Visiting Artist Program
Lawrence Agyei
Date: March 13
Time: 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
In-Person: MCC Conference Center, A213
Online via Zoom
A reception to follow at 3:30 p.m. in Gallery One, A212x
Currently based in Chicago, Lawrence Agyei (b. 1990) is a visual storyteller who draws inspiration from his cross-continental upbringing. His work is influenced by his multifaceted identity as a third-culture child, and it touches upon notions of multiculturalism as a way to celebrate the juxtaposition between his Ghanaian heritage, Italian background, and life in the American Midwest. Focusing on enhancing Black culture and the beauty of its people as a whole, he blends the lexicon of documentary photography with portraiture while taking cues from fashion. Through his visual essays, he offers a genuine reading of cultural identity while capturing the beauty of the human spirit. He’s had the pleasure of working with companies and publications such as Apple, Nordstrom, Teen Vogue, Adobe, Vanity Fair, Studio Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Google, and many other publications and brands. His work has toured internationally in the exhibition The New Black Vanguard, curated by Antwaun Sargent.
See more information about the Agyei online or on Instagram.
If you need accommodations or a sign language interpreter, contact Access and Disability Services at (815) 455-8766 or disabilityservices@mchenry.edu.
Artist Talk Archives
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Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Artist - September 13, 2023
Jeffly Gabriela Molina is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist from Táchira, Venezuela. She moved to the US in 2007 and lived in Miami for four years, where she attended the New World School of the Arts. In 2011, Molina transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she graduated with a BFA in 2013 and an MFA in 2016. In addition to participating in multiple group and solo exhibitions, she has undertaken two permanent public sculpture commissions in Miami. Recent solo exhibitions include “Fragments of an Imaginary Home” at The Weather Station in Lafayette, Indiana, and “De Madeira y Aire” at Galeria Enrique Guerrero in Mexico City. She has been awarded an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Driehaus Museum, the AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts, a Carol Becker’s Dean Grant, and a John W. Kurtich scholarship.
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Trina May Smith, Artist - March 15, 2023
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Reflections on navigating the literal and conceptual complexities of the social landscape are at the heart of Trina’s work. The warped and altered reality of the current times shapes the decisions in her paintings with an ever-evolving response.
Trina has been in many group and solo shows across the United States including exhibitions in Brooklyn NY, Chicago, Washington DC, and Seattle. She has shown at Tory Folliard and Abel Contemporary galleries as well as being invited to show at institutions such as the Wright Museum in Wisconsin, Maine College of the Arts in Maine, Mount Mary University in Wisconsin, and Monmouth College in Illinois. Trina is an Assistant Professor in Painting at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
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Violet Luczak, Artist - November 30, 2022
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Luczak has shown at various spaces, including, but not limited to, Jackson Junge Gallery, Cleve Carney Museum of Art, St. Louis Artist Guild, WomanMade Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, Wasserman Projects, DragonFLY Gallery, Mercedes-Benz, Ann Arbor Art Center, Marriott W Hotel, and the Fulton Street Collective. Luczak recently debuted her first solo show, An Udder Disaster, at Talking Dolls in Detroit, MI, in 2020. She has been published in New American Paintings, No. 147 MFA Annual Issue, Young Space, and It’s Nice That.
Luczak currently serves as a faculty member at McHenry County College.
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Kent Henderson, Graphic Designer - April 27, 2022
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Hope Wang, Artist - February 16, 2022
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Learn more about Andy Gregg | Studio Super
Nick Adam is design principal at Span. Nick has over 18 years of experience in directing and designing across all mediums, industries, and organization sizes. From civic leaders to visionary startups and cultural communities Nick’s design background spans the arts and culture, civic and public, entertainment, financial and investment, food and drink, and non-profit sectors. Beyond design making, Nick has led identity, print, digital, environmental, experiential projects, teams, presentations, work sessions, and public town halls that involve governments, multi-community groups, Fortune 500’s, and businesses small and large.
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In 2017, he was the recipient of the Meier Achievement Award. In addition to his studio practice, he is an instructor of sculpture at both SAIC and the University of Chicago. Over the past two decades, Bradley has developed a sculptural language around representation, poetics of ordinary subjects, trompe l’oeil techniques, and exhibition as a site for the imagination. He aims to use this creative language to encourage his audience to practice the suspension of disbelief as a method for reconsidering and understanding this shared common world.
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Brad VandenBerg, Graphic Designer - November 20, 2019
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