member artists founded agitator back in 2016…
Above: Some of the current Agitator members: (L to R)
Jen Lau, Andrea Kaspryk, Gretchen Hasse, Luna Rail, Alonso Galue
Agitator’s Mission Statement:
We show, we provoke, we agitate. We empower artists by building community through the arts.
Our Values and Vision:
Agitator Artist Collective is a Chicago based nonprofit. We make decisions by consensus building and valuing each member’s input equally.
Agitator seeks to promote and engage significant art. We platform underrepresented artists and engage underserved audiences, with a local approach and a global vision.
Members of Agitator are diverse artist-curators with various racial, socioeconomic, gender, and sexual identities.
– Updated April 9, 2023
Who We Are
Agitator Artist Collective is a state and federal nonprofit group of visual artist-curators, each of whom organizes a self-developed exhibit or art event annually, and offers mutual help and support for one another to prepare each show every month. Members also share duties, taking the lead on artistic programming and cultural activities at Agitator, like figure drawing sessions, performance nights and the lecture/discussion series.
We put our mission statement into practice by including in our shows art made by local artists and those conventionally overlooked. We create, sponsor and exhibit work that agitates or campaigns to provoke dialogue and generate diversity, while respecting each artist’s vision and self-definition.
Our Role is as Diverse As Our Community
Although Agitator’s primary focus is curating artwork, we have hosted events for Art of Science, the Agitator Lyceum Series, Feminist Fridays, Chicago Honky Tonk, and more! We look forward to planning more events like these in the future. We also host nonprofit, cultural and social justice groups at our space and sponsor occasional pop up art shows based on social and activist causes.
What was Agitator’s early history?
The Agitator Artist Co-Op was founded around 2016 when a group of artists—both friends and colleagues— joined together for creative support to create a shared gallery space in our (former) location in West Town-Wicker Park at 1112 S Ashland Ave. When the third year of our lease ended, in September 2020 during the growing impact of the COVID pandemic, we no longer had a space. But we organized, searched and re-opened Agitator in 2022 when we moved to Logan Square and into our current storefront gallery at 3851 W Fullerton Ave. We launched our new gallery with a lot of elbow grease and effort, presenting our first group member and guest artist show in the new space on September 17, 2022. Since then we have continued to expand, update and remodel our storefront gallery space while resuming exhibitions, developing new programming, offering Artis-In-Residencies in our onsite studios and presenting new creative workshops like the Comics on the Radio recording session.
Current Members:
ALONSO GALUE
Alonso (Venezuelan, b. 1994, Chicago Based) earned his BFA at the University of Los Andes, is a multidisciplinary artist whose experimental use of traditional painting and sculpture articulates speeches on labor, existential crisis, and totalitarianism. In his Immigrants to go series, for example, he uses clay to portray the faces of food industry workers on floating plates with actual food. As the exhibition progresses, the food rots, creating an uncomfortable situation for the observer who faces the hidden laborers. Pulitzer Prize winning art critic, Jerry Saltz, commented on Instagram that Galue’s work is “a strong voice of the future.”
Alonzo’s work has been exhibited in several museums across Venezuela and artist-run spaces in the US, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Zulia, Museum of Modern Art Merida, Museum of Miniature Merida, Espacio Proyecto Libertad, University of Los Andes, Void Projects, and Agitator Gallery. He was Awarded Valencia’s Painting Prize in 2017 and the Iberoamerican Art Fair Caracas 2020.
ANDREA KASPRYK*
Andrea has a BFA (2013) in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a certification in Painting and Drawing in Continuing Studies from SAIC, studied at The Drawing Workshop, and continues to take art courses at Lillstreet Art Center. Andrea changed career direction from studying literature and language and teaching writing to art.
My primary focus is narrative and symbolic paintings that tell a story. My past interest in writing and literature informs my desire to tell a story through images, which is often my personal story as a transgender person. The figures and scenes in my paintings are usually set in a natural and imagined or mythical world. My work is inspired by twentieth century modernist art movements and styles, such as expressionism, surrealism, and symbolism and Max Beckmann, Giorgio de Chirico, and Edvard Munch. Regularly attending figure painting and figure drawing classes and drop-in sessions with a nude model helps me to imagine the figures that I use in my imaginative paintings and prints.
GRETCHEN HASSE*
Gretchen is a storyteller working in comics, collage, public art, and moving images. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Northern Illinois University, and an MFA in Film, Video and New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited work throughout the city, and her films have screened in Chicago, New York City, Berlin, London, and computer screens everywhere.
Gretchen’s work is primarily about resilience. She is drawn to stories and images that describe perseverance through pain, and knows that a dark sense of humor, a keen eye for social criticism, and the diligence to work for change are essential tools for survival.
george “LArdo” larson
George is a Chicago based visual artist; born in Chicago, and still residing in the Chicagoland area. George was in his teens when he was first called LARDO. Kids had twisted his last name, Larson. He decided that LARD is pig fat, and DO sounds like money. So he combined the pig with the LARDO/dollar sign bling, for his tag.
George paints the pig with the bling, along with other characters of his, on walls and canvas. Life can be hard and a struggle, but the pig is always smiling and surrounded with pretty colors. It’s like laughing to keep from crying. George feels that negativity can be like a sickness and poison your life. He is trying to give people something to smile about.
JEN LAU
Jen is a Chicago-based illustrator and paper artist. She received a BA in Studio Art and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. She joined Agitator Co-operative Gallery in 2019 and currently co-runs the weekly Figure Tuesdays figure drawing meetup.
Her work explores the glorification and exploitation of the human body as well as family histories in relation to the immigrant experience. She is passionate about creating space for Asian American artists while smashing stereotypes. Mediums include drawing and paper-cutting.
Jen founded Duck & Dog, Co. in 2008 as a means of promoting handwritten correspondence through handcrafted stationery. You can purchase these products on Etsy or at these brick & mortar locations. She also works with local women and artist-run business, State of the Art, to bring Chicago artists into Chicago businesses.
LUNA RAIL*
In 1991 I completed my MFA in drawing and painting with a minor in art history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I had previously completed a BA in history and radio/TV communications from what is now Elon University. I would subsequently complete a masters in social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
I came to Chicago in 1991 with a newly minted MFA and a stack of paintings and prints. From that time until the birth of my son in 1997 I made work, made a few connections and showed around Chicago. I showed in the early Around the Coyote Festivals in 1992 through 1996. Galleries I showed with at the time included Happy-Delpeche and No Palace and, until the end of their contemporary gallery, with R.H. Love Galleries. Happy Delpeche and No Palace were my primary spaces. I miss Jim Happy-Delpeche who was a good friend and champion. I also miss my friends from No Palace. Chad Spicer who started No Palace also became a very good friend and supporter of mine.
Showing over the next 20 years while I raised my son and developed a career in social work was sparse. I showed at small galleries that no longer exist. I also spent a weekend with a wall of swastika paintings at a more recent Around the Coyote event after a friend called and cajoled me into joining him for the weekend.
In 2017 I responded to the call for artists who were interested in forming an artist’s cooperative gallery. From this came a small number who formed Agitator Gallery. We’ve been consistently paying the rent and doing shows and events in the same space for two years now. From 2017 on, I’ve shown with Jack Jung Gallery on occasion and done graphic design work for the Chicago Drug User’s Union, Renaissance Social Services, and the Chicago Recovery Alliance. More than anything, I’m proud of my work and the collective work of Agitator Gallery.
Ramin Takloo-Bighash
Ramin (b. 1974, Sarbandar, Iran) is a Chicago-based multi-disciplinary artist. In his work, Ramin explores immigration, war, trauma, isolation, and imprisonment—experiences that are very personal to him. Ramin is an immigrant, and even though he has lived more than half of his life in the US there is a part of him that still feels like a person in exile. A basic question that Ramin grapples with in his practice is: “what happens to language in the face of trauma?” Persian calligraphy, and it’s often wordless incarnations in painting, sculpture, and cartography, forms the core of Ramin’s artistic focus. Other than calligraphy, painting, and sculpture, Ramin’s creative practice also includes writing, music, photography, and film. His most recent film is “Home, Not Home” which he made in collaboration with Catherine Lyu in the spring of 2024.
Alex Wilson
Alex is a Chicago artist, designer and producer. He studied painting and printmaking with a focus on artists books at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His style ranges from abstract to illustrative, working in several different mediums. He is a bookmaker and publisher of his own work and other artists. His work focuses on the metaphysical with a strong use of iconography that invokes the power of language and symbols. He draws on themes of mythology, religion and philosophy, often referencing art from throughout history.
Alex is the Founder and Executive Director of West Town Bikes, a non-profit community bike shop offering youth programs, adult classes and community events since 2004. He’s also a member of Agitator Artists’ Collective since 2022.
“I withdrew from pursuing Art (with a capital A) in the late 1990’s after disillusionment with my experience attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then becoming the care taker for my partner during her cancer treatment for 5 years. After her recovery, I pursued my passion for bicycle activism which led me to starting the non-profit organization, West Town Bikes, in 2004. With the success of West Town Bikes, I’ve recently found the time to reignite my interest in Art.”
“Over the pandemic and since, I’ve engaged in several artistic endeavors including collaborations in audio production, printing and publishing. These collaborations led me to joining Agitator Artists’ Collective where I have curated and produced several exhibitions as well as supporting and showing in several others.”
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FORMER MEMBERS
Danielle Owensby • Emilio Nadales • Frederick Nitsch* • Jeff Horwat • Jennifer Anne Buckley • Josh Mei • Karmen Elaine • Lorenzo Angel Bonilla • Michelle Graves* • Sarah Bell • Spencer Hutchinson*
Names with asterisks (*) represent founding members
