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Madeleine Aguilar tells stories, builds archives, maps spaces, constructs furniture, records histories, organizes data, catalogs objects, prints publications, creates frameworks, collects imagery, acquires trades, ties knots, repurposes materials, imitates structures, utilizes chance, plays instruments, follows intuition, prompts participation, guides observation, leaves evidence, develops routines, takes walks, breaks habits, and makes lists. Using the archive as form, she acknowledges the passing of time by cataloging lived spaces, collected objects, familial histories, personal relationships, natural phenomena, mundane routines, and ephemeral moments. She runs bench press, a collaborative Risograph press based in Chicago, and is currently Print & New Media Studio Manager at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency.

Education

2022       Master of Fine Arts, Printmedia, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2020      Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2019       Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

2016       Marwen, Chicago, IL

 

Experience

2024      Shop Technician, Architecture Model Shop, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

2023      Supervisor, Sullivan Fabrication Studio, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2022-present

                Print & New Media Studio Manager, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, Saugatuck, MI

                Faculty, RISORelations + Bookish Behaviors, Printmaking course at Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI

                Founder of bench press, a collaborative RISOgraph press in Chicago, IL

                Co-director of Mayfield, exhibition space collectively run by the Aguilar family in Forest Park, IL

2022      Artist-in-Residence, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, Saugatuck, MI

                Visiting Artist, Marwen, Chicago, IL

2021       Production Assistant, Service Bureau, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

                Offset Apprentice, Offset Lab at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago under Todd Rau, Chicago, IL

                Teaching Assistant, Sullivan Fabrication Studio, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

                Teaching Assistant, Printmedia, Photography, and Painting & Drawing departments, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

                Artist-in-Residence, Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL

2020     Intern, Prints and Drawings department at the Art Institute of Chicago

                Composer, Aquarium, A film by Every house has a door, Chicago, IL

                Studio Facilitator, Marwen, Chicago, IL

                Contributor, Warm Violet: a Compilation for Chicago Community Jail Support, Chicago, IL Illustrator

                Comics Contributor, F Newsmagazine, Chicago, IL

2019      Massey Chicago Scholar Student Ambassador, School of the Art Institute of Chicago,

2018      Instrument Instructor/Counselor, Girls Rock Chicago, Chicago, IL

               Studio Facilitator, FrankenToyMobile, Chicago, IL

               Participant, MCA Family Day: Trail Mix, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

               Composer, Scarecrow, Every house has a door, Helsinki, Finland & Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago

2017      Composer, Truck Tracks Ruhr: Red, blue, white, yellow, black, Every house has a door, Essen, Germany

2016      Musician, New Life Community Church, Chicago, IL

2014      Volunteer/Presenter, Open Engagement 2014, Queens Museum, New York

2013      Student Ambassador, Marwen, Chicago, IL

 

Solo and Two Person Exhibitions

2024     yard model, Roman Susan, Chicago, IL

2023     prototypes for compatibility, Box Office Gallery at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

2021      you are here, Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL

2018     Spies!, Condo Association, Chicago, IL

2017      I just want to stay home, Box Gallery, Chicago, IL

 

Group Exhibitions

2023     Amuleto, El Lobi, San Juan, Puerto Rico

               Picture Thingy, Chicago Athletic Association, Chicago, IL

               Home/School/Play/Ground, Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL

               Dog Show, Circle Contemporary at The Arts of Life, Chicago, IL

               models for rust, Betsy Gallery at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

2022     46: Artists' Books from Franklin Furnace Archive 1976-2022, Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn, NY

               Dock 6 Design & Art 14, Dock 6, Chicago, IL

               Ohklahomo @ MDW Fair, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL

               Overlap: Research, Results, and More, John M. Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

               Common Practice, Betsy Gallery at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

               Soft Noise, The Plan, Chicago, IL

               Spring Graduate Thesis Exhibition, SAIC Galleries, Chicago, IL

               Birdhouse, Our House, Sullivan Fabrication Studio, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2021      Keep In Touch: Terrain Biennial, 2021, Terrain Exhibitions, Oak Park, IL

2020     The Long Dream, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

                Artist Run Chicago 2.0, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL

                Spring Undergraduate Exhibition, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL

                I Can’t Believe It’s Not a Butterfly in a Job Bag, Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, IL

2019      Equal Parts, Stewdio Visit, Tucson, AZ

               moves on human scale, Gallery 400, Chicago, IL

2018      A Four Part Performance, Circle L Ranch (MOCA), Oracle, AZ

               The Beasts, Circle Contemporary at The Arts of Life, Chicago, IL

2017      Art Bash, SITE Galleries, Chicago, IL

2016     Chicago Public Schools All-City High School Exhibition, SITE Galleries, Chicago, IL

              Home Meant Improv / Uncertainty makes a good show, Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL

 

Performances / Lectures / Workshops

2024    Unlearning Excercises, exhibition by Chris Reeves & Lauren Sudbrink at Roots & Culture, Chicago, IL

2023    Richmond Zine Fest, the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library, Richmond, VA

2022    EXPO Chicago 2022, Chicago, IL

              Winter Break: a benefit to support Ox-Bow School of Art, Guild Row, Chicago, IL

              Flatlands Final Publication Release: An Atlas, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL

              Workshop Leader RISOgraph 101, Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) Annual Conference

2021    5 Beginnings: ESS, Every house has a door, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL

             Lecturer, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Urban Wood: Utilization Initiatives in Art, Architecture, and Design

             Milwaukee Zine Fest, The Bindery @ Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, WI

             Multiple+Goods+Fair, Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL

             Terrain Biennial Block Party Community Event, Overton Elementary, Chicago, IL

2020  Waveforms Summer 2020, SAIC Sound Department, Chicago, IL

2019   Workshop Leader, Homemade Stories and Handmade Books, Gallery 400, Chicago, IL

             America: A Hymnal, exhibition by Bethany Collins at Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL

             Some Kind of Duty, exhibition by kg gnatowski at DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL

             Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL

             Chicago Zine Fest, Chicago, IL

2018    Prism-isms, exhibition by Andrew Yang at Roman Susan, Chicago, IL

             Line Age Gap: A Father/Daughter Artist Talk In Turn, Gallery 400, Chicago, IL

2017    Puppet Cabaret, SAIC Performance Space, Chicago, IL

2016   Exhaust the Possible, Trunk Show, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL

             Water Music on the Beach 2016, 6018|North, Chicago, IL

2014   MCA Live: Boulevard Dreamers, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

 

Collections

 

Franklin Furnace Archive at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

 

Special Collections at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, Richmond, VA

 

Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s John Flaxman

Library, Chicago, IL

 

Jorge Lucero Study Collection at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL

 

8-Ball Library, New York, NY

Ox-Bow Artists’ Book + Zine Library at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

Quarantine Public Library, https://www.quarantinepubliclibrary.com/

Look Hear Library, organized by Mac Akin, New Orleans, LA

Publications

Trunk Show Catalogue, 2021

 

Xerox Candy Bar, issue 33, Fall 2019

 

Pinnacle Award Finalist, College Media Association, 2019

 

New Tones (For Newton) compiled by Andrew S. Yang, Prism-isms, April 2018

 

Dean’s List, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018

 

 

 

Awards

Pinnacle Award Finalist, College Media Association, 2019

 

Walter and Shirley Massey Chicago Scholarship Recipient, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2016-2020

 

Dean’s List, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018

 

 

Press

A Sound Deemed Unwanted: A review of Soft Noise at The Plan, Sixty Inches From Center, Feb. 21, 2023

 

Madeleine Aguilar’s Ox-Bow EP, Ox-Bow News Blog, March 3, 2023

 

Luteboy series, F Newsmagazine, monthly 2018- 2020

 

Minis: Madeleine Aguilar, High-Low Comics, September 27, 2020

 

Madeleine Aguilar’s Minicomics, High-Low Comics, October 2, 2019

 

TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (11/30-12/06), Bad At Sports, by Visualist Chicago, November 30, 2017

 

Meet the New Class, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Magazine, Fall 2016

 

Memorable End: An Artist’s Daughter Experiences Crystal Bridges For The First Time, Crystal Bridges

 

Museum of American Art Blog, October 3, 2014

 

The Aguilar Family on Open Engagement 2014, Cultural Reproducers, June 2, 2014

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