Meet our artists
OUR MEMBERS
Rossa Crean
Rosśa Crean’s visual aesthetic ranges from synesthesia-inspired abstracts to digital paintings of lifelike surrealism. Approaching topics of trauma, queerness, the occult, and liminal spaces, their work expresses itself with an emotional intensity and vulnerability that stirs deep undertones of humanity.
Ellis Erisman
"I like to think of my work as an homage to the uncomfortable, to the things we tiptoe around and are too scared to talk about at full volume. My work centers on the exploration of identity: addressing personal themes of mental illness, childhood, and gender. Working in fashion, knitting, and fiber art; things touchable, tangible, and interactive; allows me to take all the quiet uncomfortable things and transform them into something inhabitable. Embodying painful experiences in beauty, it illuminates the complicated relationship between hurt and healing, dwelling and growth; the ebb and flow between better and worse."
Vincenza LoBello
Vincenza is a Chicago-based ceramic artist and art educator living and working in Pilsen. Each of her pieces are one-of-a-kind and carved by hand. She works on the pottery wheel or hand building to create functional pieces for everyday use. The organic carving on each piece is inspired by textures found in nature and landscapes.
Vincenza has worked with clay for 16 years. Her favorite aspect of teaching pottery is seeing students enjoy their art as part of their daily lives.
Ceramicist
Corrin Pitluck
Corrin assembles found objects to draw things that have been damaged by use and fallen away into a new whole where they are needed. Framing rusted metal with beads, fiber, and fabric, she seeks to visualize a new phase of inclusion and completeness for the worn out and forgotten.
Shaqui Reed
Interdisciplinary Artist + Designer
Shaqui Reed work examines areas of imperfections expressed by irregularity, incompleteness, rawness, and simplicity. Her designs typically involve deconstructing, distressing, layering, and piecing together what is left behind. Her textile works speak of the color and texture of her fears. Her fears are represented through the roughness of the denim and the different shades of blues. Her work uses repetition of pattern, line, shape, stitch work, and surface manipulation to narrate the juxtaposition of complexity and simplicity. Her love for denim translates to exploring different shades of denim, textiles, lines, hand stitching, and patchwork. Transcending the conventions of learned experience as a fashion designer, Shaqui Reed explores new adventures within the definition of herself. Her current body of work explores cultural intersections as a source of her identity crisis. Shaqui uses the skin, applications, and the building of structures to come to a place of understanding self.
Recent Publications/Interview: https://chicagodefender.com/chiarts-alumna-shaqui-reed-arts-advocacy-and-education/
Natalia Trawkowski
"Being born into an immigrant family has been the single most influential factor of my life. It has branded all five of my senses; I experience America through a Slavic lens. In turn, my work is an exploration of my identityas a first generation Polish-American.
Historically, Polish folk art has been crafted from humble supplies such as dried flowers, wheat, straw, and paper. I honor this tradition by using alley finds and second hand materials. The whimsical color schemes and compositions found in my works are meant to bring joy and summon magic – much folk art serves as a means to bring good fortune, after all."
bit.ly/natski
Multimedia Artist / Graphic Designer
Alexis Woo
Alexis is trained in industrial design and graphic design. In their personal practice, Alexis experiments with materials and methods of production to create objects that foster an emotional and physical relationship with its users. With a playful approach to experimentation and curiosity to understand materials, Alexis’ work reflects their personality and design process.
Industrial Designer
Halie Zulch
.
