We offer artists-in-residence programs

isra rene (2024)

isra rene was a visiting artist in early April. She worked with e. ainsley to create an edition of 50 sheets made from recycled cotton, some of which were indigo dyed by the artist. The next step for this work in progress is to screen print the handmade paper. 

Bio: isra is an artist and writer based in Chicago, IL, and from Capitol Heights, MD.

artist website: israrene.info

headshot photo credit: Jared Brown 

Molly Berkson (2024)
Bio: I am a Chicago-based artist primarily working in printmaking, books, and handmade paper. I work as a Studio Assistant at Steracle Press, a letterpress and design studio in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, and as a Teaching Artist at Lillstreet Art Center. In April 2024, I began creating limited-edition handmade paper under the name Too Blue Press.

Previously, I taught classes at Spudnik Press, where I was a Studio Fellow in 2017-2018. Also in 2017-2018, I taught an After School Matters program for Chicago teens called Sew Stitchy. I have shown work at Baby Blue Gallery in Chicago IL, After School Special in Milwaukee WI, Femme4Femme in Chicago as part of 2nd Floor Rear, and at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY, where I was a Studio Intern in 2016. I graduated with my BFA from Chicago's School of the Art Institute in 2015. 
My work often uses pared-down text and graphic shapes and patterns. I draw imagery (and sometimes meticulously copy) from record sleeves, gig posters, and vintage ephemera. Handmade paper from experimental fibers embeds unique texture and material memory into each sheet. I am fond of the intermingling boundaries of art, craft, and design.

I recently experienced sudden hearing loss, which has catastrophically altered how I encounter and perceive nearly everything. My work in print, paper, and books is beginning to investigate my relationship with sound and music in deeper, novel ways. Can I represent music and sound visually to depict what I cannot hear? How can I work to express sound more expansively? How do I illustrate my grief?

artist website: www.mollyberkson.com

Aya Nakamura (2022, 2023)

Aya was a visiting artist three times in the studio.

Bio: Aya is an artist based in Chicago, IL. She has shown at venues in the United States and abroad, recently at Secrist Beach and Heaven, both in Chicago and at The Hangar and Dawawine in Beirut, Lebanon; Supa Salon in Istanbul, Turkey; Mana Decentralized in Jersey City, NJ; and MPSTN in Fox River Grove, IL. She is the recipient of the Denbo Fellowship from Pyramid Atlantic Art Center and the George and Ann Siegel Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a member of Chicago API (Asian, Pacific Islander) and Artists United (CAAU). Nakamura was born in Japan and educated in France and the United States, holding a BA in Fine Arts and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

artist website: www.aya-nakamura.com