Orkideh Torabi
b. 1979, Tehran, Iran
Lives and works in Chicago, IL
Orkideh Torabi imagines herself as a director who, through painting, resituates the power dynamics of patriarchal society in her native Iran. Rendered with simple button-like eyes, injured or missing noses, unnatural skin hues, and tacked-on mustaches, her unabashedly humorous paintings imbue the protagonists with an emasculated and clown-like state of being. She juxtaposes her cartoonish images of contemporary men against vivid patterns that are influenced by Persian miniatures, small yet highly detailed illustrations that have been an integral part of Iranian culture since the 13th century. In doing so, Torabi makes explicit that the past and present become interwoven. Using fabric dye on cotton fabric through an idiosyncratic transfer process that generates saturated surfaces, Torabi’s paintings have a batik or watercolor-like fluidity in which her men revel. Titles like “Which One Is My Wife” and “I’ll Catch You,” update the timeless popular image of “the dirty old man” through contemporary political satire.
Select Readings
How Iranian Painter Orkideh Torabi Found Her Voice - Lenny
Toxic Masculinity Gets a Makeover Courtesy of Iranian Artist Orkideh Torabi - Elephant
Photo by Nolis Anderson
Aimee Beaubien
b. 1966
Lives and works in Chicago, IL
Aimee Beaubien is an artist living and working in Chicago. Her sculptural, photo based collages explore collapses in time, space, and place, while playfully engaging the complexities of visual perception. Solo exhibitions include shows at TWIN KITTENS, Atlanta, GA; The Cliff Dwellers and Gallery Uno, Chicago; Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago. Her work has been reviewed in publications such as Art in America, Art on Paper and Art Papers. Beaubien is Assistant Professor of Photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“Collage is destruction and construction, a simultaneous collapsing of time, space and place. My work is created by physically cutting up my photographs and putting them back together in invented forms, playfully engaging the complexities of visual and visceral perception.”
In the Garden:An Interview with Aimee Beaubien - Pelican Bomb
Focus On Installation - Lenscratch
Pushing the Boundaries of Photography into the 3rd Dimension - Create Magazine
Photo by Marzena Abrahamik
ec miller
b. 1990 Nashville, TN
EC Miller is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and photographer currently living and working in Chicago, IL. They received their MFA from Columbia College Chicago in 2015 and BFA from Memphis College of Art in 2012. EC’s artworks have been featured in numerous publications including recent issues of Create! Magazine and Broccoli Magazine; held within public and private collections like that of the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago; exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally with their work most recently shown at the CICA Museum in South Korea.
Digital Nostalgia: An Interview with E.C.Miller - Create Magazine
Daniel Hojnacki
b. 1989 Nashville, TN
Through experimental approaches to the apparatus of the camera and alternative printing techniques, Daniel Hojnacki investigates the quietness of being an observer within the world. Creating work that explores materiality of the image through emotional responses to the medium of photography.
Daniel Hojnacki received his M.F.A from the University of New Mexico in 2022. He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.
Tom Burtonwood
Tom Burtonwood (b. United Kingdom) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, curator and educator. He/they are Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Like the critical theorist Deleuze, Burtonwood maintains a Baroque sensibility, a fascination with complexity, multiplicity, and the infinite play of forms. Deleuze’s description of the Baroque fold as a "fold within a fold" resonates with his layered sculptures and intricate drawings. These works reveal their complexity through a series of folds, each layer adding depth and richness to the overall structure. This complexity invites viewers to engage with the artwork on multiple levels, uncovering new layers of meaning with each interaction.
Burtonwood is a member of the international art collective videokaffe and a board member and co-organizer of Terrain Exhibitions, an Oak Park based not for profit arts organization. Terrain makes private space public through sculpture, installation, performance and interventions. Apart from Terrain he/they have curated over twenty exhibitions of contemporary art working with Chicago - based artist run galleries GARDENfresh (2002 - 2009) and What It Is (2010 - 2015).
Selected Listenings