Oct 10, 2025
8 hour video from a performance in the
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America
Washington DC
2021
‘Art & Spirituality’ at Julio Fine Arts Gallery
Jul 10, 2025
Heartbreaker
Teri Carson, 2025, installation: natural and synthetic fibers, paint, 13 x 11 x 8 feet
An exhibition in the Art on Sedgwick Gallery featuring Teri Carson, Hannah Dykstra and Consuela Johnson
curated by Kiki McGrath
Bound Together presents the work of three local artists—Teri Carson, Hannah Dykstra, and Consuela Johnson—who have lived, worked, and practiced their craft on Chicago's Near North Side. Their installations and paintings demonstrate how contemporary art can serve as both mirror and catalyst for community building.
Teri Carson's installation, Heartbreaker, is made from natural and synthetic fibers and paint. Ranging in color from pale pink to blood red, the cascades of looped yarn form a dense structure of overlapping forms referencing woven nets, vessels, or internal viscera. This site-responsive work utilizes crocheting to invoke gendered grief in secret domestic spaces, where the private realm of mourning finds public expression through material investigation and performative making. A contemplative examination of loss, resilience, and the radical potential of traditional craft, Carson’s work suggests that through the slow and meditative practice of making we construct not only objects but communities of care and solidarity.
Hannah Dykstra's initial encounter with Edgar Miller's handmade homes crystallized her understanding of what it means to "live in a work of art." Her in-progress graphic novel, A Total Work of Art, translates Chicago's urban history and her revelatory experiences into digital imagery. Miller's commitment to creating functional and aesthetic public spaces and private homes speaks directly to Dykstra's own approach as a comic book artist working within the democratic medium of graphic narrative. For this show, she collaborated with woodworker Mark Groenewold to create an illuminated screen with carved wooden animal figures directly inspired by Miller’s work and her residency at the Edgar Miller Legacy.
Constance Johnson's artistic vocabulary draws from what she terms "Earthy presence"—the shrines, goddesses, and relationships that have shaped her artistic journey. Working primarily in mixed media, she constructs layered compositions with oil and acrylic paint, yarn, charcoal, and other materials so viewers can both "see and feel the work." This tactile approach transforms her canvases into touchable surfaces that carry carrying emotional weight and personal meaning. Living in the Marshall Field Garden Apartments and participating in community center programs shaped her intuitive relationship with materials, while her multidisciplinary background—encompassing poetry, music production, and beauty arts—informs her approach to painting as part of a holistic creative practice.
Bound Together exhibition at Art on Sedgwick
Apr 15, 2025
Equal(ly) Rites: Performance Art and Contemplative Ritual as Theological Processes
A collaborative paper by Nathan Tucker and Kiki McGrath
Jan 24, 2025
$acred Motherhood exhibition at Women Made Gallery
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, January 18, 2025, 4–7 PM CST
CLOSING RECEPTION & WALKTHROUGH: Saturday, February 15, 2–4 PM CST
CHICAGO—Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is proud to present $acred Motherhood. Throughout history, artistic representations of motherhood have mirrored society’s perceptions of maternal roles. From serene Renaissance paintings of the Virgin Mary to stark modern photographs of working-class mothers, visual images chronicle our shifting cultural narratives and societal expectations. The maternal figure is continually redrawn to reflect the religious, political, and economic ideals of each era. In the 21st century, as our understanding of gender and family structure continues to evolve, so too must our artistic explorations of motherhood and caregiving. This Open Call invites diverse perspectives on contemporary maternity. Submissions of art in any medium may include work that reflects on lived experience, challenges or redefines traditional concepts, examines economic and emotional labors of caregiving, or portrays diverse family structures. This exhibition is open to ALL artists, and we particularly welcome entries from women and non-binary artists, including transgender women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists.
Exhibition Events
The exhibition opens with a reception at Woman Made Gallery, located at 1332 S. Halsted St. in Chicago, on Saturday, January 18, from 4 to 7 PM. Regular gallery hours are Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 PM.
Additional events include a Virtual Artist Panel Discussion event on Monday, February 10 from 6-7 on Zoom with the juror, Kiki McGrath, and with several exhibiting artists. The exhibition concludes with a Closing Reception on Saturday, February 15, from 2 to 4 PM, offering a final opportunity to meet the participating artists in person.
Exhibiting Artists: Claire Bartleman, Andy Bellomo, Nicole Buckingham Kern, Ingrid Butterer, Maddie Casagranda, Rachel Garber Cole, Chris Cowan, DanaidX Collaboration, Yutian Deng, Kristen van Diggelen Sloan, Katherine Diuguid, Leni Dothan, Amanda Dragovic, Claire Drummond, Liz Barick Fall, Michelle Hartney, Ashley January, Jothi, Mary King, Oksana Kryzhanivska, Luiza Kurzyna, Zhi fang Li, Elizabeth Mihaltse Lindy, Laura Litten, Nesha Logan, Linda Marcus, Emily Mayo, Catherine Mellinger, Mildred Annani Mercado, Genesis Moreno, Amuri Morris, Mackenna Morse, Carol Myers, Kim Potowski, Schetauna Powell, Khytul Abyad Qazi, Gigi Salij, Marky Salvati, Alexandra Samios, Erin K. Schmidt, Rebecca C. Steiner, Ginny Sykes, Aurora Tabar, Christine Shallenberg, Rhonda Urdang
Nov 23, 2024
InStudio Image Journal interview
A conversation with Kiki McGrath, interdiciplinary artist
Nov 23, 2024
AiOP 2024 CARE
October 18 - 20, 2024
Art in Odd Places 2024 CARE is a festival along 14th Street from Avenue A to the Hudson River. 75+ artists’ projects will enact and offer notions and stations of care through installations and performances from October 18-20. Curated by Patricia Miranda and Christopher Kaczmarek.
Art in Odd Places festival, NYC
Nov 20, 2024
BENEATH THE SURFACE: Spirituality in Art
ARC Gallery, Chicago IL
Opening Reception, Friday, Oct 4, 5:00-8:00pm
Exhibition dates: October 3 - 25, 2024
Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm
Beneath the Surface exhibition at ARC
Sept 18, 2024
Sacred Art Fellowship Exhibition
Experience the work of 10 nationwide artists engaging in the question “What is Sacred"?”
Oct 21, 2023
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, c. 1373,
Ed. Grace Warrack. Meuthen & Co. Ltd., thirteenth edition 1949
Lily, Kiki McGrath, charcoal, graphite, oil pastel, 5 x 7.5” 2023
November 1 - 30, 2023
Informed by ancient and contemporary spirituality, creative ritual and domestic labor, Anchorhold is a reimagined medieval chamber in the Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. Visitors are invited to enter the solitary enclosure and explore contemplative practices in the cathedral crypt and library.
The installation is inspired by 14th century anchoress Julian of Norwich. She lived in a room attached to a church for twenty years and wrote Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving English text by a woman. The project includes durational performances, a communal audio recording of Julian’s works, and responses to her mystical visions in an altered artist book.
In early November the artist will be a continuous presence in the installation, Performing Alice for seven days. Like a servant to an anchoress, she will attend to visitors, engage in domestic labors, and protect the solitude of individuals inside the Anchorhold during Center opening hours: November 1-3, 6-7, 9-10 from 12 – 5 pm.
The Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage will offer self-directed contemplative and creative practices and ticketed events to celebrate the 650th anniversary of Julian’s mystical revelations. There is no Cathedral entry fee for worship and private prayer, including visitors to the Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. Confirm weekly opening times on their Facebook page.
Anchorhold: installation in the crypt, Washington DC
Jul 26, 2023
18-minute solos and trio performances by Rob Croll, Miles Erickson, Mike Casey Landini, Claire Lobenfeld, Kiki McGrath and Che Pai. Streamed on Lumpen TV from the Performance Room of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
VODER: Abandoned Practices Institute
Jun 12, 2023
Genesis: an exhibition hosted by the Jewish Art Salon and Caravan
The Beginning of Creativity, an Interfaith and Intercultural Art Exhibition
Mar 21, 2023
Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel. Elevate provides hotel guests and visitors with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space.
Elevate at 21c, Chicago IL
Nov 7, 2022
Woman Made Gallery Feminist Biennial 2022 Awards
Congratulations to the Feminist Biennial 2022 Award Recipients
Sept 14, 2022
Woman Made Gallery, Chicago IL
CHICAGO ––Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is proud to present the The Feminist Biennial, juried by Ashley Wynn. It is a group exhibition featuring the artwork of 34 women and non-binary artists exploring the new age of feminism. As legendary historical moments, the first three waves of feminism are well theorized and widely known. The first emerged with women’s suffrage; the second propelled forward by the civil rights act and women’s sexual and financial freedom; and the third further defined by the rise of queer theory, racial justice and intersectionality within the feminist moment. Now speculating the fourth wave, which has yet to be theorized and is less understood, WMG asks what does it mean to be a feminist today?
At its core, feminism has been and continues to be a personal and collective reclamation of power in a patriarchal world that undervalues and devalues feminine-presenting expressions of self. It is a lived experience, a daily act, and held in community to make sense of the world through a feminist lens. WMG’s first Feminist Biennial, as an exhibition, seeks to provide a platform for marginalized voices to put forth artwork that explores feminist thought, action, art practices and lived experience in 2022.
In her juror’s statement, Ashley Wynn writes: “’Each work presents both a timeless and timely expression of the pluralism of feminism, a provocative amalgamation of intersectional pursuits of equality, liberation, and autonomy, upending preconceived ideologies of what it means to be a woman. The resultant conversation invites an active exploration into a broader spectrum of experiences and perspectives, dynamically opposing binary boundaries imposed upon genders and identification.”
Mar 19, 2022
Intimacies
Celebrating the intimate - small of stature, big of heart
curated by Gaby Collins-Fernandez and Patricia Miranda
Jun 1, 2021
Women’s Work
Women's Work
Indianapolis Art Center
June 18, 2021–August 10, 2021
Women’s Work is a juried exhibition centered on gender and feminist politics. Historically, women have been excluded from the art world, from being kept out of academies and apprenticeships to being woefully underrepresented in galleries and museums today. Along with this, the art skills that were deemed feminine or appropriate for women, such as sewing, embroidery, or weaving, are dismissed as “just” crafts and hobbies. Highlighting female artists and intersectionality in femininity.
May 17, 2021
Free Punch and Pie
AU Studio Art MFA Thesis Exhibition
Just as we settle into the challenging intimacies and critical demands of graduate school, we find ourselves leaving this cocooned community and entering a world forever changed by 2020.The global pandemonium profoundly altered our lives and transformed our studio practices.The world needs time to change and reveal itself. Let’s relish the idea that art does not stop,celebrate our work, and share some Free Punch & Pie.
Emerging from a forever-altered landscape in 2021, the graduating MFA students at American University are proud to present Free Punch & Pie. This exhibition showcases artworks that investigate the artists’ intimate experiences with their personal biographies combined with more open understandings about the intersection of history, memory, place, power, and identity. Working within a range of media practices including mixed media, drawing, painting, photography, and performance, this group of artists reframes what it means to produce contemporary art in a world that has been faced with devastating loss, uncertainty, grief, and rebuilding on numerous levels. Together, they work to show that art does move forward and allows space for finding solace, hope, transformation, and inspiration from the knowns and unknowns of what life brings to us all.
Throughout this exhibition, each artist takes a unique approach to express their enthusiasm with processes of artmaking and create works that engage with positive reflection and care. There are several themes and issues that arise in their art such as the exploration of memories, emotions, and personal relationships through depicted objects and experiences, tracing patterns of domestic and spiritual labor, depicting the beauty contained within unspoken acts, and the creation of extraordinary moments from ordinary objects and environments. Others include combining the fantastical and realism to explore lived experiences and politics of white womanhood, humanity, and impulse, examining vulnerability in landscapes and bodies faced by trauma and commercial development, and engaging with humor through historical portraiture to call attention to present and past issues of masculinity, power, ego, and whiteness. Within all of these explorations, the artists reconfigure and confront what they experience, see, and feel that results in something new, imaginative, and beautiful.
By Jessica Tackes
Oct 8, 2018
Focusing on themes of art and theology, VTS welcomes Brian Clarke the stained glass artist who designed the new windows in Immanuel Chapel, and artist Kiki McGrath curator of the Dadian Gallery at nearby Wesley Seminary.
Virginia Theological Seminary Convocation
Sept 6, 2018
Prayer and Devotion: Franciscan Art, Franciscan Artists
Jan 21, 2018
Helicon
Kiki McGrath: Helicon and Jean Jinho Kim: The Space In-between
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, February 9, 2018
In the abstract paintings of “Helicon,” also at Studio, D.C. artist Kiki McGrath contrasts forms that are hard-edged and geometric with ones that are soft and loose. The works on canvas are colorful, yet less striking than the large wall drawing that offers a similar juxtaposition in black and white. The black square at the piece’s center is flanked by freer gestures on both sides, and the spirals on the left diminish into lines that emulate the shape of a 3-D element: a set of hanging branches. Painted black, the wood resembles a brushstroke in midair, hinting that even the simplest jotting owes its essence to nature.
Nov 14, 2017
One House
The One House Project
The overriding principle of ArtWatch and The One House Project is a vision for a country where we are united as one people rather than divided against each other by race, gender, class, religion, or any other artificial means of defining “us” against “them.” It was first shown with 220 artists at the Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC in November, 2017. At BlackRock Center for the Arts in November 2019, participation expanded to over 300 artists.
The One House Project at BlackRock presents a heterogeneous collection of art from descendants of Native Americans, African slaves, Mayflower Pilgrims, Jewish Holocaust survivors, European indentured servants and every successive wave of immigration.
With over 50 countries of origin represented, a common shared narrative is the flight from persecution or extreme poverty, and the hope for a new chance in America. Quests for the American Dream that began over 400 years ago with the very first arrivals continue to this day. The house, covered by panels, makes a powerful visual statement of the strength of diversity and the common elements of our shared humanity.
Mar 17, 2017
Artour-0 il MUST
Feb 3, 2017
Arial Roots
Kiki McGrath: Aerial Roots and Jean Jinho Kim: No Boundaries
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, February 17, 2017
Swirls of green suggest the botanical origins of Kiki McGrath’s expressionist abstractions, but the local artist also has drawn on another source, examples of which are part of this Studio Gallery show. Alongside the paintings, “Aerial Roots” displays three sculptures inspired by ikebana — Japanese flower-arranging — and made by local devotees of the art form. These are large, burly and far from traditional. Rather than dainty flowers and grasses, the assemblages feature log-size branches and unnatural accents; one incorporates chunks of vine painted orange. With them, McGrath has installed a black rubber hose, coiled and hanging in midair. The shape of this gardening accessory echoes the spirals in the paintings and pays an amusing tribute to ikebana. The found-object sculpture is not flower-arranging, but it is an act of transformation, and that’s an fundamental theme of Japanese art.
Dec 1, 2016
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
Mar 4, 2015
Transformations
Kiki McGrath is an artist who works with loosely representational imagery and disjointed forms to explore complex ideas relating to history, religious practices and literature. Kiki’s works tend toward earthy, neutral colours and the use of traditional media such as acrylic, collage and graphite drawing. The artist’s recent series Transformations takes stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses as inspiration for its imagery. The series is primarily composed of wall-based works on paper that combine drawing and collage techniques. Through the presentation of fragmented bodies, images of mythical creatures and interesting, almost geometric line interventions, Kiki visually represents the bizarre and disorienting nature of the mythology.
By Dallas Jeffs
