New Skin for the Old Ceremony: Guest curated by Öykü Kolat

Born in 1994, Renata Berdes’ persistence and focus in pursuit of her artistic outcomes is indomitable. Themes, or what she often calls “obsessions,” are pursued with much intention. When viewed collectively, her sculptural works suggest the assemblage of a new space that plays with scale and permanence. Individually her sculptures are imbued with the magic of what is possible; first there was nothing, and now by Berdes’ hands and imagination the object exists. Found objects are unified through an intimate connection with the sense of touch that manifests in rich textures. Berdes invites us to see the world from her perspective and delights viewers with her reinterpretation of what is. Berdes’ work has been exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC, Chazen Museum of Art in Wisconsin, and is in the permanent collection at the University of Wisconsin Waisman Foundation.  “I really like art because you can see everything through art. I got plexiglass for the door because I can see through it. I can see stuff in there. I really like what I made. I was using some string for that water. I like that box that you gave me. It was a good idea, using that box."

Veronica "Ronnie" Cuculich was born April 4, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Dixon, Illinois with two sisters, her mother, and father. As a young woman, Ronnie attended Dixon State School. After living in state-operated institutions for many years, Ronnie finally got to live in the community with her friends. She worked in a sheltered workshop, but art-making was her true calling. Ronnie had been drawing and making crafts her whole life. She was the inspiration behind the Arts of Life studio and helped open it in January of 2000. While Ronnie was an untrained artist, she worked with various media and was always drawn to experimentation, creating mixed media works, drawings, and paintings in both oil and acrylic. In Ronnie’s words, “The studio is perfect because I get to paint!” After practicing as an artist for 10 years, and working to open two studios, Ronnie passed away in 2010.

David Espinosa is one of Arts of Life's newest members. David joined the Chicago studio in 2024.

Born in 1984, Ted Gram-Boarini is at once a visual artist and musician, and his preferred modes of artistic expression are mutually influential. This is witnessed in the mesmerizing rhythm of his brush strokes, and in the artistry of the lyrics he has written as a member of the North Shore studio band, Van Go Go. Gram-Boarini reimagines music and movie references into acrylic paintings on canvas. Distinctively, his introspective nature and personal connection to the reference always shine through. Gram-Boarini allows us to see him through his work, while leaving space for the viewer’s personal reverie. Ted is also a member of the agency’s educator track and has given artist talks in other community spaces. His work has been included in Spirits Spirits guest curated by Eli Greene and Devin T. Mays and Perceptions of Flow: Movement at the Evanston Art Center.  “The weirder the better. I like being out there with the titles I do. I want all these images I use as reference to show who I am as a person and where I get ideas from. I use the image and then kind of abstract from that. It’s how I hold on to the image in my head and then make it as abstract as I can.”

Myat Moondog Haggart was born in New York City in 2005. Deafblind with additional differences, his work, his utmost concentration with the materiality, and his often towering form, challenge the viewer in the mediums of painting, sculpture, and sound pieces. Myat Moondog Haggart’s work has been shown to artist-friends throughout Britain, Europe, and the USA. He currently attends Perkins School for the Blind, Boston, and lives betweenMassachusetts and New York City.

Dan Miller (Born 1961 in Castro Valley, California) Practices at Creative Growth Art Center, 1992-present. Miller’s artwork comprises overlays of words and imagery that often build to the point of abstraction. Each work contains a written record of Miller’s interest in objects found in the hardware stores and construction sites. In particular, light bulbs, electrical sockets, jackhammers, and soldering guns. With limited expressive language, Miller learned early to type and write words and numbers to communicate. Text became the primary influence on his artistic practice, transforming words and symbols into graphic elements, and employing an abstract visual language as a tool of inquiry and expression. Miller has had solo exhibitions at White Columns, Andrew Edlin Gallery, and Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York, Galerie Christian Berst in Paris, and Diane Rosenstein Gallery in Los Angeles. His work was selected for the Venice Biennale in 2017, and has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum; Berkeley Art Museum; The Museum of Everything, London; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Rachel Uffner Gallery and Partners & Spade, New York; Gallery Paule Anglim, Jules Maeght and 836M, San Francisco; Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan; Galerie Christian Berst and ABCD, Paris. Miller’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, American Folk Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Mad Musée, and the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne. Miller’s work is also included in the private collections of David Byrne, Cindy Sherman, Maurizio Cattelan, Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner, Nicolas Rohatyn and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Andy and Kate Spade, among many others.

Born in 1972, 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. Reed is a member of the agency’s educator track, and shares art skills in a variety of settings. His work has recently been included in Perceptions of Flow: Formation at Evanston Art Center and Text(ure(al) guest curated by Matt Bodett.  “It 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.”

Tim Stone was born in Park Ridge in 1973, where he grew up living with his family. Over the years, Stone has created an expansive and cohesive body of work across media, including graphite, watercolor, and acrylic. For the past few years he has focused primarily on grayscale drawings of loose grids in graphite, with titles that hint at personal inspirations. Focused and methodical in his practice, he maintains a diligent studio routine and steadfast artistic vision informed by concepts of abstraction. Stone’s process is driven by labor-intensive, repetitive mark-making that burnishes the graphite and slowly wears away the surface of the paper over time. He’s also an active member of the curatorial committee, assisting guest curators with exhibitions at Circle Contemporary featuring studio artists alongside artists from the broader contemporary art community.  “I start drawing squares with a B pencil. Then I keep drawing over them until they become glossy and thick. The B pencil helps the graphite become bolder and shinier, then some of it fades away.”