Spudnik Press Cooperative has 4 permanent staff. Our Board of Directors works closely with staff to guide overall policy and direction. Each year, we work with 4 Fellows who monitor our open studio program, and approximately 25 teaching artists.
Our Member Directory highlights the amazing community of artists involved with Spudnik Press Cooperative.
Leila Abdelrazaq is a Palestinian, Chicago-based artist, author, and activist. Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi, was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards. She is also the author and illustrator of a variety of short comic zines. She views alternative comix as a powerful political tool in social movements.
As, Lookingglass Theatre’s first graphic designer, Heather worked on promotions from concept to finish and became a design resource for the company. Currently she runs her own studio This New Forest, works on illustrations through Little Hahas (commissioned illustrations, cards and wrapping papers) and produces art, HKAnders.com. Her personal work focuses the fleeting reality of life and explores natural elements . She is on the working board at the Chicago Design Museum, where she actively volunteers as an Event Director. She is also prints, makes and creates at Spudnik Press.
Ryan received his BS in Studio Art focusing in Communication Design from Skidmore College (2008) and his MFA in Visual Communication Design from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2011). His foundation in the world of Graphic Design with a comprehensive typographic education turned into a deep-seated passion when he met letterpress. Typographic forms spoke to him more so than any other medium he’d previously encountered; combining that love with paper into hand printed form was like discovering a new religion. Since Ryan’s discovery of letterpress in graduate school his life has been redirected around this method of printmaking, so much so that he quit an old job an hour after the purchase of his first press; in that moment he started his own business, Double Trip Press.
Mary Clare Butler is an artist and designer from Chicago. Through process-driven offset and letterpress printing, her work investigates the relationship between modes of production and the representation of ideas. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago (2016) and her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2009). In 2015, she co-founded Fata Morgana Press with Amy Leners (MFA, 2015). Together they collaborate on a variety of publishing projects, experimental prints, and artists’ books.
Jess Cadwell is a current fellow at Spudnik Press who works in both print and illustration. She received her BFA degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, and continues to develop her work via thoughts on faux luxury, wishing she could live at the spa, or alternatively how to spatially reconcile a very large swimming pool in a typical Chicago apartment.
Jessica Christy is a printmaker, designer, and North Dakota native living in the Chicago area. She received her MFA from the University of North Dakota in 2011 and has since created works that challenge the status quo of human activity and the resulting impacts. Heavily influenced by her upbringing in the Dakota culture, Christy often weaves the Native experience into her pieces. Her work has shown both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Mary Climes is a recent graduate from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work revolves around the humorous narratives of awkward lives, gross representations of middle school and her complicated love of Cathy comics. Her recently self published works include “We’re All Fine” (Spring 2016), and “Please Insert Anything” (Summer 2016).
Jessica Cochran is a curator living and working in Chicago. She is recently completed a curatorial fellowship at the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and her recent & upcoming exhibitions include Roman Susan (Chicago), McCormick Gallery (Chicago), Center for the Book (New York) and the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago). After seven years spent in academic galleries, including the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts, she is now a lecturer in the Department of Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the curatorial manager of a private family collection of contemporary art based in Chicago, Indiana and Palm Springs. Jessica has been on the Spudnik Press Board of Directors since 2011, and was elected Vice President in 2013.
Matt Davis is a printmaker and occasional cartoonist, illustrator, and designer. He runs a very small Risograph print shop called Perfectly Acceptable that offers affordable commission printing as well as a curated series of artist prints and books. He graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in Russian Language a few years ago.
Originally from Rhode Island, Stephen studied and worked in New York as commercial still-life photographer for twenty-six years (including commuting between NY and Paris for two years) for clients including Estee Lauder, The Wall Street Journal, NYC MTA and People Magazine. In 2008, he moved to Chicago to earn his MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago. In Chicago, Stephen has curated exhibitions including a moving CTA train car for “Art on Track”, “Hearts-a-Bluhm” on Michigan Avenue and co-curated the “Marilyn Sward: Speaking in Paper” exhibition. As Director of Academic Initiatives at Columbia College Chicago, he managed special projects including exhibitions of faculty and student work, conferences, and the Art + Activism program and student organization. Stephen’s photographs and artists’ books have been exhibited internationally including at the Seoul Artists’ Book Fair, Printworks Gallery in Chicago and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. His work is included in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection and the University of Iowa Library Special Collection.
