Perennial Hug 3: Chicago and Vicinity

Su Kaiden Cho is a Korean-American artist and educator whose multidisciplinary practice explores the tensions between absence and presence, visibility and erasure. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, Cho engages with materiality as a language. Layering hanji paper, ink, pigment, and found materials to evoke spatial poetics and the ineffable. Drawing on both Eastern and Western influences, his work is informed by post-minimalism, phenomenology, and Korean traditions of crafts and embodiment.Cho holds an MFA in Painting and Drawings from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently serves on its faculty. He has exhibited widely with over 20 solo exhibitions and 40 group shows across the U.S. and abroad, and has held prestigious fellowships and residencies including at Ox-Bow School of Art (MI), Institut für Alles Mögliche (Berlin), and the International Center for the Arts (Italy). At the core of Cho's work is a philosophical inquiry into impermanence, cultural hybridity, and the metaphysical potential of form. Through process driven experimentation and conceptual rigor, he creates work that resists spectacle and instead invites quiet contemplation.

Samantha Degucz - I am a student currently studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. Being from Indiana, I have a great appreciation for the crowds and buzzing life of Chicago. Much of my work revolves around the community of a crowd and how a crowd of people can transform the energy of a space. Through painting, printmaking, and some mixed media I attempt to represent the power of people coming together.

Diana “Dede” Decker is a self-taught textile artist. What began as a pastime for Dede has grown into a vital artistic practice in rug hooking and embroidery. She creates large and small-scale pictorial pieces, each filled with cats, kittens, puppies, and flowers. Bright colors create vibrant negative spaces outlining the form of each animal and flower. Dede’s use of yarn adds to the cozy, comforting feeling of her work. Her charming, fun, and cheerful designs are skillful demonstrations of her artistic voice.

Lya Finston​ is an artist and printmaker based in Chicago, where she is currently adjuncting in the print department at Harold Washington College. Lya received her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in May of 2025, and her BA from Oberlin College in 2018. ​Before heading to the midwest, Lya was originally born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Cranford, NJ.
​Lya has formerly served as a Printmaking TA and Shop Technician for Bucknell University, a Studio Fellow at Spudnik Press, a publishing assistant at Hoofprint, and an Access Services Assistant at the Ryerson & Burnham Library of the Art Institute of Chicago.Kelly Reaves (MA SAIC 2010, BFA SAIC 2007) lives and works as an artist and art handler in Chicago. Her work and life is driven by a fascination with the natural world and a hyperactive internal dialogue. The process-driven, multi-layered, intuitive paintings are the tangible products of an informal meditation, intended to clear the mind. They simulate and warp three-dimensional space to draw in and disorient the viewer. Their vague imagery is derived subconsciously, informed by the brutality of life on earth and the ominous ambiguity of artificial intelligence.

Cole Fox carefully plans what adaptive tools and color schemes to use to construct bold, dynamic abstract paintings. Fox continuously challenges himself with his art making practice and transforms it into personal expression that transcends spoken word. As of late, he has been delving into the world of video art and enjoys incorporating found objects, images, and highly saturated color schemes. Fox pushes the lines of what art is and who makes it. He finds freedom in going beyond what people think he is capable of. “Even though I am disabled, I’m an artist first and foremost. Let my art speak for itself and speak loudly.” Fox’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and locally at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and is in multiple corporate collections.

Nik Huesman’s art practice is defined by her distinct artistic style and adeptness across mediums. Her portraiture is marked by subtle line work and shading on figures that are offset by backgrounds that pulsate with energetic color patterns. Heusman draws inspiration from a variety of sources: classic paintings, contemporary works of art and pop culture. Regardless of origin, the resulting works maintain subjects rendered with a whimsical hand. Each piece is crafted through a methodical process, involving careful composition, sketching and transferring. Heusman’s work has been included in Spirit Spirits guest curated by Eli Greene and Devin T. Mays and Hand Drawn Circle at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. She has also shown internationally at Art Collaboration Kyoto with Sho + 1 gallery and recently performed at Thalia Hall as a singer for the studio band, Van Go Go. “My art has changed over the years. I’m working in different mediums like color pencil and doing landscapes and learning how to do different techniques of drawing and big scale. I have grown over the years and I’m learning how to express myself more through art.”

Katrina Jackson is one of the Arts of Life's newest artists who has been attending the south side program since in 2024.

Xiaoyi Jiang is a Chinese multidisciplinary artist. She uses a sentimental visual language to explore the possible narratives between self and other, humans and objects, personal history and broader cultural assumptions. Driven by curiosity, she integrates a wide range of interdisciplinary interests and crafts to construct a richly textured dialogue.

Nanako Kono (b. 1999, Tokyo, Japan) is a painter whose work explores miscommunication through a comics-inspired visual language. She moved from Tokyo to Las Vegas in 2016 and earned her BFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2022 and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025. Combining painting, drawing, print media, sewing, and collage, Kono’s work uses the visual devices of comic strips — panels, speech balloons, and recurring characters — to examine the failures and limitations of language. Her experience learning English as a second language informs her interest in linguistics and semiotics, revealing how words and signs often misalign with intention. Kono’s paintings use flat blocks of color and mirrored compositions to emphasize the repetitive, sometimes hollow structures of communication. At the same time, she incorporates textured materials as physical traces of language’s accumulation of meaning over time. Speech balloons become sculptural forms within the pictorial space, staging the emotional and psychological weight behind both spoken and unspoken words.

Aubrey LaDuke (b, 1998, Denver, CO) works primarily with paint, collected paper debris, and garments. She processes how identity and perception morph and swell as personal and cultural debris accumulates. Using her body as a measure for completeness, her work can feel both intimate and anonymous—a layered record of psychological, digital, and material realities. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Anna Lentz is a visual artist and arts educator living in Dundee, IL. She studied anthropology, women’s studies, and studio art at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN as well as community art at California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. She earned her MA in Art Education at School of the Arts Institute, Chicago, IL. Her research interests include community-based art education, hospitality, and vernacular art. Anna currently processes her emotions and life happenings through painting and sewing vibrant colors and shapes. She also explores the natural worlds of her woodland home where she practices conservation and agroforestry.

Travis Morehead - Travis is here for a while.

Siena Peterson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Her art practice is made up of various media including oil paint, charcoal, and performance work. Her work is an ongoing study of the personal battle of one's internal and external self and is a way for her to document the bodily space that we inhibit and emotional depth within. She received her BFA from The University of Illinois at Chicago in Interdisciplinary Education within the Arts and a minor in Fine Arts. Her work has been featured at The Hyde Park Art Center, Martin Gallery, Fulton Street Art Collective, and Figure One Gallery, among others. She was a selected resident of the LAUNCH Invitational Residency at the Chicago Artists Coalition in 2019, as well as the DAWA Artist Residency and Bridge Residency Cohort in 2022.

Cole Pierce received his MFA from Northwestern University and a BSS in Art and Sociology from Cornell College. He has recently exhibited at THE MISSION, the Evanston Art Center, Heaven Gallery, Peter Paul Luce Gallery , PArC Lima, and Roman Susan. He received DCASE (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) grants in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and was a SÍM (Association of Icelandic Visual Artists) resident in Reykjavík, Iceland. In 2016, he completed his first major public work, a 60’x11’ mural in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Kelly Reaves (MA SAIC 2010, BFA SAIC 2007) lives and works as an artist and art handler in Chicago. Her work and life is driven by a fascination with the natural world and a hyperactive internal dialogue. The process-driven, multi-layered, intuitive paintings are the tangible products of an informal meditation, intended to clear the mind. They simulate and warp three-dimensional space to draw in and disorient the viewer. Their vague imagery is derived subconsciously, informed by the brutality of life on earth and the ominous ambiguity of artificial intelligence.

Brian Reed’s art practice is guided by his inquisitive nature. The contemplative quality of his artwork extends a feeling of intimacy to the viewer, as we observe the result of his exploration of the people who inspire him and the animals that intrigue him. Reed experiments fearlessly with materials and continually welcomes new challenges. This is most evident in his three-dimensional works constructed with a variety of mediums. The resulting forms are at once brutal and elegant. Brian’s affinity for acquiring new skills extends to teaching. He is a member of the agency’s educator track, and shares art skills in a variety of settings. Reed’s work has recently been included in Perceptions of Flow: Formation at Evanston Art Center and Text(ure(al) guest curated by Matt Bodett. “Art makes me happy because I like working with my hands. I like the way I use them. I like being with people while making art. I have so many friends from here.”

Lamine Richards begins his paintings by choosing the colors he wants to work with. He decides on a design, then uses water mixed with acrylic to create washes of color with visible brushstrokes. Lamine’s original compositions combine landscape and portraiture in surreal and fantastic designs. In his free time, Lamine enjoys coloring for relaxation.

Mina Romero is an illustrator, fabric artist, and direct support professional from Chicago IL. She enjoys creating expressive abstractions & landscapes tinged with surreal qualities. Her work is heavily influenced by emotion as she often allows intuition & feeling to guide her hand. Her illustrations tend to emulate the fantastical worlds of the cartoons & children’s books that inspired her, coupled with the surroundings in which she grew up. Her latest devotion is taking items that were once loved or tossed away and giving them a newfound reverence; Mina finds ways to create something novel from them in the form of sculpture or collage. In tandem with her art career, Mina has worked alongside the IDD community for several years and is a strong advocate.

Charlotte Saylor is a Chicago-based artist whose practice involves collecting, composing, and painting. She forages for discarded objects such as cardboard or VHS tapes, arranging them in unexpected ways while still allowing for their previous forms to linger. The color, texture, and rhythm of the paint—whether it’s oil, acrylic, casein, or encaustic—recontextualize these objects, framing and holding them with care. Saylor grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, and graduated from the University of California, Davis, in 2019 with a BA in Art Studio. In 2020, she moved to Florence, Italy, for an artist residency at the Santa Reparata International School of Art, where she began experimenting with unconventional painting materials such as wine and olive oil. This experimental approach continued and accelerated in her practice at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she received her MFA in the Painting and Drawing department in May 2025. Starting this fall, she will be a Teaching Fellow in Painting and Drawing at SAIC. Her artwork has been exhibited at EXPO Chicago, Secrist Beach Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, Patient Info, Ivory Gate Gallery, Purple Window Gallery, ARC Gallery, .liminal.projects., Art City, Union Street Gallery, Howling Pages, the Dittmar Memorial Gallery at Northwestern University, and SAIC Galleries. She also co-curated Synchronicities with Isaac Armendariz at Ivory Gate Gallery, featuring artwork by Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Ayanah Moor, among others. Saylor’s work is published in Secrist Beach’s Masterclass Exhibition Catalogue, which includes essays by exhibition co-curator Lisa Wainwright and SAIC professor Michelle Grabner.

Vicente Siso (Born 1962 in Madrid, SpainTierra del Sol artist since 2012). Vicente Siso was born 1962 in Madrid, Spain and has been an artist at Tierra del Sol since 2012. Siso draws inspiration from the various places he’s lived, including Venezuela, Miami, and Trinidad. He and his family moved to Southern California when Siso was in his early 20s, they now reside in Upland, CA. Siso is skilled in an array of media, creating portraits, landscapes, and still-life works using acrylic, pastel, colored pencil, clay, and watercolor. The artist works from a combination of family photos, his own reference photography, and memory to create his richly detailed, folk-art-inspired pieces. While much of Siso’s inspiration comes from his day-to-day life, he is deeply moved by the work of Vincent Van Gogh. Siso has created numerous master’s copies of Van Gogh’s works as well as a plethora of self-portraits and still-life works in the Dutch artist’s swirling, textured style. Expanding upon his existing visual language, Siso creates compelling ceramic sculptures of floral-adorned vessels, stylized busts, and extensive three-dimensional landscapes. Siso is fascinated by the historical and cultural phenomenon of the Titanic and has created many works of art to honor the sunken ship, including a large-scale ceramic scene that features more than 200 individual pieces. To Siso, his art practice is his life. When asked about other interests outside of art, he states confidently, “No, this is my thing.” His landscapes envision a vibrant world of curving roads, bustling neighborhoods, and towering mountains, incorporating patterns and human figures to make meaningful connections between culture, memory, and the environment. His portraiture works often depict loved ones across multiple generations, emphasizing the importance of family in his practice. Siso has exhibited his work at Tierra del Sol Gallery, where his debut solo exhibition, Memories of the Land and Water, opened on January 13, 2024.

Anne Skaug is a Chicago based artist with her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her practice is interdisciplinary, using a wide variety of materials including encaustics, fibers, and found objects. Skaug’s work explores the intersections of story, labor, and longings.

Andrew Sloan is a Detroit native known for his elaborate drawings of muscle cars, urban architecture, and sports icons. Often informed by an extensive knowledge of the auto industry and aspiration to capture the “Motown spirit”, his vision and style remain cohesive across his body of work while referencing disparate interests and subject matter. Sloan’s distinct aesthetic is one of incredible detail and careful execution, with thoughtful compositions often breaking the borders of his substrates. Relationships found in nature or within urban landscapes are depicted with subtleties deduced through contemplative observation. Alongside the dynamism and compelling distortion unique to his work, each drawing evokes a diligent, meditative quality reflecting the patience and attention invested in his creative process. Sloan was recently featured in Hyperallergic. “I did a lot of drawings when I was in elementary school, maybe around 1985 or ’86. I read about cars in magazines, Hot Rod and Petersen’s 4-Wheel and Off-Road. I made art a bit in vocational school, but really didn’t get into it until coming to Chicago. I’ve also been a fan of building model cars since I was a kid. I definitely like General Motors cars. They have a lot of hard torque engines and beautiful looking designs. I look at pictures in magazines, old commercials on YouTube, movies, or TV shows. I don’t work on a drawing real fast, just take my time to get the body design right while looking at the picture. I put ideas and details together from my mind, kind of like a photographic memory.”

Olivia ‘ollie’ Tousius - Your friendly neighborhood art making social worker mom. Working with what I have since ‘87.

Arin Whitmore - Fragmentary yet unified, I work to capture the auspices of my layer of the universe which whisper to me in the form of images I find on the street, under bathroom vanities in magazines from the 70's, intuitive visions, and the people I meet along the way in this upward spiral of life.

Araceli Zuniga is a Mexican-American artist based in the Midwest whose work is defined by intimacy and play. Through expansive materiality, Araceli uses child-like qualities to encourage reflection between self and others. Araceli’s work has been featured at Tala, FLXST, Povos, and Genesis gallery, respectively. They were a member of the Underbelly collective based in Madison, Wisconsin as well as the LUNA collective in Milwaukee, WI. Araceli completed a fellowship at the BlackPaint Studios’ Creative Leadership Program in Milwaukee followed by a growing collaboration with Communication, a Madison-based nonprofit dedicated to fostering a vibrant creative community. Araceli has completed a residency with Chuquimarca, an art library project based in Chicago and attended ACRE, a cooperative residency based in Steuben, Wisconsin. Most recently, Araceli is a resident at Parlour and Ramp, a cooperative gallery located in West Pilsen. Araceli is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.