Master Class: Inside the Last American Museum School with SAIC Painting Alumni
19 April - 21 June 2025
  • Opening reception: Saturday, April 19, 5-8PM 
     
    SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce the exhibition Master Class: Inside the Last American Museum School with SAIC Painting Alumni. Master Class brings together artworks by over 60 former and current students who studied in the Painting and Drawing department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) between the years 2000 and 2025. This exhibition is guest-curated SAIC  President Emerita, Elissa Tenny and SAIC professor, chair of SAIC’s Painting and Drawing department and art historian Lisa Wainwright. 
     
    In 1866 a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design. Their mandate was to create a school to study  “life” and “antique” drawing and to run a gallery space alongside the school. Though the original gallery space was lost in the Great Chicago fire of 1871, by 1879, a new school and gallery was opened as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In 1882, that name was changed to what we know as the Art Institute of Chicago. Since that time, the School and the Art Institute museum have grown into a symbiotic dynamic that has greatly impacted the Chicago scene and the larger art world in myriad ways. On the eve of its 160th anniversary, and little known to many, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is the last 'Museum School' in North America. In celebration of this achievement, Master Class dives into the close connection between the  museum and the alums of its renowned Painting and Drawing department from the last 25 years. 
     
    On view in the SECRIST | BEACH space will  be an artwork by each of the artists selected, taking up the entirety of the gallery’s 10,000 sq. ft. space. In addition to their  own artwork, each artist has been asked to identify an artist and a work of theirs from the collection of the Art Institute museum.  Didactics and a video presentation on view in our salon room will guide viewers to those works in the collection. Curating this exhibition has reminded us - and will express to viewers - the integral and generative link between the School  and the museum, highlighting the long histories of public collections and art-making in Chicago. 
  • James Kao, Starlight, 2018, oil on canvas, 65 x 70 inches. Courtesy the artist Artist selection from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection: Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884 (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Elijah Burgher, Head of Orpheus, 2025, colored pencil and watercolor on paper, 20 x 14 inches Courtesy the artist and Western Exhibitions Artist selection from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection: Paul Gauguin, Mahana no atua (Day of the God), 1894 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27943/mahana-no-atua-day-of-the-god (View more details about this item in a popup).
    Chelsea Culprit, Devil's Garden Escalante, 2023, oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 84 inches Courtesy the artist and Morán Morán Artist selection from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection: Edgar Degas, The Star, 1879/81 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/60656/the-star (View more details about this item in a popup).

    James Kao, Starlight, 2018, oil on canvas, 65 x 70 inches.

    Courtesy the artist 

     

    Artist selection from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection:

    Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884

    https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884

  • Featured artists:
    Lindsay Adams, Noelle Africh, Luke Agada, Alberto Aguilar, Latifa Alajlan, Cecilia Beaven, Aviv Benn, Samantha Bittman, Elijah Burgher, Robert Burnier, Nik Cho, Alex Bradley Cohen, Jeane Cohen, Paula Crown, Chelsea Culprit, Tavin Davis, Dana DeGiulio, Austin Eddy, Stephen Eichhorn, Peter Fagundo, Nicola Florimbi, Howard Fonda, Jae Ford, Jonathan Gardner, Magalie Guérin, Antonia Gurkovska, Efrat Hakimi, Andrew Holmquist, Mika Horibuchi, Patrick Dean Hubbell, Steven Husby, Omair Hussain, G.D. Johnson, James Kao, Em Kettner, Minami Kobayashi, Meredith Kopelman, David Leggett, Tony Lewis, MJ Lounsberry, Wangari Mathenge, Kristoffer McAfee, Rodney McMillian, Isabella Mellado, Emily Miller, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Aliza Nisenbaum, Angel Otero, Ruth Poor, Kaveri Raina, Pedro Trueba Ramírez, Autumn Ramsey, Celeste Rapone, Josh Reames, Clare Rojas, Sterling Ruby, Charlotte Saylor, Claire Sherman, Sumakshi Singh, Cameron Spratley, Keer Tanchak, Sebastian Thomas, Alice Tippit, Orkideh Torabi, Cody Tumblin, Omar Velázquez, Jonathan Worcester, Hiejin Yoo, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. 
  • Catalogue:
    In recognition of the importance of this monumental exhibition, SECRIST | BEACH is developing a comprehensive catalogue that will provide valuable insight regarding Master Class. Many participating artists have provided their own writing in which they expound on their experience as a student, their relationship with SAIC and why the master artwork they chose was impactful. A cadre of art historians, critics and academics connected to SAIC will also be contributing essays that focus on  individual artists and their inspiration. Additionally, co-curator of Master Class Lisa Wainwright and artist and SAIC Crown Family Professor in Painting and Drawing Michelle Grabner will contribute introductory essays diving into the history of the  relationship between the School and the museum, and the placement of 25 years of production in the context of contemporary art.