Jessica Mallon

Benjamin Merritt

Resident Artist

My prints and drawings seek to challenge normative readings of the culturally and scientifically constituted body through the use of text. This body is a body that is complete and never changing, a body that is individual and closed, a body that is readable, and a body known through sight. These ideas are constructed by ideological structures such as language and objectivity, as well as cultural institutions like hospitals. In my work, I don’t seek to denounce these ideological structures and institutions (as my relationship to them is one of necessity) but rather to suggest ways of rethinking the constructed body that are more beneficial to, and understanding of, bodies that don’t fit into these norms.

I utilize processes of drawing and printmaking, such as copper plate etching, monotype, lithography, and artists’ books. These printmaking methods produce textures and marks that are very bodily, specifically the printed mark acting as an image relating to scarring, rubbing, or touching. My work utilizes the appropriation of medical imagery, such as dermatology textbook figures and diagrams of the body contrasted against textural mark-making. I also contrast forms of writing such as indexes and clinical documents with personal and theoretical writing that explores my own relationship to illness as well as themes of how the patient body is written and recorded.

Image: Constant, Immediate, Benjamin Merritt, Etching, monoprint, 2019-2020

Website:

Residency Period:

Products by this Artist:

Frannie Miller

Studio Fellow (2022)

I am a cartoonist from Skokie, IL. For the past five years, I have been teaching people how to create using technology in public libraries and academic spaces. I started making comics as a teenager and after, as an Orthodox Jewish schoolgirl, I read all of Love and Rockets haven’t been the same since. I went on to study comics and technology at the University of Michigan and have been living in Skokie since I graduated with my tiny, bossy Pitbull, Matilda.

Website:

Yasi Moussavi

Yasaman Moussavi is a visual artist and art instructor. She holds an MFA with two emphases on Painting and Printmaking from Texas Tech University, where she explored and developed her skills in papermaking, printmaking, and installation art. Her work reflects the spiritual attachment to places and the emotional tension between today’s precarious living and the Persian’s poetic tradition of “living in harmony with nature.” Her works have have been displayed in many national and international solo and group exhibitions. She is a co-founder of Didaar Art Collective, a Chicago -based Iranian art community. She works and live in Chicago.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Printmaking Commissions

Website:

Residency Period:

Project Statement:

Classes by this Artist:

Kumaran Mudaliar

Andrew Mullally

Image: Detail of If I Sought an Echo, I’d Now Be Addressing a Mountain, 2019

Website:

Classes by this Artist:

Nadine Nakanishi

I was born in California, though the sun drenched weather was short lived. My family moved to Schaffhausen, a small town North of Zürich, bordering the Rhine river, where I spent my childhood listening to the sounds of the Midwest (Joan of Arc, Promised Ring, Braid, Captain Jazz, Elliott, Rodan, Black Flag, At the Drive-in, the Sea and Cake, to name a few). After high school, I studied Asian studies at the University of Zürich but soon realized that I wanted to major in the arts. A graphic design apprentice followed culminating with a degree in typography from the Berufsschule Zürich. In 2003, an internship at Punk Planet Magazine brought me to Chicago. I would end up not leaving the city of big shoulders. Since 2006, I run a studio called Sonnenzimmer, with Nick Butcher.

www.sonnenzimmer.com

Website:

Catherine Norcott

Trained as a printmaker in Boston, MA, Catherine maintains an interest in producing artist books, fiber and print works. She investigates a lifelong curiosity in human relationships through imagery that references scientific illustration, the human body, and maps. She also enjoys the surprising and beautiful possibilities in incorporating found images and select textures in collage. Beyond her visual practice, Catherine works to support the growth of creative communities at Arts of Life and Spudnik Press Cooperative. She serves as a member of Spudnik’s Exhibition Committee, actively advocating to increase visibility of emerging printmakers in the Chicago Arts community. She is drawn to printmaking in particular because it is a community-based practice – it is not about being alone in a studio, but very much about being in conversation with and sometimes collaboration with others.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities

Website:

Classes by this Artist:

Grace Novacek

grace novacek is an illustrator reveling in small fantasies. she welcomes playful comfort + youthful imagination + tender worldbuilding across mediums, including ceramics, crochet, animation, makeup, and poetry.

Services Offered:

• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

Website:

Angelika Piwowarczyk

Design by Angelika

Design by Angelika is a multi-service design and print shop based in Chicago led by Angelika Piwowarczyk (and her trusted sidekick, Flora the German Shepherd). The projects that come out of this little studio vary from custom stationery to small business branding to commissioned artwork, and anything in between!

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

Website:

Classes by this Artist:

Products by this Artist:

Aron Packer Projects

Member

Starting in the late 80’s as an American folk art dealer, Aron Packer built his early career with an apartment gallery for many years, and he became known for a broad yet unusual vision. As business forces changed over the past 25+ years, Packer migrated to locations in River North and the West Loop. In 2015 he closed Packer Schopf Gallery on west Lake Street to pursue a lifestyle change. Packer now works for Toomey & Co Auctioneers as a Senior Fine Art Specialist. Currently Aron Packer Projects is only online and will resume some portable shows soon!

Website:

Nat Pyper

Nat Pyper is an alphabet artist. They make fonts, write sci-fi, design wearables for videos and performances, and research queer anarcho-punk zines of the 80s and 90s. They are currently a 2021-22 HATCH Artist Resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition.

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design

Website:

Ben Ramson

Esmeralda Reyes

Studio Fellow 2021

Esmeralda Reyes is a Mexican-American artist born in Grand Haven, Michigan. She is a printmaker focused on intaglio and lithography. Esmeralda graduated from Kendall College of Art & Design in 2020 with a BFA in Printmaking and a minor in Illustration. Esmeralda’s printmaking style is informed by her illustrative background. Her work focuses on human relationships, traits, stereotypes, and combining humans with animals that share physical and metaphorical similarities. Her work that was featured at the Fresh Looks Exhibition at Eastern Michigan University made her a Windgate Fellowship nominee for her precise craft.

Image:Esmeralda Reyes, Untitled, Lithogaphy, 13”x9”

Website:

Katie Risseeuw

Member

Services Offered:

• Printmaking Commissions

Katherine Rivich

Katherine Rivich is a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator based in Chicago.
Specializing in print, her work spans from brand, digital, print design. She loves developing designs with illustrative elements that explores bold ideas to translate core messaging into compelling visual systems.

Website:

Breanna Robinson

Breanna is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Chicago. She studied at the School of the Art institute of Chicago, where she earned a BFA in 2017. Her work manifests mainly through printmedia, although she often utilizes collage, painting, html, and object-making.

Website:

Nicolette Ross

Website:

Classes by this Artist:

Products by this Artist:

Michael V. Russo

Member

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design
• Illustration

Website: