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.
contact / benchpresspress@gmail.com
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