch panel.
Katherine Steichen Rosing investigates intricate ecological relationships between forests, watersheds, and climate through painting, mixed media, and immersive sculptural installations. Ripon College will host a solo exhibition of her work in the Caestecker Gallery at the Rodman Center for the Arts from October 17 – November 14, 2025.
With a poetic consciousness of the interconnectedness of all things, Rosing’s richly hued paintings express the heightened awareness often felt in natural environments. Painting abstractly, Rosing envisions hidden connections within ecosystems. Lines and inscriptions drawn into wet paint suggest root systems, other invisible processes, and aquatic life. Layers of paint sometimes obscure these marks, embedding hidden messages in a rich surface.
Rhythmic vertical bands reference forests while ovals of varying ratios allude to leaves, fish, and natural energies. Her paintings range in scale from quietly intimate to engulfing. Forests are Rosing’s lens to climate, invasive species, and ecological cycles— themes explored in her large-scale installations. Physically immersive, her soaring suspended sculptures become virtual forests, offering contemplative spaces to consider climate-related processes like deforestation, photosynthesis, and carbon and water cycles. In contrast to her paintings, the mostly black and white palette of her installations underscores the solemnity of the climate crisis. The sculptures are made from various lightweight fibers and paper, sometimes hand-sewn, beaded and embroidered, or painted with ink and burned.
Judy Tolley is a self-taught visual artist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has always been passionate about art, often experimenting with many mediums. She eventually discovered the technique of creating collage and, most recently, acrylic abstract painting. She explores various layers of textures and shapes to achieve a desired aesthetic. Judy draws inspiration from found images and her imagination. Her creative process is ever-changing and she leaves her work open to interpretation.
To make a purchase, please contact the artist directly.
Dove, 2013, Mixed media collage, 12 x 12 in., $450.
Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts at the Minneapolis Institute of Art | On view:
May 10, 2025 – May 10, 2026
By Kaleb Williams
Step into a world where color tells stories, and every brushstroke feels like a whispered verse. Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts, now showing at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, brings together centuriesold art and poetry in a way that feels surprisingly fresh, intimate, and alive.
The Rajput courts—ruling families from what’s now northwestern India—commissioned these vivid paintings between the 16th and 19th centuries. But they weren’t just for decoration. These works were made to be read, felt, and shared. Each piece is paired with lines of poetry that bring the image to life. The show is a full-body experience, one that blends sight, story, and spirit. It’s not just about admiring beautiful art (though there’s plenty of that). It’s about stepping into a visual language that speaks of love, longing, heroism, and devotion.
The gallery itself is calm and quiet, which makes the colors pop even more—deep reds, rich blues, glowing gold leaf. Most of the pieces are small, meant to be held or read up close. That intimacy pulls you in. Whether it’s a tender moment between Radha and Krishna beneath a moonlit tree or a fierce battlefield scene with warriors charging forward, each painting carries a rhythm and emotion that feels personal. You can almost hear the poetry being recited beside it.
Some standout works include pages from the Gita Govinda—a 12th-century devotional poem about the passionate love between Krishna and Radha. There are also vibrant scenes from the Ramayana and Rasikapriya, each filled with detail and symbolism. Every gesture, every glance, every swirl of nature means something more. Even if you’re unfamiliar with
the source material, the energy and emotion in each image are easy to connect with.
One of the best parts of the exhibit is how thoughtfully it’s laid out. The paintings sit beside English translations of the original poetry, so you can really feel the connection between word and image. You don’t need to be an expert in Indian art or literature to follow along—it’s presented in a way that’s accessible, clear, and full of heart.
You don’t need to be an expert in Indian art or literature to follow along—it’s presented in a way that’s accessible, clear, and full of heart.
There’s also rich background throughout the space— wall texts and audio guides explain how the paintings were made, who commissioned them, and what traditions they came out of. You’ll learn how women played roles not just as subjects, but also as patrons. These paintings weren’t just art—they were deeply personal, devotional, and tied to the rhythms of life and love in the court.
Painted Poetry is on view through May 10, 2026, and it’s absolutely worth the trip. Whether you’re into visual art, storytelling, poetry, or just want a new way to experience history, this show brings it all together. It’s quietly powerful, full of beauty and emotion, and makes you slow down—in the best possible way.
Visit new.artsmia.org to learn more.
Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts (installation view) at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Photo: Karri Dieken.
Mourning But Joyous: The Legacy of Roman Susan
By Samuel Schwindt
Roman Susan has long operated as a slow-burn secret. A cozy gallery space nestled a quick turn from Loyola University in Rogers Park; it’s been a generation-marking site of the enigmatic and diverse Chicago art scene. With their impending closure, I wondered: what are the ramifications of academic gentrification versus the preservation of neighborhoods? What are the ways to facilitate growth while supporting those who invest in non-traditional methods to shape a cultural landscape?
“It was a combination of opportunities,” said Kristin Abhalter, the founder of Roman Susan on a phone call. The rent was cheap, the vigor on hand and the need apparent for a sustaining art space within Chicago. 13 years later Roman Susan was still seeding their impact — until they caught that Loyola had purchased the building for redevelopment. “(Loyola) didn’t reach out — we did,” said the founder about their expulsion from the neighborhood.
Coverage has been robust; “WBEZ” Chicago reported Loyola’s statement, reporting the university would “honor the leases of the residents.” Condolences were given; Chicago Reader exclaimed “Mission: Demolition?”.
In Roman Susan’s community letter, Maggie Roche of Edge Art reflected on her past in the building: neighbors thanked her via post-it notes for installing lights on the street. The letter, readily available on their website, included over 1,000 signatures supporting the space.
Loyola’s history of neighborhood expansion, without concern for their acts of gentrification, appears convoluted. A 2005 article in the Chicago Tribune headlined “Loyola Welcomes Seniors” remarks on a new
building that would also house residents 62 and older. Above a space for its Communication, Technology, and Public Service program, the article quotes the building's marketing director Cambell Paffrey saying the senior accommodations would be “very high-end.” The university signed a 99-year lease with the Franciscan sisters of Chicago Service Corp.
With Loyola’s confused intentions, artists and neighbors have spoken on gentrification, the loss of Roman Susan, and all the fuzzy-in-between of universities’ presence.
Liz McCarthy, a Chicago-based ceramicist and owner of GnareWare, recently had an exhibition at the space. The work was a response to giving birth, and she described the protectiveness of Roman Susan as vital. “The space had a warm ‘womb’ feeling,” she wrote in an email. McCarthy made her concerns about the loss of the gallery apparent as well: “Roman Susan has been a beacon and megaphone for so many diverse voices, it feels like it is being swallowed by the capitalist culture machine.”
Loyola’s mission statement advertises Chicago as “a world-renowned urban center,” yet their expansion brings into question that veracity.
The gallery is planning the final 13 days of the space to not focus on Loyola or the loss: but on the community that nurtured the space. It’s a “celebration of life,” said Abhalter.
Visit romansusan.org to learn more and connect on Instagram at @romansusanart.
Left: Cosmic Serpent, ongoing project.; Right: Eveningnessless exhibition by Ruby Que, December 2024. Photos: Roman Susan Gallery.
