Stella Rae Binion

Stella Rae Binion (they/she)is a chicago-born poet, filmmaker, printmaker, and bodywork practitioner. Stella Rae first began letterpress printing at Brown University as they earned a bachelor’s degree in  Literary Arts and Modern Culture and Media. They were a book arts studio manager at the John Hay Library from 2018-2020, developing a specific love for working on Vandercook presses. As an independent artist, Stella Rae’s poetic, filmic, and book arts practice centers around fugitivity, witnessing as honor work, and the celebration and protection of Black queer people.

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Emma Chalut

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Elke Claus

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Elke Claus began her career at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she worked in a professional print studio, The Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking. At the same time, she was an intern at Franklin Furnace, an avant-garde art space in Tribeca and home to the country’s largest collection of artist’s books.

After moving to Chicago, she became a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been a printmaking instructor at Anchor Graphics, Columbia College, After School Matters, and The Hyde Park Art Center.

Her most constant ambition has been as a printmaker/artist, which has been exemplified by numerous solo shows. She has exhibited in New York City, Berlin, and throughout the Midwest.

Read Member Interview Series: Elke Claus

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Nick D’Alessandro

Nick D’Alessandro (b. Massachusetts) is a Chicago-based artist focusing on industry and subsequent disposal practices. His work draws from the events of planned obsolescence, collecting the objects of its disregard. In approaching a fiber context, the materiality of the objects studied becomes centered, and honored in light of their exhausted utility. Investigating extraction systems as a catalyst for land destruction, digital colonialism, and material reuse within the textile industries, he asks what the aesthetics of these essential materials offer a throwaway society, and looks for the point at which an object becomes waste.

https://nickdalessandro.net/

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Riesling Dong

Riesling Dong is a Chicago based book artist and graphic designer. Her bold experimental approach to her book publishing projects often challenges the convention of traditional books in both physical design and printed content. Riesling’s books take on sculptural form and she views them as a unique medium for delivery of information, storytelling and embodied experience. Her aim is to enhance the viewer’s experience and understanding, meanwhile creating an object that holds meaning from typography to material.

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Lya Finston

Lya Finston is an artist, printmaker, and educator based in Chicago, IL. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Cranford, NJ, Lya has since made the midwest her home. In 2018 she received a BA in Studio Art and German Language from Oberlin College, and in 2025, an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa.

Lya has formerly served as a Lecturer at Harold Washington College, a Printmaking TA and Shop Technician at Bucknell University, and an Access Services Assistant at the Ryerson & Burnham Library of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

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Rob Kelsey

Rob Kelsey first experienced printmaking at DePaul University, where he studied animation and developed a distaste for digital art processes. Printmaking was his first window into the joys of older artistic forms that simply cannot be replicated digitally. Intaglio led to screenprinting led to bookbinding led to a desire to dabble in as many media as possible, combining and crossing them where appropriate, and exploring themes and imagery from folklore and superstition.

Follow him on Instagram at: @truly.ghouly

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Alex Belardo Kostiw

Alex Belardo Kostiw is a graphic designer, artist, and educator whose work is rooted in storytelling. She has an MFA in visual communication design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in English literature from the University of Chicago. In her own projects, Alex deals in poetic, adapted, and iterative elements, visual structures of comics, and conceptually driven forms. Her work explores primordial and personal forms of knowledge, investigating the complex ways that the self and reality interact.

Image Credit: Collectivo Multipola

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Logan Kruidenier

Logan Kruidenier is an artist and teacher from Goleta, CA and currently based in Chicago.  His work explores narratives, daydreams and the art of masking.  He bikes around the city and eats peanut butter from the jar.

I am a multi-media artist. I love making comics (read on my Tumblr and Ello pages), prints, drawings, and most recently I have begun staging public art installations and performances. The format of the Narrative is important to my work, as are the themes of immersion, identity, and consumption.  My industry experience includes designing logos, creating custom brands, illustration, concept art and storyboarding.

Send me an email if you would like to get in touch. I am always interested in any ideas you may have concerning collaboration, omelette combinations (personal favorite: broccoli, mushrooms, spinach and cheddar) or other questions. -Logan  : > )

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