Chicago’s Recent MFA Graduates on View in Hyde Park Art Center’s Biennial Exhibit, “Ground Floor”

Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s South Side, has announced Ground Floor, the eighth iteration of the Art Center’s biennial program since 2010 showcasing select work by recent graduates from each of Chicago’s five MFA (Master of Fine Art) programs.

The exhibition, on view from December 7, 2024 to March 23, 2025, offers a single destination to view some of Chicago’s most promising emerging talent who graduated in 2023-24 from one of Chicago’s five top-tier MFA programs: Columbia College Chicago (CCC), Northwestern University (NU), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), The University of Chicago (UofC), and The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Artists represented in Ground Floor include Chelsea Bighorn (SAUC), Sebastian Bruno-Harris (SAIC), Teresita Carson (UIC), Maximillano Cervantes (NU), José De Sancristóbal Higareda (NU), Kyrin Hobson (UofC), Hillary Johnson (CCC), Janhavi Khemka (SAIC), Betty Kim (UofC), Jules Koreman (UofC), Hien-Minh Le (UIC), Hai-Wen Lin (SAIC), Morisha Moodley (NU), Grace Papineau-Couture (CCC), Carissa Lee Pinckney (SAIC), Katie Revilla (NU), David Sami (UofC), Aleksandra Walaszek (SAIC), and Sangwoo Yoo (SAIC).

Ground Floor presents the work of select graduates made in the past few years to articulate conceptual and stylistic trends coming out of Chicago art schools right now. While their modes of making range the full spectrum in media from performance and film to painting and sculpture, many of the artists in this year’s selection are traversing themes of loss and liberation, alternative archiving methods, and engaging the senses to be more connected and present in defiance of the overwhelmingly isolated state of our world.

Ground Floor—so named because it provides a crucial platform for rising artists and traverses the entire lower level of the Art Center—gives exhibiting artists a major public venue in which to display their works at a critical juncture in their careers, helping to build, support, and ensure a strong and vibrant community of artists in Chicago.

The nineteen artists in the exhibition were selected by the Art Center’s Ground Floor Selection Committee from a competitive pool of applicants who were nominated by respected Chicago-based artists, curators, and administrators. The 2024 committee includes nationally and internationally renowned artists and educators Dawoud Bey (committee chair), Juan Baños, Paul Catanese, Erin Hayden, Arnold J. Kemp, and Laura Letinsky. The exhibition is curated by Director of Exhibitions and Residency, Allison Peters Quinn, and Exhibitions and Residency Coordinator, Tran Tran.

The exhibition is enriched through a series of public programs, offering opportunities for artists to engage with audiences, and is documented through an illustrated catalog to be released in 2025, which includes a commissioned text by an emerging art writer about each exhibiting artist. 

Participating artist José De Sancristóbal Higareda noted, “Being alongside other artists who recently graduated from an MFA program in Chicago feels like finding new peers to share that experience with. It allows for new connections to be made not only with artists but also with curators, organizers, cultural workers, and the expanded community around Hyde Park, shaping each other’s work and ideas.”

Participating artist Teresita Carson added, “The Ground Floor Biennial is an incredible platform and opportunity to be a part of a larger conversation. I am eager for audiences to be exposed to my work and ideas inspired by Sci-Fi, Mesoamerican culture, and Indigenous epistemologies.”

This exhibition is generously supported by Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Chicago.