Alan Labb

Alan Labb is a lens-based visual artist currently working in Chicago, IL. While earlier work focused on the dynamics between autobiography, body image, and gender, his recent work focuses on environmental justice and explores historical contextualization through site-specific projects and installations. Labb was the chair of the Photography Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2018-2024. From 2017-2021, he served as a Distinguished Visiting  Professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Labb’s work has been exhibited at the Setouchi Triennale (Kagawa, Japan), SF Camerawork (San Francisco, CA), Schneider Gallery (Chicago, IL), Contemporary Art Gallery (Storrs, CT), Avu Academy of Fine Arts (Prague), Temple Art Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), and Bridge Center of Contemporary Art (El Paso, TX). His work has been featured in numerous publications, including SF Camerawork Quarterly, Luna Cornea Quarterly, AfterImage, and Hyphen Magazine. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum.

Lisa Wainwright

Lisa Wainwright is a professor in SAIC’s Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism. She previously served as the Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For the past 15 years, Lisa has held major leadership roles for the institution including Dean of the renowned Graduate Program.

Wainwright has authored numerous articles in books and international professional journals, as well as developed an extensive list of exhibition catalogues. She has lectured on topics from Rauschenberg and the history of the found object in art, to Contemporary Art and the rise of a neo-decadent movement at the turn of the 20th century, and has curated multiple exhibitions.

Lisa Wainwright received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Vanderbilt University and earned both a Masters and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.