Spudnik Press Cooperative has 5 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.
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.
Osée Obaonrin is a writer and fiber artist originally from the Republic of Benin, who grew up in the Maryland/DC area and currently resides in Chicago, IL. Obaonrin focuses primarily on documentation. Documenting self. The feelings of grief and acts of mourning as a means of reflection and also as a means of actually performing the processes of grief and mourning. She attempts to reconcile with the losses that have opened her to grief, the pain that has come along with it and perhaps find hope as a means of resistance.
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!
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.
Nicolette has long been a contributor to the Spudnik Press community. Since first joining our organization in 2012, Nicolette has been an active member and volunteer, while teaching many of our relief printmaking and bookbinding classes.
She holds a BFA with an emphasis in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Central Florida, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.
She is the Studio Manager at Double Trip Press, a premier letterpress studio located in the East Lakeview neighborhood.
@rosspressandbindery
nicoletterossprint@gmail.com
Vida Sačić is a Croatian-American artist, designer and educator. Her work in print media explores the relationship between printing and language. She prints and creates large-scale installations; assemblages of prints on paper, textiles and fiber using moveable type, letters that can be touched, and a printing press. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including DeVos Art Museum (MI), Art Mora Gallery (New York City), Columbia College (Chicago) and The Center for Book Arts (New York City). Sačić has been recognized as an Artist-in-Residence at The Penland School of Art and Craft (North Carolina), The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum (Wisconsin), The Center for Book and Paper Arts (Chicago, Illinois) and Tiporenesansa Studio (Ljubljana, Slovenia) among others. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Northeastern Illinois University and works in her studio in the Ravenswood neighbourhood of Chicago.
Jake Saunders is a Chicago artist working in printmaking as well as drawing and painting. Hailing from Muncie, Indiana, Jake grew up with a love for a variety of narrative based art forms, which became a focus in his art practice. After becoming fascinated with the unique aesthetics of woodcuts and etchings and their aptitude for seriality and multiplicity, Jake earned a BFA and MA in printmaking from Ball State University and went on to earn his MFA at the University of Connecticut. He has since gone on to show nationally and internationally. Today, Jake’s work amalgamates narratives to explore the concept of tragedy in forms both grand and mundane.
H Schenck received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Printmaking at Bradley University, IL, in 2010. He went on to complete a Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Intermedia at UT Arlington, TX, in 2013. His work explores the characteristics of materials, such as foam, fabric, and found objects; he uses the traits he discovers as a language.
Image: Detail of the artist’s biography
Carla Fisher Schwartz is a visual artist and educator based in Chicago, IL. Her studio practice investigates the relationship between the mapped image and contemporary notions of exploration, virtuality, and the simulated environment through print media, sculpture and video installation. Her art has been exhibited across the United States, including the Chicago Artists Coalition (Chicago, IL), the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (St. Louis, MO), the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), the McKendree University Art Gallery (Lebanon, IL), and the Kala Art Institute (Berkeley, CA). Recent residencies include HATCH Projects (Chicago, IL) and The Hyde Park Art Center Program (Chicago, IL), and a studio fellowship with Spudnik Press Cooperative. Schwartz received her MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was awarded the Bell Cramer Award in Printmaking, and her BA in Studio Art with a minor in the History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Art and Architecture at Harold Washington College.
April Sheridan is a letterpress printer who is particularly interested in the artistic and experimental possibilities of the broadside and its historic place in American culture. For ten years she ran the letterpress printing, papermaking, and bookbinding studios at the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago. As an advocate for book arts education she has spoken at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum Wayzgoose/Educators Conference, Letterpress: Forward Thinking Conference at St. Bride Library in London, and at the &Now Conference at CalArts. She currently serves on the boards of the American Printing History Association, Inland Chapter and the WasteShed and was previously assistant director of the Chicago Printers Guild.
Veronica Siehl is an artist and printmaker based in Chicago. Siehl received her MFA in printmaking from the University of Tennessee (2010) and her BA in Studio Art from Beloit College (2006). Siehl’s work has been shown in various cities including Chicago (IL), New Orleans (LA), Poznan (Poland), Olympia (WA), and Knoxville (TN). Her multidisciplinary studio practice includes printmaking, alternative photo processes, drawing, writing and installation.
