The Residency Program at Spudnik Press offers studio space to artists working in printmaking media to produce new work. We welcome experienced printmakers from Chicago and beyond to work at Spudnik Press for a period of two to six weeks. Resident Artists enjoy 24-access to the entire studio and receive general support from our printmaking staff. We design the duration, focus, and activities of each residency based on the needs and priorities of each individual artist. It is our intention to  provide resident artists with a supportive environment where they can develop a body of work, fostering creative growth and exploration of both traditional and innovative printmaking techniques.

In exchange, resident artists play an integral role in the Spudnik Press community, bringing new perspectives, experiences, and knowledge to our members and the broader public through a variety of public events and leaving a part of their prints with our press. Public programs are shaped by each artist’s skills and interests and have included artist talks, panel discussions, portfolio reviews with Spudnik members, workshops, and exhibitions.

Expectations

• Residents are expected to make full and regular use of Spudnik Press facilities (Roughly 3+ days per week, depending on the project and duration of the residency). Resident artists receive one flat file drawer, 24-hour access, the option to reserve equipment, and shared workspace, but no private studio.
• Residents receive a thorough orientation to Spudnik Press facilities and light technical support from staff. However, residents should be knowledgeable enough to generally work independently in the printmaking processes required for their project. Please address any need for specific or additional assistance in the cover letter.
• Resident Artists will present some form of public program or event, customized around the skills and interests of the artist and the Spudnik Press community.
• Spudnik Press will retain a portion of the finished artwork produced through the residency. Sales of these artworks provide the critical funding to sustain this program.

Eligibility
The Residency Program is committed to serving:

• Artists who are able to commit 2-6 weeks to a single, print-based project.
• Artists with a clear proposed residency project that is specific to their unique practice.
• Artists with an interest in engaging with the Spudnik Press community.
• Artists who are able to provide or coordinate their own travel, lodging, and local transportation during the residency.
• Artists with enough printmaking experience to work independently in the studio, with only light technical support from staff.

Important Dates

• Application Deadline: Sunday, November 1, 2026
• Finalists Selected: by Monday,  November 16, 2026
• Final Notification:  by Monday December 8, 2026
• Residency Period: February 5 – December 31, 2027
• Duration: Two to six weeks (local applicants are encouraged to apply for the full six weeks)

To Apply
Please submit the following materials to residency@spudnikpress.org. All documents should be PDFs:

• Project Proposal & Letter of Intent (one to two pages): Please submit a single statement detailing the scope of your proposed project, required printmaking equipment and materials, your relevant experience, ideal residency timeline, date restrictions, and ideas for public programming. Include any additional context relevant to your application.
• Portfolio of 7-10 Images: Images must not exceed 1MB each and should be titled with your name and a file number. Work should be recent and include your printmaking work when possible.
• Image List: For each work, include the file name, title, medium, year of completion, and dimensions.
• Current Resume or CV (optional)– A lack of exhibition history or formal art school training should not deter potential residents from applying

We will also accept a video submission of no more than 10 minutes for those who may need to use a different format from a written proposal. Please reach out to us at Info@spudnikpress.org  if you need assistance in creating an application or if there are additional accommodations needed concerning the submission format.

Spudnik Press Cooperative encourages applications from artists from all backgrounds, including underrepresented groups that include (but are not limited to) artists of color, LGBTQ artists, women artists, and artists with disabilities. Our Accessibility page includes additional information about getting to the studio and using the equipment. Any requests for accommodations can occur upon finalist notification or acceptance.

Selection Process
Residency applications are reviewed by a jury comprised of staff, studio members, and artists. Decisions are based on the quality of the proposal, the strength of the portfolio, and the applicant’s ability to work independently while maintaining their own point of view. While résumés and CVs may provide helpful context, the jury’s main focus will be on the applicant’s work, process, and residency proposal. A lack of exhibition history should not deter potential residents from applying. Staff will conduct in-person or virtual studio visits with all finalists to assess technical skills and discuss public presentation and programming opportunities.

Our Facilities
Our studio houses professional facilities and rare equipment for a wide variety of traditional print processes and fine art publishing. The 4,800 sq. ft. space includes shared work areas, private studios, and mixed-use spaces for exhibitions, classes, and community events.

Our print studio supports a range of techniques, including intaglio, relief, risography, and screen printing. For a detailed list of our equipment and facilities, click here

Any inquiries regarding our Residency Program can be directed to info@spudnikpress.org

Programs at Spudnik Press are partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Driehaus Foundation, and the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

In a new exhibition at Spudnik Press, artist Palak Patel transforms the flat, traditional print into something heavy, structural, and spatial. Originating from her residency, Patel’s project explores a simple but demanding question: can a screenprint function as a piece of architecture or a standalone sculpture?

Patel’s process relies on a constant, physical back-and-forth in the studio. Working on canvas, fabric, and paper, she builds her surfaces through contrasting layers—allowing water-based crayons and transparent inks to sink into the weave of raw cloth, while crisp silkscreened ink sits perfectly flat on top. This physical layering creates a distinct tension on the surface, where color and material are constantly pushing against one another.

The imagery driving this body of work bridges the private mind and the moving body. Patel translates the kinetic, high-energy rhythms of her boxing and dance practices alongside the quiet, text-heavy pages of her personal journals into monumental, large-scale drawings. By printing these fluid movements on an expansive scale, the resulting pieces shift from mere images on a wall into massive, physical interventions that dictate how a viewer moves through the gallery space.

In connection with the movement driving this body of work, the opening reception will feature a salsa dance lesson during the event by Studio E

Palak Patel is a Chicago-based printmaker and painter whose work centers on material weight, physical repetition, and the hidden texture of daily life. Raised in Vadodara, India, she finds her creative footing in the tangible things she carries—specifically the tattered, peeling notebooks in her tote bag that overflow with collected ephemera. Her practice is equally shaped by her time spent outside the studio at the boxing gym and within Latin dance socials, where she studies the mechanics of rhythm, impact, and human movement.

Palak earned her degree in painting and drawing from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, before moving to Chicago to complete her MFA in Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has developed her work through residencies at Farwell House in Illinois and Poor Farm in Wisconsin. Her pieces have been exhibited across Chicago at venues including the South Asia Institute, the Research House for Asian Art, Color Club, and free range.

Programs at Spudnik Press are partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Driehaus Foundation, and the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

Limón’s approach treats the printing process as a tool for excavating the past. Working across paper and fabric, they construct complex visual layers by combining site maps, archival photography, and raw line work. By incorporating iron oxide and rust pigments directly into the ink and fibers, the physical surfaces reflect the actual chemical and material history of the land, using transparency and texture to make the quiet work of memory visible.

By drawing on neighborhood oral histories alongside historical records, Limón points to local environmental organizing as a central feature of the post-migrant journey. The resulting prints reframe the remnants of industry not as industrial decay, but as testament to the resilience and placemaking of the workers who sustained the region.

Miguel Limón is a Chicago-based artist and cultural worker whose practice examines how images, materials, and local geography preserve memory and spirit. Their research focuses on Midwestern Mexican American communities shaped by industrial labor and migration. Limón is a 2025–2027 Chicago Artists Coalition Artist-in-Residence and holds concurrent residencies at Spudnik Press and Kimball Arts Center. They have received recognition and grant support from A Blade of Grass, 3Arts/Ignite, the Aperture Foundation, and the Rauschenberg Foundation, with work exhibited at Comfort Station, Mana Contemporary, and the Design Museum of Chicago.

While we’re on more solid ground today, making a community print shop run smoothly takes ongoing care, maintenance, and investment. Right now, things are tight, and a few crucial pieces of shop equipment—like our beloved but extinct paper guillotine (RIP)—need to be replaced.

We also want to make sure we can continue paying our staff fairly and finally add a modest stipend for our resident artists.

To raise $25,000 for these studio needs, we’re opening up our archives for our second annual print drive.

Starting today, we’re putting a large selection of archived prints, rare editions, and shop work up for sale. When you buy a print, you aren’t making a donation—you’re getting incredible, hand-printed artwork for your walls, and 100% of the proceeds go right back into the shop floor.

Browse the Archive Collection Here

Thanks for supporting us and keeping Spudnik equipped for everyone who prints here (and shoutout to you for bringing a beautiful new work of art into your home—we hope you love it!).

Event Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026 from 12-4:30PM
Location: Access Living, Chicago: 115 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60654

You are invited to apply to MadMade

MadMade is a one-day, community-centered event designed to celebrate, support, and showcase the creative work of artists living with psychiatric disabilities and mental health challenges. This is not just another craft fair—it’s a space built on inclusion, care, and cultural empowerment.

MadMade is open to printmakers, Illustrators, artists, designers, and zine makers working across a wide variety of print including prints, screenprinting, lino cut, risograph, etching, or other print techniques. MadMade is open to individuals and collectives with a focus on first person experience.

This fair is a mad-positive, disability-affirming event focusing on individuals themselves, rather than their involvement in diagnosis or treatment, highlighting first-person experience regardless of formal diagnosis. It offers a counter-narrative to both the clinical and romanticized depictions of mental illness. Instead, it centers real people making real work that is beautiful, messy, joyful, angry, thoughtful—that opens conversation and creates community experience.

Access statement: MadMade is dedicated to creating an accessible space. We will be thoughtful in how the space is set up for mobility devices. We will have a seperate room set up as a quiet space (one for the general public and a break room for tablers). Additionally we will have dedicated volunteers to allow individuals to leave their things to take body breaks, CART and ASL for presentation portions of the event, and access doulas for all making spaces. 

Apply here

MadMade is organized by Dylan Sturdy in conjunction with Spudnik Press, The Center for Mad Culture, and Access Living. Graphics designed by Iliana Haven.

For the latest iteration of the Community Mentorship Program, Spudnik Press has partnered with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) and Unpacked Mobile Gallery to immerse a new cohort of artists in the Risograph printing process. Moving away from traditional one-time workshops, this program focuses on deepening technical skills over time fostering long-term artistic growth. Over consecutive weekly sessions, taught by Alex Hohnsen, participating artists worked with eco-friendly soy-based inks on recycled paper, experimenting with the interplay of precision and spontaneity to translate their ideas into layered print editions.

The resulting Risograph works are fully integrated into Home Grown Vol. III, an exhibition exploring the deep entanglement between human and plant life. Curated by Lauren Iacoponi, Home Grown transforms the gallery space into an urban ecosystem of live plants and artwork rooted in bioregionalism, local ecology, and collective care. At Spudnik seven featured artists were able to channel those exact themes of environmental stewardship directly into a sustainable print medium.

Risograph works by: Aimée Beaubien, Christine Forni, Maven Kennedy, Tulika Ladsariya, Katelyn Patton, Monika Plioplyte, and Reina Sundara.

While developed in the print shop at Spudnik Press, the final works will be exhibited off-site as part of the Home Grown Vol. III exhibition and mobile tour, facilitated by Naomi Elson and Lauren Iacoponi of Unpacked Mobile Gallery.

Exhibition & Tour Schedule:

• The Flagship Exhibition: On view at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) from July 11 to September 6, 2026.
• The Home Grown Tour: From Saturday, July 11 to Saturday, July 18, 2026, Unpacked Mobile Gallery will travel the exhibition directly to public parks, forest preserves, nonprofit spaces, and community gardens to reflect on the vital connection between humans, nature, and art.
• July 16, 6-9 pm: Unpacked Mobile Gallery will be at Spudnik Press. 

This cross-organizational partnership between the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Unpacked Mobile Gallery, and Spudnik Press was made possible through the Terra Foundation for American Art Community Engagement Grant awarded to UIMA. The project is also partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).

About Home Grown Vol. III
July 11 – September 6, 2026
Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art: 2320 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Curated by Lauren Iacoponi

Home Grown at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is an immersive exhibition exploring the deep entanglement between human and plant life, featuring Midwest artists working with natural pigments, dyes, plant reliefs, hand-pulled paper, and organic materials that include botanics, mycelia, and artist-made bioplastics. Home Grown serves as a green space within an urban environment, with thought-provoking, nature-focused work integrated into a landscape of live plants.

Home Grown Tour
Saturday, July 11 – Saturday, July 18
Click here for the schedule

Unpacked Mobile Gallery is traveling Home Grown to public parks, forest preserves, nonprofit spaces, and community gardens to reflect on the connection between humans, nature, and art.

Exhibiting Artists
Aimée Beaubien, Kris Casey, Christine Forni, Naomi-Hamlin Navis, Hillary Irene Johnson, Noelani Jones, Tulika Ladsariya, Jaclyn Mednicov, CV Peterson, SK Reed

Risograph Works
Aimée Beaubien, Christine Forni, Maven Kennedy, Tulika Ladsariya, Katelyn Patton, Monika Plioplyte, Reina Sundara 

About the Partners

Spudnik Press is a community printmaking studio where artists and makers come together to create, learn, and collaborate. Rooted in the belief that art should be democratic and empowering, Spudnik offers an affordable, welcoming space for printmakers of all levels — from seasoned professionals to first-time students. By sharing equipment, skills, and creative energy, members build something greater than any one artist could alone. Committed to accessibility and equity, Spudnik extends its reach through classes, exhibitions, free workshops, and community programming.

The Spudnik Press Program Mentor, Alex Hohnsen, is a Chicago-based artist, designer, and animator. They earned their undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago and recently completed a Master’s in Animation and Motion Design at DePaul University, culminating in a solo exhibition titled Meditation on Creation and Destruction: Anxiety of a Shared Resource.

The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) preserves and promotes contemporary art as a shared expression of the Ukrainian and American experience. UIMA develops, utilizes and encourages artistic talent through exhibitions, concerts, readings, lectures and films to serve the cultural needs of our community and city, and thereby strengthen cultural understanding and diversity. 

Unpacked Mobile Gallery provides accessible exhibitions, docent-led tours and workshops across the Midwest. Our mission includes museum and gallery accessibility; the importance of art as experience; and the relationship between institutions, society, and artists. Unpacked exhibitions expand free community art outreach and engagement programs with organizations such as Lubeznik Center for the Arts and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.

This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. 

Programs at Spudnik Press are partially supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Driehaus Foundation, and the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. 

The exhibition is also made possible through the Terra Foundation for American Art Community Engagement Grant, awarded to the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. This grant helped fund a partnership between the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Unpacked Mobile Gallery, and Spudnik Press to create Risograph work as part of Home Grown.

Patel’s process relies on a constant, physical back-and-forth in the studio. Working on canvas, fabric, and paper, she builds her surfaces through contrasting layers—allowing water-based crayons and transparent inks to sink into the weave of raw cloth, while crisp silkscreened ink sits perfectly flat on top. This physical layering creates a distinct tension on the surface, where color and material are constantly pushing against one another.

The imagery driving this body of work bridges the private mind and the moving body. Palak translates the kinetic, high-energy rhythms of her boxing and dance practices alongside the quiet, text-heavy pages of her personal journals into monumental, large-scale drawings. By printing these fluid movements on an expansive scale, the resulting pieces shift from mere images on a wall into massive, physical interventions that dictate how a viewer moves through the gallery space.

Palak Patel is a Chicago-based printmaker and painter whose work centers on material weight, physical repetition, and the hidden texture of daily life. Raised in Vadodara, India, she finds her creative footing in the tangible things she carries—specifically the tattered, peeling notebooks in her tote bag that overflow with collected ephemera. Her practice is equally shaped by her time spent outside the studio at the boxing gym and within Latin dance socials, where she studies the mechanics of rhythm, impact, and human movement.

Palak earned her degree in painting and drawing from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, before moving to Chicago to complete her MFA in Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has developed her work through residencies at Farwell House in Illinois and Poor Farm in Wisconsin. Her pieces have been exhibited across Chicago at venues including the South Asia Institute, the Research House for Asian Art, Color Club, and free range.

After relocating to the Midwest from coastal New England, Klein became deeply attuned to the geological history of Lake Michigan and the traces embedded within its shoreline. Collecting organic forms and debris evolved into a meditative practice through which he began studying patterns of erosion, transformation, and sedimentation. The resulting works trace his movement from Michigan to Chicago, using found materials to consider grief, transition, and the emotional residue carried through place.

Through artists’ books and zines, Klein will combine experimental printmaking processes with collected imagery and textures derived from his beach finds. Working across lithography, Risograph, cyanotype, relief, and other analog techniques, he explores the tension between slow material processes and rapid image reproduction. By enlarging, fragmenting, and abstracting details from fossils and debris, the work shifts between microscopic and landscape-like perspectives, creating visual studies of accumulation, decay, and imprint. Klein also plans to experiment with printing on translucent fabrics layered with textures drawn from bones and stones, evoking the shifting surface and atmosphere of the lake itself.

Throughout the residency, Klein will use Spudnik Press’s facilities to further expand his print-based experiments and develop this evolving body of work. A public event will be announced in conjunction with the residency.

Dasha Klein (he/they) is a Chicago-based printmaker and art educator originally from Connecticut. Growing up in coastal New England, he developed an obsession with beachcombing and exploring old graveyards. His practice uses discarded materials and experimental printmaking to investigate burial, mourning, and transformation, often approaching fossils and tombs as physical records of past lives. Klein works across lithography, screenprinting, intaglio, Risograph, relief, and cyanotype. He received a B.A. in Studio Art from Oberlin College in 2023 and formerly served as Print and New Media Studio Manager at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency. He currently volunteers at the Chicago Maritime Museum.

These decks are designed in reflection of a “re-telling of” or alternate ending of specific memories they’ve experienced throughout the city. The deck is formed from reworked quilted prints of inherited photo archives depicting people, homes, and third spaces throughout the South and West Sides. Each playing card displays specific places, bodies, and moments in time that have deeply affected them.

The deck functions as an intimate record of relationships, neighborhoods, and encounters that continue to shape their understanding of place and belonging. Accompanying the cards will be a large-scale visual mapping project tracing patterns of movement, care, and connection between significant people and locations throughout the city.

In tandem with the deck, they’ll be cyanotyping a personalized quilted ecomap to track the movement patterns of people and places in the city that they hold reverence for. West’s practice is rooted in analog experimentation and archival inquiry, often exploring how Black life is carried through memory, sound, image, and everyday ritual. Through layered photographic processes and material transformation, their work considers the ways personal archives can become sites of reflection, inheritance, and world-building.

During the residency, West will use Spudnik Press’s facilities to expand their experimentation with cyanotype and print-based processes while continuing to develop this evolving body of work. West will give an artist talk on June 3 at 6 PM to speak about their work and time at Spudnik.

Harlem Masimba West is a playground, sonic griot, and archival imagemaker from Out South Chicago. Anchored in analog media, their work centers the crossroads and portals that find Black folks. They’re a fellowship alum of Brooklyn Poets and Earthseed Family Archive Project, having been published in APOGEE and the Chicago Reader. They’re presently the 2026 Curatorial Resident at Elastic Arts, and artist in residence at Spudnik Press, ILA, and the Kimball Arts Center. At their center, West is an eldest sibling doing their best to honor the name their momma gave ’em.

Spudnik Press is pleased to be the first stop on the national tour of 1st International Milwaukee Riso Invitational originating at Milwaukee’s Suburban Gallery. This collaborative exhibition and publishing project brings together an extraordinary group of contemporary artists, illustrators, and cultural producers to explore the power and substance of the democratic print.  

This inaugural invitational is produced in partnership with the The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop (CATS) and the artist‐run platform Bad at Sports, printed at the new CATS facility in Sarofim Hall on the campus of Rice University.

Each invited artist has created an original two‐color risograph print at 11Χ17 inches, editioned collaboratively for public distribution.

In keeping with the spirit of risograph culture—affordable, experimental, and accessible—30 of each print edition will be available free to gallery visitors, while the remaining 10 will be randomly distributed to participating artists. This gesture foregrounds a shared belief in art as both a gift and a tool for building cultural networks.

The invitational draws energy from the legacy of artist‐initiated print projects—ephemeral, distributable, and fiercely independent, said Brian Andrews, of Bad at Sports. It’s a celebration of artists using print as a means of connection, self ‐ expression, and resistance of the cultural machine.

Work by: Amanda Ross-Ho, Art Spiegelman, Beth Hetland, Betsy Odom, Cecilia Beaven, Christopher Sperandio, Chris Ware, Diana Guerrero-Macia, Heather Mekkelson, Ivan Brunetti, Jen Delos Reyes, Jennifer Willet, Jessica Campbell, Jessica Stockholder, Jason Dunda, Kuras and MacKenzie, Kyle O’Connell, Max Morris, Meg Duguid, Melissa Potter, Nura Ali, Oli Watt, OnSmith, Paul Krainak, Paul Nudd, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Peter Power, Ryan Peter Miller, Sandra Dillon, Shannon Stratton, Sergio Soave, Sonnenzimmer (Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi), Tamara Lee-Anne Cardinal, Tom Sanford

Spudnik Press
1821 W Hubbard St, #302
Chicago, IL 60622

This exhibition is curated by Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, and Christopher Sperandio and was first exhibited at The Suburban in Milwaukee.  This show is a part a summer of midwest riso exhibitions organized by Spudnik Press.  A sister exhibition, 1st Annual Chicago and Vicinity Riso Exhibition will be taking place at Epiphany Center for the Arts: 201 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60607 from May 3- July 4, 2026 ( opening Sunday, May 3, 2–5pm)

Bad At Sports is the midwest’s leading site for arts journalism and contemporary art punditry. Boldly, it can be said that they are truly the providers of care for the wounded art soul and contemporary art worlder. In short, they are the strangest of artists and joke makers, surreal meaning hunters and philosophical provocateurs. Theirs is a quest of true horror… For what is art? Will we know it when we see it? And does it want to be known?ttps://badatsports.com/

The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop, or CATS, is a treasure trove of original comic art, comic books, and books on comics housed in the Department of Art at Rice University. CATS is a site for making comics and researching the topic of comics for students and professionals alike. Our collection of original comic art and vintage comics is growing!