Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Based in Chicago, Brendan’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Committed to creating new spaces and new forms of agency, Brendan’s projects take on hybrid forms: part Ballet, part queer dance party, part protest . . . to foster collaboration and solidarity through actions of generosity and kindness. Brendan is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program and a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship. In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, and is the recipient of a prestigious Canada Council New Chapters grant (2017), the Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019), and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020). Brendan’s projects have shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); Museum of Modern Art (New York); The Getty Museum (Los Angeles); National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) among many others. In his home city of Chicago he has exhibited solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Graham Foundation and DePaul Art Museum. He is Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Art Theory and Practice and represented by Chicago’s Monique Meloche Gallery. Current projects include performances and presentations at the Munch Museum, Oslo; The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; The Pulitzer Foundation, St Louis; The Phillip Johnson Glass House, New Cannan, and a commission by The DR Vocal Ensemble, Copenhagen.

zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal is a Chicago-based visual artist, independent curator, and arts administrator. zakkiyyah has been included in numerous group exhibitions and has had several solo exhibitions at Mana Contemporary, Blanc Gallery, Indiana University, South Bend Museum of Art, Arts and Public Life and Washington University (forthcoming). Her work has been presented in various forms at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, NADA, The Art Institute of Chicago, The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, DePaul University, EXPO Chicago, and Harvard Graduate School of Design to name a few. She has also curated exhibitions at spaces such as Chicago Art Department, Blanc gallery and Washington Park Arts Incubator at the University of Chicago. She was a 2021 Artist in Residence at Arts and Public Life at University of Chicago, a 2021 Artist in Residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, and a 2022 3Arts Gary & Denise Gardner Fund Awardee. She is currently an Albertine Foundation Laureate Awardee (2023-24). Her work is represented in both private and public collections, including the Block Museum at Northwestern University and Eskenazi Museum of Art.

zakkiyyah is also a Co-founder of  CBIM (Concerned Black Image Makers):  a collective of Black artists, thinkers, and curators that prioritize shared experiences and concerns by lens based artists of the Black diaspora.

Photo Credit: Makenzie Creden

Francine Almeda is a Chicago-based, Filipina-American gallerist, exhibition maker, writer, and DJ. She is the Founder and Director of Jude Gallery, an artist-run project and exhibition space based in Pilsen, Chicago, and Tala, a forthcoming independent art space in West Town. Her work as a curator and cultural organizer nurtures new methods for collaboration, and participation, and explores methods of art as a care-taking tool. She is committed to creating events and exhibitions that center on community-driven initiatives. Through these interventions, she aims to create space and networks that uplift QTBIPOC, and other southeast asian artists at all stages of their career.

Ciera Alyse McKissick is an independent writer, curator, cultural producer, and the founder of AMFM, an organization whose mission is to promote emerging artists. She created AMFM, originally a web magazine, as an independent study project in 2009 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she studied Journalism and Mass Communications. Her work since then often involves collaboration through supporting Black and brown artists, local arts organizations, and seeks to stimulate community engagement that’s driven by inclusivity, accessibility, intention, and care. She is also the Public Programs Manager at the Hyde Park Art Center. 

Projects and events have been featured in Artsy, Terremoto MX, Newcity, Sixty Inches From Center, Saatchi Art, ABC 7 Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, WGN, WTTW, Chicago Reader, The Chicago Sun Times, Southside Weekly, Afropunk, and more.

Photo Credit: zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o’neal

Siting Wang is an Assistant Curator at Saatchi Art. She has a BFA with an emphasis in Arts Administration from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises from Northwestern University. Siting had extensive curatorial experiences in galleries and art museums in Chicago and Beijing prior to joining Saatchi Art. She is committed to connecting the public with artists from diverse backgrounds.