1431 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 201, Chicago, IL 60642
By advance appointment only. Please email contact@chicagoartistscoalition.org
08.21
Resident Exhibition: 2025 Cohort 1 of 5
Skyler Simpson Herman Aguirre Diana Noh
rachel dukes
About Curators
rachel dukes is a Chicago-based freelance writer, independent curator, and arts administrator from Grand Prairie/Arlington, Texas. rachel's practice incorporates her interest and research on (Afro) Surrealism which she defines as a surrender of the mind to the realm of the unknown and marvelous to challenge conventional modes of being.
rachel earned her undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Arkansas and holds a master’s degree in Museum and Exhibition Studies from the University of Illinois Chicago. rachel has supported the production of exhibitions at the South Side Community Art Center, Gallery 400, and the Hyde Park Art Center; her writing has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Sixty Inches From Center, and New City. A passionate advocate for community centered arts programing, rachel also serves as a board member for Chicago Tap Theatre.
Image: Installation shot, Beyond Frames: Black Women Collectors Shaping Cultural Heritage in Chicago, 2025, South Side Community Art Center, Photo courtesy of Lennell Davis
Headshot: Reagan Dukes
About Artists
Skyler Simpson (b. Omaha, NE 1995) is a visual artist working between painting and drawing. Her work explores personal mythology and the home as a fraught refuge. The narrative pulls from Simpson’s Midwestern upbringing and confronts socialized domestic ideals. Through detailed mark-making, Simpson reveals her ongoing negotiation with beauty standards, materialism, and the allure of ornamentation. The paintings flit between familiarity and fantasy, connecting mundane rituals to a cosmic psychodrama. In these mystical subplots, the artist wrestles with hope and spirituality amidst current power structures.
Skyler received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (2024) and a BFA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (2018). In 2023, Simpson was the recipient of the University of Wisconsin Foundation Graduate Fellowship. During the summer of 2019, she worked as a Painting and Drawing intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Simpson was selected as a finalist for the AXA Art Prize Exhibition at the New York Academy of Art three years in a row, in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Booooooom, and she has exhibited in shows throughout the United States. Skyler is currently based in Chicago, IL.
Image: Skyler Simpson, Behind the Scenes, 2025, Colored pencil and acrylic on panel, 30" x 24"
Herman Aguirre is a Mexican American artist born and raised in Chicago, were he continues to live and work. He received his BFA (2014) and MFA (2017) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a youth instructor in the Continuing Studies Program and as part-time faculty in the Painting and Drawing Department. He was one of eight individuals to be awarded the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship for Performing and Visual Arts (2017). He is represented by Zolla/Lieberman Gallery (CHI) and Portrait Society Gallery (WI). His work has been exhibited in several art fairs, galleries, and institutions within the country and is also part of several museum’s permanent collections throughout the United States.
Aguirre explores subjects that are deep-rooted in the war on drugs and inner-city violence. Through a rigorous process, he tries to capture the visceral, visual, and psychological effects these issues have on his surroundings and its effects in his community. He uses experimental methods and traditional techniques to create labor intensive pieces that bridge the gap between painting and sculpture, incorporating architecture, image, texture, and symbolism as means capture the immediacy of these subjects. Aguirre uses his studio practice as way to combat, honor, protest, and mourn these subjects, allowing him to cope and co-exist with these realities.
Image: Herman Aguirre, ¡Ni uno mas!, 2023, Oil and oil/acrylic skins on panel, 63" x 98" x 4.5"
Diana Noh is a Korean American interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL, working at the intersection of photography, fiber, and installation. Her work centers on the reconstruction of distressed photographs of abandoned spaces and landscapes to explore the trauma of cultural in-betweenness and emotional neglect. Raised between two cultures, Diana’s process of tearing, burning, sewing, and layering photographs mirrors her navigation through internal fracture and personal recovery. Her manipulated imagery often stands in for the body—hidden but present, broken yet restored—offering spaces for reflection, confrontation, and restoration.
She received her M.F.A. in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her B.F.A. in Photography/Motion Picture from Kyungil University in South Korea, with additional training in art therapy. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, IL; Coker University in Hartsville, SC; and Space HNH in Seoul, South Korea. She has shown in group exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA; Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL; Hudson Valley MOCA in Peekskill, NY; and Editart in Geneva, Switzerland, among many others.
Her work is held in the collections of Jennifer and Dan Gilbert, Kyungil University, and numerous private collectors. Recent recognitions include Artist of the Month at Brushwood Center and first place at Verde Variants, Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, IL. Diana has also participated in residencies at the Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, WI, and Talking Dolls in Detroit, MI.
Diana frequently shares her practice through lectures and workshops at institutions including Wayne State University in Detroit, MI; Brushwood Center in Riverwoods, IL; and The Arts Council in Fayetteville, NC.
Image: Diana Noh, After Nine, 2022, Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle canvas, thread, wires, yarn, 89 inch x 121 inch
