Aram Han Sifuentes is a Chicago-based fiber and social practice artist, writer, and educator. As the daughter of South Korean garment workers and an immigrant herself, her work often centers on themes of immigrant labor, citizenship, voting, protest, and immigrant justice. Sifuentes creates participatory projects that use textiles and hand-sewing as tools for storytelling, community building, and political resistance. Her projects are collaborative and intentionally situated in community spaces, designed to be used, shared, and activated by the people they are made with. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis; moCa Cleveland, Cleveland; and Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
She has received numerous awards including a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, 3Arts Award, 3Arts Next Level Award, Map Fund Grant, and Joyce Award. She earned her BA in Art and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a professor, adjunct, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Headshot: Sarah Whyte
Image: Protest Banner Lending Library, 2016 - ongoing, felt and fusible web on cotton fabric, dimensions variable, Photo credit: eedahahm
(updated 2025)
LAUNCH Invitational
BOLT Residency
Maker Grant
