August 12 – September 18, 2010
Imagine Everywhere
4th Annual Art+Design Faculty Exhibition
1
On the cover: Louise LeBourgeois, Water #422, oil on panel, 46 x 46 inches
The 4th annual Art + Design faculty exhibition,
Imagine Everywhere, addresses concepts and
meanings of globalization defined (by Wikipedia
of course) as a process by which regional
economies, societies, and cultures have
become integrated through a global network of
communication, transportation, and trade. The
complexities inherent in our society’s ability to
imagine, communicate, and reach everywhere
are what this year’s group of faculty addresses in
this diverse display of work with topics including
the destruction of native species, human
trafficking, and the American Dream. Imagine
Everywhere includes Whitney Huber and David
Follmer, Louise LeBourgeois, Marlene Lipinski,
Marilyn Propp, Arti Sandhu, Miklos P. Simon, and
essayist Corey Postiglione. Jennifer Murray, Director, A+D Gallery
Mapping the Global
By Corey Postiglione
The only way to determine the value of globalization is to analyze
what has been gained and what has been lost. In order to challenge
and bring balance to this global reality, nations should only import what
they cannot make or grow themselves. — Michael Royce
Every semester when I am teaching Critical Theory and come to
the point in the course that deals with globalization, I always give
the students an impromptu assignment: they are asked to draw a
map of the world from memory. Some representations are amazingly accurate (at least in a conventional cartographic sense); others are interpretive, even fantastical. My feeling has always been
in order to interrogate global discourse we should have some visual sense of what we are imagining.
advances in communication and the rise of the Internet; the proliferation of multinational corporations and the resultant dissolution
of national boundaries. A positive feature of this new global reality
is the dissemination of heretofore marginalized art through the
proliferation of International Biennials in newer venues such as
Dakar, Shanghai, as well as the more established Venice, Basel,
and Saõ Paolo exhibitions. We are now seeing contemporary work
from a more global perspective—from China, Africa, India, and
Southeast Asia. Some theorists, however, see many of the conditions noted above as problematic. The point is simply that none
of these features of globalization are necessarily benign. Cultural
critics from many perspectives see this phenomenon as driven
and produced by ideology (I mean this in a larger more Althussarian1 sense) and constructed by cultural, sociopolitical strategies.
The conditions of globalization, which emerged in the late 20th
Century, are many faceted, embracing a myriad of complex interconnected disciplines and technologies. These features of the
global discourse can include: the shrinking of the world through
commerce (outsourcing: Thomas Friedman’s “Flat World” thesis);
4
In this last sense of the global and its effect on cultural production, Fredric Jameson, in his prophetic landmark essay of 1984,
“Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” (originally published in the New Left Review), proposed a global context
and critique of postmodern visual culture, one determined less
as a set of stylistic tics than by economic formations. Central to
his argument in “Cultural Logic,” is the rise of a global network
(remember this was written before the Internet) of multinational capital and all its attendant agencies of technology. If, as he
notes, modernism suggested (mythically, of course) that the artist
was somehow in control of her production as a centered subject,
then conversely the postmodern subject/cultural producer is profoundly de-centered, lost in this labyrinth of a post industrial world
of enormous complexity. (This paradigm is similarly theorized by
such writers as Jean Baudrillard and his interrogation of the simulacra and the Hyperreal, and from a psychological perspective,
Jacques Lacan’s notions of the Other and the Real.)
honestly reveals the present human condition, if we still believe in
art’s capacity for some kind of truth or a critique of absolutes? In
the last paragraph of “Cultural Logic,” Jameson sets a challenge
for the contemporary artist—he calls for “An aesthetic of cognitive
mapping....” He explains further his meaning here: “…a pedagogical political culture which seeks to endow the individual subject
with some new heightened sense of its place in the global system—will necessarily have to respect this now enormously complex representational dialectic and invent radically new forms in
order to do it justice (emphasis mine).”2
The current exhibition Imagine Everywhere represents a response
by six Columbia College Chicago faculty to this “complex representational dialectic” of globalization and all its attendant meanings. The artists exhibited here (Whitney Huber and David Follmer,
Louise LeBourgeois, Marlene Lipinski, Marilyn Propp, Arti Sandhu, and Miklos Simon) collectively map the Global through a wide
range of media and conceptual strategies.
Of course, since the writing of Jameson’s essay, the reality of the
global has only expanded and intensified. There doesn’t seem to
be any area of the life world that hasn’t been colonized by current
media and technology—from cloning to sexual transformation,
from global information systems (the Internet) to the saturation
of surveillance apparatuses that would include satellite imaging
to street cameras (Chicago is one of the most surveilled cities in
the world presently). Certainly artists have correspondingly expanded their use of media to critique and problematize many of
these new global formations. Today, artists use many of the same
technologies that they are critiquing such as video, computers,
the internet, digital photography, organic growth systems, sound
works, language based media, the physical body, and genetic
codes (DNA).
Whitney Huber and David Follmer focus their multi-media project on the explosion of human trafficking exacerbated by globalization’s increasing disparity of wealth, especially in developing
countries, and the subsequent vulnerability of those populations,
mainly women and children. The artists state: “The sale of human
beings remains one of the top three forms of international crime.”
Their visual strategy is to clarify the blizzard of information vis-àvis the Global Technology on this disturbing subject.
Louise LeBourgeois’s paintings of sea and sky recall a sense of
the sublime, an apt metaphor for this sense of postmodern dislocation and de-centeredness that Jameson refers to. In these
pictures, which are beautifully crafted, there is no sense of a particular place, only a horizon which can be anywhere (and “everywhere”). We have lost our bearings—we are at sea.
So, according to the above, the nagging question for the postmodern artist is: How does one make any claim to creating work that
1
See Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,”
from Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, translated by Ben Brewster
(New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1971.)
2
5
“Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” (Durham, 1991) p.54.
Through a series of intricately designed images in the style of
Madhubani folk art, Arti Sandhu foregrounds the rapid global influence of modernization on her native Indian culture, especially
in the area of fashion. “The status attached to luxury brands and
the influence of Western fashion and lifestyle magazines (like
Vogue and Cosmopolitan) in India, Sandhu says, are also central
themes in these illustrations.”
The quest for the mythical American Dream is central to Miklos
P. Simon’s art. For this exhibition he employs three sculpture/installation/performance pieces from the series that deal thematically with “the everyday reality of the migration of people into the
United States who are seeking a better life.” Ultimately, Simon’s
work allows the viewer to decide whether the “American Dream”
of success and upward mobility is really a possibility or a betrayal.
All the artists in the exhibition Imagine Everywhere approach the
controversial subject of globalization from many different and
complex perspectives, and through a wide range of media. However, they avoid simplistic reductive solutions to their art. Finally,
this is not agitprop, but rather, thoughtful poetic ruminations on
a very difficult and contentious subject leaving the viewer a polysemic experience.
Marilyn Propp
Construction 1, 2009
found objects (metal, wood, rubber)
12⅝ x 11 x 3 ¾ inches
Marlene Lipinski’s multi-part painting of Douglas fir trees signifies for her the importance of these giant trees in sustaining the
complex ecosystem that we, along with all living things, rely on.
Lipinski states, “Trees are the giants of the vegetational world,
the great sponges of carbon dioxide, the holders of the soil, the
habitat of wildlife, and nature’s original air conditioners.” For a
number of interconnected reasons ranging from population
growth to exploitation by energy corporations, forests globally are
being decimated.
Corey Postiglione is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Art and Design at Columbia College
Chicago where he currently teaches Art History and
Critical Theory as well as studio arts. His critical writing has been published in Artforum, The New Art Examiner, Dialogue, and C-Magazine (Toronto). He has
written numerous catalogue essays and continues
to curate exhibitions of artists’ work in all media.
Postiglione is also a practicing artist and is currently
represented by Thomas Masters Gallery in Chicago,
Il and the Brad Cooper Gallery in Tampa, Fl.
Marilyn Propp references in her large globe-like sectional painting “interconnectedness, cross-pollination, a free interchange of
ideas, and instant transmission of news and events.” This is not
an uncritical display of images (machine parts, domestic objects,
exotic artifacts) but rather a critique of multi-national capital’s
commodification of everything and everywhere.
6
Whitney Huber & David Follmer
Human trafficking -- defined as the trade, abduction, or coercion of people for the purposes of forced or exploitative labor, including sexual exploitation -- is one of the oldest forms
of trade and abuse of power. Despite the United Nations Conventions Against Transnational Organized Crime established in 2000, trafficking of people is a “widespread and
growing” global issue. Trafficking is perpetrated against the most vulnerable members of
the world community, particularly women and children.1
The sale of human beings remains one of the top three forms of international crime. Yet,
the issue seems largely invisible or remote within developed countries, even while it happens in those same countries. Strategies to educate the public, prevent trafficking and
rehabilitate victims are complicated by the lack of clarity and consistency in available
information.2
In our globalizing world, communication and information technologies can bring to light
undeniable realities. These technologies can also overwhelm, create paralysis, anxiety,
or a sense of futility. A Human Trafficking GeoTimeline serves as a visual timeline and interactive housing of information on human trafficking from all kinds of sources. We are
gathering and picturing the activity of information, as well as absences and discrepancies, alongside the most current information for what individuals can do. In presenting
this information in visually accessible and interactive forms adaptable to contexts within
and beyond the space of the gallery, we hope to reach new audiences and create new
avenues for discussion, action, and global responsibility.
Any proceeds made from the project will go to organizations promoting awareness and
prevention of human trafficking.
1
Kofi A. Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
and The Protocols Thereto, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, New York, 2004, p. iv. www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNTOC/Publications/TOC%20Convention/TOCebook-e.pdf
Also, see the official website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), part II:
www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC
2
The UNESCO Trafficking Statistics Projects is currently addressing this problem by “conducting a literature review and
meta-analysis of existing statements on trafficking.” See www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1022.
8
Whitney Huber is a sculptor, spatial and performance artist with a background in art history, film
theory and criticism. She teaches studio art/design,
art history, and interdisciplinary creative practice at
Columbia College Chicago. Her artistic and scholarly work addresses perception, iconography, and
performance of gender roles. Huber’s most recent
work presents symbolic conceptualism derived
largely from personal narrative and a contemporary
feministic approach.
David Follmer is a database developer and a musician with an academic background in sociology and
psychology. He is fluent in database design, data
analysis and manipulation. Working as a “data guru”
and observing the world through the lens of social science, Follmer enjoys modes of analysis and curiosity
that are often underutilized in his work in information
technology.
Both parties find great motivation in the possibility
of promoting and provoking social awareness and
responsibility. Prior to embarking on this collaborative project, Huber and Follmer had numerous
discussions about the concept of “data as art” and
the intersections of information, aesthetics, social
engagement, and visual communication. These
conversations laid the foundation for A Human Trafficking GeoTimeline, which is Follmer’s first venture
into the world of visual art. Follmer is interested in
the power inherent in the act of shaping data and the
social efficacy of informational tools that are crafted
with integrity, are accessible, vital and compelling.
For Huber, this collaboration facilitates involvement
with information technology as a new artistic material, and is an opportunity to apply conceptual and
aesthetic concerns to design ideas that may reach
beyond typical exhibition venues.
9
Whitney Huber and David Follmer
Human Trafficking GeoTimeline, 2010
screen capture of data point
dimensions variable
Louise LeBourgeois, Water #423, 201, oil on panel, 46 x 46 inches
Louise LeBourgeois
Globalization contains many paradoxes. It promises ever-increasing lightness and speed
to trade, travel and communication, which in turn can exact a heavy toll on people and
the environment. As with all change, we gain something and we lose something. It is not
always obvious which is which. There are arguments to be made on all sides.
The horizon is our imperfect perception of the edge of the globe. It is also a paradox, the
visible but non-existent straight line describing a curve, the imagined place where planet
and sky merge.
Sailors had to confront their own fears about the horizon as our human understanding of
the world blossomed from flat to round, from a place in which a ship could fall to oblivion
into a place where sailing in a single direction could mean arriving at the same point from
which one departed. Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage was certainly not the first
case of global exploration, but it was one of history’s most significant. Like globalization
today, Columbus’s voyage resulted in both discovery and tragedy, enriching some people
while destroying others.
My water/sky paintings explore the idea that we are in uncharted territory, propelled towards the unknown by discovery and innovation. It is a philosophical connection rather
than a literal one. These works are based upon my ongoing relationship with Lake Michigan, a tangible presence in my life as well as a metaphor, the fictive space where as far as
we can see there is yet more to come.
11
Louise LeBourgeois has taught in the Art + Design
Department at Columbia College Chicago since
1994. She attended the University of WisconsinMadison (BS, 1985), the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago (BFA, 1990), and Northwestern University
(MFA, 1994). She has exhibited her work throughout
Europe and the United States, and is currently represented by Packer Schopf Gallery in Chicago, IL, Dolby
Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, CA, and Gallatin
River Gallery in Big Sky, MN. She is an avid swimmer and has long been fascinated with the visual
phenomena of waves and water. Living in Florence,
Italy, where scientific innovations during the Renaissance revolutionized both art and global navigation,
stimulated her interest in pictorial space, perspective
and the horizon. Awards include Illinois Art Council
Grant, Artadia Grant, and a public commission from
the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs to install
her work at the 17th District Police Station. Most
recently, she received a Columbia College Chicago
Faculty Development Grant to participate in the BAU
Institute’s artist’s residency program in Otranto, Italy
in June, 2010.
Marlene Lipinski
Trees are the giants of the vegetational world, the great sponges of carbon dioxide, the
holders of the soil, the habitat of wildlife, and nature’s original air conditioners. Trees
grow in valleys, mountains, jungles, deserts, and plains. In the beginning, the world was
covered with trees, and trees have been holding the world together ever since.
Humans have been taking the world apart. As world cultures moved from a hunt- and-forge
to an agriculture-and-settlement society, forested land had to be cleared. Over centuries,
as more land needed to be cleared, methods for felling trees became more efficient, and,
of course, trees became the number one provider of building material for homes, furnishings, stores, and factories. When Europeans arrived in the Americas, opportunities for
trade, settlements, and growing economies via the vast amount of resources the land
held became evident. Europeans had already decimated their own forests and were in
need of a new source of lumber. One major source was the virgin forest covering New
England. It took only a few years before the white pine forests were completely decimated.
Once these forests disappeared, the lumber barons moved through the upper Midwest
where complete pine forests were razed within 3 years. Slowly but surely, forests were
decimated across the continent.
As other cultures compete for their share of the world market, more land is being cleared
for expanded agricultural and industrial economic opportunity. Indonesia, Mexico, Central and South America and China are countries that have come under criticism for their
attempts to join the world economies by clearing large portions of rainforest for alternative land use. And yet this practice of economic development has been well established
in Western culture for centuries. The problem of expansionism versus containment of
land resources has become a global problem. Sustainability, replacing a twenty-ton tree
that maintains large amounts of carbon in its root system with a small seedling that will
not achieve the same growth for many decades, is not an even trade. Second generation
trees must be preserved if our air and land are to be preserved.
My recent work has investigated the trees that have fueled Western growth and expansion: the white pine, the Douglas fir, and varieties of oaks. These trees have served human kind’s needs because of their strength, straightness, and durability, as well as accessibility. A few honorable champions, around 800 in all, are registered for their height,
12
weight and age and are preserved under
state or federal protection within the
United States. Interestingly enough, residential trees are often more protected
than trees in rural areas and forests.
These residential trees are often secondgeneration trees, which have been deliberately planted or grew randomly around
50 years ago.
Marlene Lipinski is an Associate Professor in the
Art + Design Department at Columbia College Chicago and served as the Coordinator of Graphic Design
and Advertising programs from 1978-2000. She
earned her MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in Painting and Drawing and has published,
designed, illustrated and printed Memory Effects, a
limited edition set of Roald Hoffmann poems. Lipinski
has also published “Cowboy Heaven,” a short story in
Tomboys, amongst many other accomplishments.
Marlene Lipinski, Douglas Fir: Olympic National Forest, Washington, 2009, oil on canvas over panel, six panels, 26 x 16 inches each
Marilyn Propp
Globalization has brought about interconnectedness, cross-pollination, a free interchange of ideas, and instant transmission of news and events. We can see the damage
caused by once hidden negligent multi-nationals who pilfer natural resources, destroying
both local commerce and indigenous communities.
One of the worst and least known ecological disasters is in the Niger Delta. For over fifty
years, with no government restraints, Dutch Shell Oil has turned this area into an environmental horror. The Guardian, May 30, 2010 reads: “Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil
spill…The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet [those] in
the Niger delta have . . . live[d] with environmental catastrophes for decades.” 1
An article from May 2009: “Clearance work [in the 1990’s] to make way for pipelines was
decimating the world’s third-largest mangrove forest. Oil spills were rife, polluting the land
at a rate . . . equivalent to an Exxon Valdez oil disaster every year. Oil flares only made the
pollution worse.”2 Ken Saro-Wiwa, a well-known journalist and activist, attempted to bring
Shell’s destruction of the environment to an international audience, and was hanged for it.
My paintings fit together like a puzzle. Merging the industrial and natural worlds, objects
reference machine parts, industrial tools, and domestic objects, which I transform into
animated biomorphic characters. I address interconnectedness, continuity, and the unremitting movement of time, seeking balance by tempering outrage with humor.
I begin with automatic writing, making gestural calligraphic marks that reflect the movement of my arm/body as I move across the surface of the panels. The imagery results
from the rhythm and suggestions of the black marks on the white surface. Three-dimensional tableaus, which I create from crushed tailpipes and other metal detritus found in
alleys and streets, assist in my visual thinking. An important resource is Crispin’s Dictionary of Technical Terms, rescued from the alley behind my studio.
1
Pilkington, Ed, “14 years after Ken Saro-Wiwa’s death, family points finger at Shell in court”. The Guardian, 27 May 2009;
online edition, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell-oil
2
Vidal, John, “Nigeria’s agony dwarfs The Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it.” The Guardian, 30 May 2010; online edition, www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/27/ken-saro-wiwa-shell-oil
15
Marilyn Propp is adjunct faculty in the Art + Design
Department at Columbia College Chicago, and is also
co-founder of Anchor Graphics. Born in Upstate New
York, Propp received a BA from University of Pennsylvania, and MA from University of Missouri-Kansas
City. She has attended Skowhegan School of Painting
& Sculpture, Brooklyn Museum Art School, Provincetown Workshop, and San Francisco Art Institute. In
her current work she merges the industrial and the
natural world, transforming objects derived from familiar machine parts or domestic tools into animated
biomorphic characters, traveling together. Propp
addresses issues of continuity, interconnectedness,
and the constant movement of time. Her work is in
the collections of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum
of Art, IL; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College; DePaul University Museum, Chicago, IL;
Summer Palace, Saudi Arabia; Amnesty International, NY, NY; Old St. Patrick’s Church, Chicago, IL;
Hallmark Collection and the AT&T Collection, Kansas
City, KS; and private collections throughout the US.
Marilyn Propp
Post Industrial Reconstruction: The Dance Goes On, 2010
oil on wood panels, 63 x 66 inches
Arti Sandhu
Mahila1 à la mode
Inspired by Madhubani2 folk art and my love for line, pattern and repetition, this series of
illustrations delves into the dilemmas of womanhood, tradition, modernity and fashion
in India.
I am further influenced by my research on contemporary Indian fashion, which is best
characterized by its vibrant confluence of local and global styles, as well as my own personal journey of growing up in a rapidly modernizing India where Punjabi aunties3 in polyester suits4 and saris co-existed with designer handbags.
The central character who features in this series – an overweight, slightly morose Indian
woman - is seen negotiating her way through opposing tropes of modernity and tradition, new and old, local and global, and past and present constructs of Indian womanhood that come together, often in an explosive manner through the way she fashions
herself. In shaping this central character, I deliberately make reference to the popular
style of portraying Hindu goddesses in Indian art: as having multiple arms and a larger-than-life and/or glowing head that not only draws the viewer’s attention, but also
alludes to her power and ability to “multi-task” – all attributes I believe are important
to the modern Indian woman as she balances her multiple roles as a homemaker and
career-woman, or as she simply attempts to negotiate a Louis Vuitton sale. The status
attached to luxury brands and the influence of Western fashion and lifestyle magazines
(like Vogue and Cosmopolitan) in India are also central themes in these illustrations.
1
Mahila means woman in Hindi.
Madhubani painting is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar, India, and Janakpur in Nepal.
Madhubani paintings mostly depict nature and Hindu religious motifs. Generally no space is left empty in the painting; the gaps
are filled by line drawings of flowers, animals, birds, and geometric designs.
2
3
Punjabi aunty is a satirical phrase often used to refer to portly middle-class women who appear loud or garish in their
mannerisms and clothing choices.
4
The use of the term “suit” here refers to Salwar Kameez - a woman’s outfit comprising of a long tunic, scarf and baggy
drawstring trousers worn traditionally in North India as well as by younger women throughout India.
16
Arti Sandhu currently holds a position of Assistant
Professor in Fashion Design at Columbia College
Chicago where she pursues research and creative
practice around Indian fashion plus global and local
identity. Growing up in an Army family meant Sandhu
covered a lot of ground in India from a young age. A
love of drawing and customizing of her Barbie doll led
her to study fashion at NIFT in Delhi (India) and later
in the UK. Since then she has taught Fashion Design
in New Zealand and the US with frequent lectures on
Indian fashion across the globe. Her artworks, which
explore identity and migration, have been exhibited
in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, the Netherlands and India.
Arti Sandhu
New Bra, 2010
pen, color pencil and acrylic on paper
6 inch diameter
17
Miklos P. Simon
Alley Lady, 2010
mixed media drawing
11½ x 17 inches 18
Miklos P. Simon
Being disenfranchised, endangered, and the fear of losing one’s culture, as well as the
progression of being part of a larger, contemporary global world, are themes I have realized through appropriation, creation, and developing art through craft and skill.
My current work explores identity and the complexities of a given and acquired culture.
The series of work entitled American Dream looks at the every day reality of the migration
of people into the United States who are seeking opportunity and a better life. The current centerpiece of the collection is entitled Monument to the Illegal Immigrant Worker – a
sculpture constructed of a stainless-steel sink, chinawear, water, and wine glasses. The
piece is a celebration of the hope for American success – the desire of coming to the US
to be employed as a dishwasher (the bottom rung of the economic and corporate ladder),
yet achieving dreams by carefully constructing a life towards higher success and status.
Components from the American Dream series on display include Crushed, Alley Lady, and
Master’s Lower-Class. Crushed is a re-creation of an observed urban vignette that depicts
how an immigrant patriarch, with lack of language and employable skills, must scavenge
trash to make ends meet.
Alley Lady is an appropriation of the iconic 1961 work Supermarket Lady by Duane Hanson. The shopping cart is the preferred transportation device by scavengers and also a
re-creation of a commonly observed urban survival-profession.
Master’s Lower-Class comments on how at airports, offices, and schools, the majority of
custodial work is performed by people with English as their second language. Yet many
have advanced degrees and have achieved professional successes in their home countries, but find an identity beyond their foreignness elusive in the United States.
In most of these works, the viewer is faced with deciding if it is an impossible truth or a
contradiction: Can a monument of washed dishes be erected for the “Illegals”? Is the
“American Dream” to be had? What does it feel like to give up oneself to create better
opportunity for the following generation?
19
Miklos P. Simon is a Hungarian-American, an artist
and educator born in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. For the
last ten years, he has been a part-time faculty member in Fine Art in the Art + Design Department and
a part-time advisor in the Columbia College Chicago
Advising Center. He earned a BFA in Sculpture from
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA
in Sculpture from the University of Notre Dame.
Simon is the recipient of many awards and grants,
including the competitive Riley Fellowship and Illinois
Arts Council Fellowship Award and has participated
in numerous national, international, group and solo
exhibitions including a 20-year retrospective at the
University of Notre Dame.
Since 1991, he is the principal designer of Simon
Sculpture Studio, Inc., which has ongoing contracts
and a diverse client base that includes architectural
firms, cultural and educational institutions, and
private collectors. He has received frequent public
commissions including the United States Naval
Memorial in Washington, D.C. Through the company,
he actively directs, designs and produces both
sculptural and functional objects as well as public
and large-scale works including sculptures on the
Roosevelt Road viaduct, CTA Rockwell stop with
Tom Skomski, and the Garfield Park Conservatory,
Chicago, IL, among others.
Gallery Mission
The Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery is part of the Art + Design Department at
Columbia College Chicago. The gallery’s mission is to present professional exhibitions
and educational programming that encompasses the broadest possible definition of visual art and design. This is a direct reflection of the pedagogical diversity of the Art + Design Department and the vast array of ideas, media, and techniques explored by artists
today. The gallery presents emerging and established artists whose work reflects any of
the seven disciplines taught in the department including Fine Art, Interior Architecture,
Illustration, Advertising Art, Product Design, Graphic Design, and Art History.
The gallery’s primary focus is on process and the development of ideas into art. Exhibitions
at A + D Gallery promote understanding of the artistic process by exhibiting works in progress side-by-side with finished pieces; these can be preliminary drafts and sketches, notes
and other generative materials an artist may use to process ideas into finished artwork.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our 2009-2010 A+D Gallery advisory
board for their contributions throughout the year and
their dedication to this exhibition: Ivan Brunetti, Elizabeth Burke-Dain, Julianna Cuevas, Michelle Grabner,
David Jones, Paul Klein, Duncan MacKenzie, Neysa
Page-Lieberman, and Raél Jero Salley. Thanks to
Jay Wolke, Chair of the Art + Design Department,
and Eliza Nichols, Dean of The School of Fine and
Performing Arts, for their support of this project. As
always, many thanks to Lara Wolff, Assistant to the
Chair, for her skillful editing.
Gallery Staff
Jennifer Murray, Director
Julianna Cuevas, Assistant Director
Megan Ross, Preparator
Gallery Assistants
Carla Caruso
EJ Hill
Nicole Kiruly
Nicolás Tiparescu
This exhibition is sponsored by the Art + Design Department and The School of Fine and
Performing Arts at Columbia College Chicago. This exhibition is partially supported by a grant
from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and by the Efroymson Family Fund, a CICF Fund.
PRINTED ON PAPER WITH 10%
POST CONSUMER CONTENT.
Arti Sandhu, Red on Sale, 2009, pen and color pencil on paper, 11 x 16 inches
AVERILL AND BERNARD LEVITON
A+D GALLERY
619 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60605
312 369 8687
COLUM.EDU/ADGALLERY
GALLERY HOURS:
TUESDAY – SATURDAY
11AM – 5PM
THURSDAY
11AM – 8PM