Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (pink and yellow)

2025

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (pink)

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (brown)

2025

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (black)

2025

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (yellow)

2025

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Aaron Becker

Dystopian day dreams (orange)

2025

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Dystopian day dreams (green)

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Dystopian day dreams (pink)

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Slave to what

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

What is wisdom

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Eye 2 eye

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Big Buddy Sculpture

Year

2025

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay, underglaze, glaze

Title

Hope Stone

Year

2023

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Ceramic

Title

Domestic Daydream (Acid Rain Matisse Mansion)

Year

2024

Classification

Unique

Medium Type

Sculpture

Medium/Materials

Low fire clay with low fire glaze and underglaze

Black and white figural sculpture by Chicago artist, Nancy Pirri, entitled Grace.

Nancy Pirri

Balance and Insight, 2023

Ceramic; stain; slips

Nancy Pirri was born in Brooklyn, New York and currently lives in Chicago, IL. She has dabbled in every art form since childhood, discovering clay to be her true passion in 1996. She has won awards from the Beverly Arts Center and the Rockford Art Museum, including work published in ‘500 Figures in Clay’ V2. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Sofa Expo in Chicago representing women's right's anniversaries, acquiring collectors from all over the world. She’s been with numerous galleries in the Midwest including Oliva Gallery and Inner Haven Gallery.

Black and white sculptural figure by Nancy Pirri entitled Delila

Nancy Pirri

Charlotte, 2024

Ceramic, ceramic slip

Nancy Pirri

Metropolis, 2023

Ceramic; slips; Soda Fired

Nancy Pirri was born in Brooklyn, New York and currently lives in Chicago, IL. She has dabbled in every art form since childhood, discovering clay to be her true passion in 1996. She has won awards from the Beverly Arts Center and the Rockford Art Museum, including work published in ‘500 Figures in Clay’ V2. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Sofa Expo in Chicago representing women's right's anniversaries, acquiring collectors from all over the world. She’s been with numerous galleries in the Midwest including Oliva Gallery and Inner Haven Gallery.

Stanley Dean Edwards

Untitled, 2021

Acrylic on canvas

30 × 30 × 2 in | 76.2 × 76.2 × 5.1 cm

Materials

Acrylic on canvas

Size

30 × 30 × 2 in | 76.2 × 76.2 × 5.1 cm

Rarity

Unique

Medium

Painting

Signature

Hand-signed by artist, On back

Certificate of authenticity

Included (issued by gallery)

Frame

Not included

Series

Abstract Universe Series

Early series of the artist. Similar stylistically to the piece acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Ashville Art Museum

Stanley Dean Edwards is an American artist known for his abstract paintings. He earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1967. His paintings are in the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago and in many private collections. In this body of work Edwards paints in the geometric abstraction style. Geometric shapes arranged in bonding streamlined geometry, hard- edged, linear forms with the celebration color.

Stanley Dean Edwards is an American artist known for his abstract paintings. He earned his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1967. His paintings are in the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago and in many private collections. In this body of work Edwards paints in the geometric abstraction style. Geometric shapes arranged in bonding streamlined geometry, hard- edged, linear forms with the celebration color.

Materials

Acrylic on canvas

Size

48 × 36 × 1 1/2 in | 121.9 × 91.4 × 3.8 cm

Rarity

Unique

Medium

Painting

Condition

Excellent

Signature

Hand-signed by artist, Backside of canvas

Frame

Not included

Series

Implied Motion Series

CV

Born in St. Louis, MO, 1982. Currently resides in Chicago, IL, USA

2008 MFA, Art Theory & Practice, Northwestern University
2006 BFA, Painting and Art History, Kansas City Art Institute
Solo Exhibitions

2026
Day’s End, Guenzel Gallery, Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI (forthcoming)

2024
Shore, Real Tinsel, Milwaukee, WI

2023
In the Mist of a Great Fall, Oliva Gallery, Chicago, IL

2019
Great Lakes, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL

2018
Accumulations, Gallery ADMIN, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO
Two- and Three-Person Exhibitions

2025
The Vapours so Whiten and Thicken the Air, with Shona Macdonald, Studio Break Gallery, West Chicago, IL (forthcoming)

2020
Objects & Environs, with Louise Pappageorge, Oliva Gallery, Chicago, IL

2006
(Un)redeemable Moments, with Bobby Belote and Brian Zimmerman, The BANK, part of the Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project, Kansas City, MO
Selected Group Exhibitions

2024
The Art of Water VII, James May Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2022
Earth Abundance, Oliva Gallery, Chicago, IL
Threaded Together, Alma, Art & Interiors, Chicago, IL
Like a Weed, Xiao Space, curated by Nicholas Hayes and Robin Carlson, Evanston, IL

2021
Alma, Art & Interiors, Chicago, IL

2020
Art From the Heartland, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, IN
Sleeping Bear Dunes Artist-in-Residency 2020 Applicants (on-line exhibition), Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Empire, MI
Consciousness of Abstraction: Beyond Literal Appearance, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
8th Annual Bridgeport Art Center Art Competition Exhibition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL

2019
The Plant Show, Ground Level Platform, Chicago, IL
enLIGHTen, Highland Park Art Center, Highland Park, IL
7th Annual Bridgeport Art Center Art Competition Exhibition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL
Vernal Equinox: Spring Awakens, Plum Creek Nature Center, Forest Preserve District of Will County in partnership with the Nature Foundation of Will County, Beecher, IL

2018
Overlap, The Saw Room, at The Alley Gallery, Evanston, IL
GALEX 52, Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL

2014
Surrealism and War, curated by Aaron Hughes, National Veterans Art Museum, Chicago, IL

2010
Danny Think Tank, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival. Curated by the Danny Think Tank, Chicago, IL

2009
Cambofest: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia, Kampot, Cambodia
Group Show For Daniel Pink, curated by Lane Relyea. Vega Estates, Chicago, IL
Empathy is a Tool for Making the Cruelty More Precise, film and video program curated by Abina Mining and Steve Reinke. Block Cinema, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL
How to Die Like an Animal, film and video program curated by Steve Reinke. Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, Germany

2008
Streaming Festival: International Festival for Audio/Video Art, 3rd Edition, curated by the ISFTH Foundation. The Hague, The Netherlands
Northwestern University Student Film Festival, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL
The Vega Caucus, curated by Roxanne Hopper and Julie Rudder. Vega Estates, Chicago, IL
MFA Thesis Exhibition, the Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL

2007
Around The Coyote: Video Art and New Media Lounge, curated by LiveBox. Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival. Chicago, IL

2006
An Uncomprised Life: A Tribute to the Work and Legacy of John Ortbals, curated by Janice Nesser-Chu, Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO
Work In Progress, curated by Janice Nesser-Chu, Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO
Senior Thesis Exhibition, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
BFA Exhibition. H & R Block Art Space, Kansas City, MO
Secrets: Miniature Show, curated by Jessie Fisher. KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Labor Intensive, curated by Julie Farstad. KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

2005
Senior Show: Revolving Door, KCAI Crossroads Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Intelligent Design, curated by David Harrison, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Out of Place/Outer Space, curated by Julie Farstad, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Drawing Show, curated Warren Rosser, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Erotica, curated by Judith Sanazaro, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

2004
Work In Progress, curated by Janise Nesser-Chu, Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, St. Louis, MO
Silhouette is Narrative, curated by Lester Goldman, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Drawing Show, curated by Leeah Joo and Ronald Slowinski, KCAI Painting Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Curatorial

2024
Doomscapes and the Digital Beyond, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
Reviews

2024
Our Posthuman Future: A Review of “Doomscapes and the Digital Beyond” at ARC Gallery by K.A. Letts, Newcity (April 15th, 2024) PDF

2023
Careful Iridescence: A Review of “In the Mist of a Great Fall” by Curtis Anthony Bozif at Oliva Gallery by Frank Geiser, Newcity (September 18, 2023) PDF

2006
(Un)Redeemable Moments: Bobby Belote, Curt Bozif and Brian Zimmerman by Ray T. Barker, The Pitch, (April 13, 2006) PDF
Artist Talks, Interviews, and Publications

2023
Dovetail Magazine (article) by Kate Mothes (November 2nd)
Studio Break Podcast with David Linneweh (September 28th)
Artist Talk, in conversation with Cole Pierce, Oliva Gallery, Chicago IL (September, 16)

2022
Voyage Michigan Magazine (interview)
Artist Talk, Oliva Gallery, Chicago IL (May, 7th)

2020
Artist Talk, Oliva Gallery, Chicago IL (December, 12th)

2019
Great Lakes (catalog), text by Jerry Dennis and Judy Ledgerwood (interview)
Artist Talk, Evanston Art Center (August 25th)
Create Magazine (interview)

2018
Artist Talk, Gallery ADMIN, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley (October 18th)
1340ART Magazine, Q3 (article)
William & Mary Review, Volume 56

2017
Create Magazine, Issue VII (interview)

2011
Artist Talk, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley (April 4th)

2008
MFA Thesis Catalog, Northwestern University

2006
(Un)redeemable Moments (catalog), text by Maria Elena Buszek
“Faith in the Bricoleur” KCAI Compendium 2006: The Icebox Issue
Honors and Memberships

2020
Member of Ecoartspace
Honorable Mention, Consciousness of Abstraction: Beyond Literal Appearance, juried by David Reif, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
3rd Place, 8th Annual Bridgeport Art Center Art Competition Exhibition, jurors: Ilze Arajs and Alan Leder, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL

2007
Northwestern University Graduate Fellowship

2006
Northwestern University Graduate Fellowship
Honorable Mention, BFA Exhibition, H & R Block Art Space, Kansas City, MO

2003
Charles Gallagher Grant
Kansas City Art Institute Merit Award

William Conger

William Conger (born 1937) is a Chicago-based, American painter and educator, known for a dynamic, subjective style of abstraction descended from Kandinsky, which consciously employs illogical, illusionistic space and light and ambiguous forms that evoke metaphorical associations. He is a member of the “Allusive Abstractionists,” an informal group of Chicago painters self-named in 1981, whose paradoxical styles countered the reductive minimalism that dominated post-1960s art. In 1982, critic Mary Mathews Gedo hailed them as “prescient prophets of the new style of abstraction” that flowered in the 1980s. In his essay for Conger’s fifty-year career retrospective, Donald Kuspit called Conger art-historically daring for forging a path of subjective abstraction after minimalism had allegedly purged painting of an inner life. Despite being abstract, his work has a strong connection to Chicago’s urban, lakeside geography and displays idiosyncratic variations of tendencies identified with Chicago Imagist art. A hallmark of Conger’s career has been his enduring capacity for improvisation and discovery within self-prescribed stylistic limits.

Conger has shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), the Krannert Art Museum, and Jonson Museum, and in numerous solo exhibitions in Chicago and beyond. His work has been discussed widely in national publications such as Artforum, Art in America, Arts Magazine, and ARTnews, and major dailies including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. He has been recognized by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, City of Chicago Public Commissions, inclusion in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and purchases by public and private collections. In addition to his art career, Conger has taught and chaired art departments at DePaul University and Northwestern University, and written about art.

Life and Career
William Conger was born in Dixon, Illinois and raised in Evanston and Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. He was exposed to art early in life, including trips with his mother, an amateur painter, to the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and studies at its junior school. After an erratic high school career, he enrolled there in 1954, but transferred to the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1957, to set out on his own.

At UNM, Conger studied under Raymond Jonson—founder of the Transcendental Painting Group—Elaine de Kooning, and sculptor Robert Mallary. Jonson and de Kooning were key influences, as were the romantic southwestern landscape and imagery, including Native American pottery. After earning a BFA in 1960, Conger returned to Chicago, painted in a shared studio with artist Robert Lewis, and found advertising work with Montgomery Ward and Skil Power Tools. He soon met his future wife, Kathleen—they married in 1964—and returned to school to pursue art full time, choosing the University of Chicago. He studied with professor Seymour Rosofsky, returned to figurative work for a time, and earned an MFA in 1966.

After graduating, Conger began a distinguished education career, initially at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois, and later as professor and chair of art departments at DePaul University and Northwestern University. He exhibited steadily in the Midwest and in solo shows at the Douglas Kenyon (1974–6), Zaks (1978–1983), and Roy Boyd (1985–2012) galleries in Chicago. He has since been represented by Zolla/Lieberman (Chicago) and Bruno David (St. Louis). Key shows he was in include: AIC’s “Chicago and Vicinity” surveys (several, 1963–1985), the MCA’s “Abstract Art in Chicago” (1976) and “Art in Chicago 1945-95” (1996–7), “Chicago, Some Other Traditions” (traveling, 1983–6), and “The Chicago Connection” (traveling, 1976–7). Conger continues to work and live in Chicago, with his wife Kathleen. They have two daughters, Sarah and Clarisa, and five grandchildren.

“Allusive Abstraction”
Conger’s work is rooted in the figural abstraction of artists like Kandinsky, Klee, Miró, and pre-war Americans Jonson and Arthur Dove. Features that unite him to this more solitary, symbolic tradition are his illusionistic space, mix of organic and geometric forms, and openness to reference beyond the canvas. John Brunetti wrote that Conger’s fluid, “muscular language” refined the formal grammars of Cubism and Surrealism to incorporate intuitive expression of feelings, memories and engagement, often informed by his native Chicago. As early as 1976, Conger labeled his paintings “metaphors of experience and feeling… the mind as nature.”

Critic Saul Ostrow described Conger’s method as “fluctuating between the rational, the associative, and the subjective.” Although non-representational, his work connects to the everyday world through signifiers and titles he lets emerge during the painting process, which evoke what he calls “‘as if’ places and stories” without depicting any specific one. He does so based on his contention that abstract work can never be completely non-referential—that intentionally or not, all art generates meaning beyond itself. For Donald Kuspit, the process yields an aesthetically resonant, “spontaneous means of introspection, even self-analysis” that invites psychological unpacking.

In Chicago, however, all of this placed Conger on the “wrong” side of two largely critic-fueled battles. First, local identification with the increasingly famous, representational Chicago Imagists often relegated abstract work to comparative obscurity. Secondly, minimalism—represented by the ideas of Clement Greenberg and work of Frank Stella—dominated post-1960s abstraction. Characterized by formal regularity, geometricity, flat space and non-referentiality, minimalism had, in Kuspit’s words, purged the subjective roots of abstraction and reduced it “to an emotional vacuum uninhabited by any self.”

Conger resisted. Although an abstractionist, he felt a personal kinship with the Imagists, and little affinity for the limiting strictures of Greenbergian minimalism. His blend of ambiguous forms and atmosphere, oblique referentiality, and metaphorical allusions to art, history and geography occupied a unique place where abstraction and representation coalesced, bridging the groups. With like-minded, but visually diverse Chicago painters Miyoko Ito, Richard Loving and Frank Piatek, Conger formed the informal “Allusive Abstractionists” in 1981, to spark dialogue and make space for a wider conception of abstraction. Critics have identified elements in their art—idiosyncratic “languages,” graduated light, organic forms, contradictory space and meticulously crafted surfaces—relating them to the Imagists, formally, if not in tone.

Work
In his early career, Conger painted in a style reminiscent of Hans Hoffmann that, by 1970, gave way to work featuring hard-edged, modulated shapes set in complex juxtapositions against light grounds. According to Mary Mathews Gedo, with Flossy’s Night (1972), Conger’s mature style began to emerge with more organic ribbon-like forms in luminous jewel tones edged in light and set against a deep red-black ground. Also fully developed were his immaculate, beautifully glazed surfaces and his “metaphysical,” neon-like illumination which, lacking a visible source or cast shadows, created a surreal quality. Critics like Artforum’s C. L. Morrison soon noted Conger’s growing assurance with color and composition, and an architectural turn employing frame-like apertures to contain his fractured, lively forms in a state of stained-glass-window equilibrium.

Conger’s work of the 1980s more overtly referenced the natural and urban worlds. Passages of brushwork and modeling suggested lake, sky, and horizons behind quasi-floral forms that clashed and overlapped in illusionistic space. He explained, “My aim was to suggest a furious condition of nature, something swift, terrifying, and yet beautiful.” In works like the large-scale Broadway—referring not to Manhattan, but to the bustling Chicago thoroughfare Conger grew up near—or South Beach (both 1985), he evoked, in his words, “Chicago’s jazzy materialism, sensuality, and tension.” In the 1990s, Conger pushed naturalistic and geometric elements—like modeled asteroid-like shapes or inexplicable rectangles, circles and orbs—further to create otherworldly, sometimes metallic-colored landscapes glimpsed in fragments between shapes.

With his “Circus” (1997–8), “Childhood” (2000), and “Iron Heart City” (2002) series came a new dynamism, a formal playfulness, and a lighter mood. He captured the vitality, visual clutter and shifting emotional flux of spectacle, schoolyard and early city in exuberantly colored paintings like City on the Make (2001) or Trolley (2007), whose puzzle-like compositions of geometric and sinuous shapes, are enlivened and held together by bold, undulating lines. Critics, and Conger, likened these works to a circus act, juggling unresolved tensions between flat and illusory space, compositional thrust and counter-thrust, and off-key color relationships that ARTnews said came together with an “uncanny sense of balance.”

Intermittently, throughout his career, Conger has made and exhibited small paper and wood collages and gouache paintings. In 2010, he began showing very small gouache paintings—looser, immediate works that feature vital, cross-hatched strokes and serve as a form of experimentation. These works, and later paintings like Say When (2017), display a shift toward slightly shallower space and more geometric forms.

Chicago/Art/Write
In 1986, Conger, Frank Piatek and Richard Loving started the publication Chicago/Art/Write, which featured themselves and other artists, such as Vera Klement and Roger Brown, discussing their work. The journal, which ran until 1989, was written and produced by artists as an effort to counterbalance what they saw as an overly academicized view of art criticism in Chicago’s mainstream arts institutions and media. It fostered direct, unapologetic exchanges, influenced subsequent generations of artists, and led to a shift toward Chicago-centered artist-run publications, including Proximity.

Conger’s writing includes numerous essays for exhibition catalogues and periodicals. He contributed extensively to Chicago/Art/Write, Arts Magazine, Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, C Magazine, Art Criticism and more. He wrote regularly for Artforum in the 1980s, focusing on exhibitions of Chicago artists, including a groundbreaking piece on the Art Institute’s survey of “Chicago Painting” in 1982. As an art critic, he advocated for both the city’s historical and avant-garde traditions.

Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, March-May 2022. Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, January-February 2020. Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, June-July 2017. Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, May-June 2017. Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, July-August 2017. Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, February 2016. Studio Vendome Gallery, New York, NY, September-October 2014. Tarble Museum, Eastern Illinois University, Gouches, Charleston, IL, September 2014. Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, Gouache Paintings/Drawings on Paper, October – November 2013. Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, New Paintings, January-February 2013. Career Overview, Cedarhurst Museum, Mt. Vernon, IL, August – October 2012. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, Paintings, February 2012. MetCap Bank, Paintings, Chicago, IL, 2010. Roy Boyd Gallery, New Gouache Paintings, Chicago, IL, 2010. Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2010. Happy, Los Angeles, CA. “Criss-Cross” Gouache Paintings, 2010. Retrospective of Paintings, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 2009. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2009. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007. Tree Studios (Metropolitan Investments), Chicago, IL, May 2006. Tadu Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, 2005. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001. Walters Art Gallery, Tulsa, OK, 2000. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1999. Jonson Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, August-October 1998. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, 1998. University Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1997. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1997. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1994. Tarble Art Museum, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, 1993. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1992. Janus Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 1992. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1990. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1987. Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1985. Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1983. Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1980. Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1978. Krannert Center for The Performing Arts, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 1976. Douglas Kenyon Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1976. Douglas Kenyon Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1974. Burpee Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 1971. Alverno College, Milwaukee, WI, 1968. George Williams College, Chicago, IL, 1965.

Selected Group Exhibitions

“Private Eye: The Imagist Impulse in Chicago Art,” Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, IN, Summer-Fall 2021 (catalog). “Bilingual,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, Summer, 2021. “Considering the Circle, Bridgeport Art Center,” Chicago, IL, November 2018 (catalog). “Gouache Paintings,” Hofheimer Gallery, Chicago, IL, November 2018. “Salute,” Hofheimer Gallery, Chicago, IL, October 2018. “Drawing Forward,” Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis, MO, October 2018. “Re-Enter,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, February-March 2018. “Another Illiad,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, February- March 2016. “Chicago Paints,” Ohio University, Athens, OH, January- February 2016. “Return of The Exquisite Corpse,” Printworks Gallery Chicago, Chicago, IL, December 2015- January 2016. “La Palette,” Artists Palettes, Ed Paschke Art Center, Chicago, IL, September-October 2015. “Greatest Hits,” LUMA Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL, September-November 2015. “Hybrid’s Paradise,” Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, June-July 2015. “And/Or,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, May-June 2015. “Macrocosm/Microcosm: Abstract Expressionism in The Southwest,” Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman OK, October-December 2014. “Summer Show,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, Summer 2014. “2014 Review,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, May 2014. Public Art, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, February 2014. “An Introduction to Drawing on Difference: An Ambition,” Studio Vendome Gallery New York, NY, April-May 2014 (catalog). “Drawing on Habit: An Ambition,” Drawing Invitational, Betsy Writer’s Room, Miami, FL, December 2013 (catalog). With Art Basel/Miami 2013, Art Miami, Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2012, 2013. ArtExpo Chicago, Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2013. “Michelle Grabner Retrospective,” Inova Gallery UW- Milwaukee, WI. Choice of works by four of her teachers: Conger, Paschke, Solien, Uttech. “100th Year Anniversary Exhibition” RAM Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, August-November 2013 (catalog). “White Blue Red,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO, December 2012. “Self Portraits,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, December 2012 (catalog). “40th Anniversary Exhibition,” Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, September-October 2012. “Art on Paper: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from the Block Museum,” Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Summer, 2012. “Re-Chicago,” DePaul University Art Museum, 2011-2012 (catalog). “Chicago Odyssey,” Collaboration Exhibition, Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2011 (catalog). “Cries and Whispers,” Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. May 2011. “Overpaper,” Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis MO, Winter 2010-11 (catalog). “Bad at Sports Exhibition,” Apex Arts, New York, NY, April 2010. “Book Covers,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, Winter 2010 (catalog). “Ed Paschke’s Contemporaries,” Chicago Artists Coalition, 2010 (catalog). “Modern Masters,” Lubeznik Center For The Arts, Michigan City, IN, January 2010. “Paper Love,” Devening Projects and Editions, Chicago, IL, Summer 2008. “Print show,” East Side Editions, San Francisco, CA, Summer 2008. Abstract Art in The Illinois State Museum Collection, Travel Show, 2005-06. Arts Club of Chicago, 81st Members Exhibition, 2005. 25th Year Anniversary Exhibition, Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 2005. “Bookmarks,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2005-2006 (catalog). “Ed Paschke Tribute Exhibition,” Gallery 415, Chicago, IL, 2005 (catalog). “That 70s Show,” Northern Indiana Arts Association, 2004 (catalog). “Abstract Truth,” Hinsdale Art Museum, IL, January-February, 2002. Permanent Collection, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford IL, November-January, 2002. Self Portraits, Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000 (catalog). “Exquisite Corpse Exhibition,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1999 (catalog). DePaul University Collection, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, 1999; 2000. “Cows on Parade,” City of Chicago Project and Commission, Chicago, IL, Summer, 1999 (catalog). “Abstraction 98,” Klein Art Works, Chicago, IL, December 1998 (catalog). “Come Slowly, Eden!,” Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 1998. Absolut Vision: Chicago, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1998, 1999, 2000. “Vault Series – Birds,” New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA, 1998 (catalog). 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, 1997. “Under The Influence,” Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 1997. The Promise Benefit, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1997. Art in Chicago 1945-95, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, 1996-97 (catalog). Anniversary Exhibition, Ukrainian Museum of Modern Art, Chicago, 1996 (catalog). Four Gallery Artists, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1997. Gallery Artists, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1995-96. Printmaking in Chicago 1935-1995, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1996 (catalog). Chicago Abstract Painters, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1995. Journals and Journeys: Artists’ Workbooks and Journals, Columbia College, Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL, 1994. Abstract Chicago, Klein Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1993-94 (catalog). Gallery Artists, Imago Gallery, Palm Springs, CA, 1994. Benefit Exhibition, Institute For Psychoanalysis, Chicago, IL, 1994. 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1993. Professional Members Exhibition, Arts Club of Chicago, 1996, 1993, 1991, 1989, 1987, 1985, 1984, 1983 (catalogs). Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA, 1993. Benefit Exhibition, New Art Examiner, Chicago, IL, 1993. Art Expo, Chicago, 1981. Benefit Exhibition, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1994. Benefit Exhibition, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1993. Eight From Northwestern, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1992. New Acquisitions Exhibition, College of Lake County, Lake County, IL, 1992. Benefit Exhibition, Artemesia Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1992. Museum of Contemporary Art Tee Shirt Auction, Chicago, IL, 1992; 1993. Gallery Artists, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1992. Spirited Visions, Portraits of Chicago Artists, Photographs of Artists by Patty Carroll; artworks by Chicago artists, Illinois Arts Council Travel Exhibition, 1991-93 (catalog). Benefit Exhibition, Rockford College Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 1992. Comiskey Park Chairs, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1991. Gallery Artists, Janus Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 1991. Landmarks, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1991. Northwestern Collects, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1990. Albuquerque 50s, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, 1990(catalog). Boyd Gallery Artists, Grand Valley College, MI, 1990. Chicago Artists, Lakeview Museum, Peoria, IL, 1990. Partners in Purchase, Illinois Arts Council Travel Exhibition, 1989. Illinois State Museum Collection, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, 1989 (catalog). Benefit Exhibition, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago; Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1988; also 1993. Museum of Contemporary Art Auction, Chicago, IL, 1987. Chicago Abstractionists, Grae Gallery, St. Louis, MO, 1987. Artagogo, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, 1987. Elegant Abstraction, Paine Art Center Museum, Oshkosh, WI, 1986. La Grande Jatte: Seurat and Chicago Art, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1986. Painting at Northwestern: Conger, Paschke, Valerio, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1986 (catalog). Baseball Cards, Renaissance Society Benefit, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1985. Artists of Chicago & Vicinity, Art Institute of Chicago, 1985, 1984, 1981, 1978, 1973, 1971, 1963 (catalogs). Then and Now, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, 1985. Forum Internationale Kunstmesse, Zurich, Switzerland, 1986; 1985 (catalogs). Abstract Painting in Chicago, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL; Roy Boyd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1985. Abstract/Symbol/Image, Illinois Arts Council Travel Exhibition, 1984-86 (catalog). Chicago Cross Section, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 1984 (catalog). Artist Call, Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, 1984. Fans, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 1983. Chicago, Some Other Traditions: Madison Art Center, Madison, WI; Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; Mackenzie Art Gallery, University Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; Blaffer Art Gallery, University Houston, TX; Loch Haven Art Center, Orlando, FL; Anchorage Fine Arts Museum, Anchorage, AK; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK: 1983-86 (catalog). Chicago Artists: Continuity and Change, Printer’s Square, Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1983 (catalog). Chicago Abstract Painters, Sonoma St. College, CA, Travel Exhibition, 1982-83 (catalog). 9 Abstract Artists, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL, 1982 (catalog). Professors of Art in Illinois, Illinois Bell Travel Exhibition, various IL cities, 1980-81 (catalog). Chicago Artists, Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN, 1981. Chicago Artists, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, IL, 1981 (catalog). Chicago Prospective, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL, 1980 (catalog). Art/Work, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 1980 (catalog). Selections From Permanent Collection, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, 1979. 30th Illinois Invitational, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, 1978 (catalog). 6″ X 9″ Paperworks, N.A.ME. Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1978. The Flower Show, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, 1978. The Chicago Connection: Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA.; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Brooks Art Gallery, Memphis TN; University Museum, University of Rochester, NY: 1976 – 1977 (catalog). Visions: Painting & Sculpture, Distinguished Alumni 1945 To The Present, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1976 (catalog). Midwest Painters & Sculptors, Krannert Museum, Champaign, IL, 1976. Gallery Artists, Douglas Kenyon Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1976 (catalog). Abstract Art in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, 1976 (catalog). 11-75, Chicago Artists, Bergman Gallery, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1975. The Chicago Style, Painting, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1974. Three Chicago Artists, Midway Studios, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1975. Gallery Artists, Douglas Kenyon Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1974. Illinois Painters II, Illinois Arts Council Travel Exhibition, 1971-73 (catalog). Beloit Annual, Wright Art Center, Beloit College, WI, 1972 (catalog). 12th Midwest Biennial, Joslyn Museum, Omaha, NE, 1972 (catalog). Five Chicago Artists, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1971. 14 Albuquerque Painters, Great Jones Gallery, New York, NY, 1960. Southwest Biennial, Santa Fe, NM, 1960. New Mexico Biennial, Santa Fe, NM, 1959.

Selected Collections

Eli and Edythe Broad, Museum of Contemporary Art, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. West Virginia University Art Museum, Morgantown, WV. Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, MMoCA, Madison, WI. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN. Indianapolis Museum of Art: Newfields, Indianapolis, IN. Mitchell Museum (Cedarhurst) Mt Vernon, IL Georgia Art Museum, Athens, GA. McCormick Place, Commission, 2005-7, Chicago, IL. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. City of Chicago Public Art Collection, Chicago, IL. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL. AT&T, New York, NY. First National Bank of Chicago, London, UK. Mary & Leigh Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KA. Main Bank, Chicago, IL. NBD Marina Bank, Chicago, IL. Kemper Group, Long Grove, IL. Water Tower Bank, Chicago, IL. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL. University of New Mexico Art Museum, Jonson Collection, Albuquerque, NM. Needham-Harper Worldwide, Chicago, IL. Rock Valley College, Rockford, IL. DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, IL. North Park College, Chicago, IL. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. Exxon Mobil Corporation, New York, NY. State of Illinois Building, Chicago, IL. Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL. IBM Corp. Atlanta, GA. Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, IL. Reader’s Digest Collection, New York, NY. Richland Community College, Decatur, IL. Mackenzie, Co., Chicago, IL. Smart Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL. University Club, Chicago, IL. Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL. Bucknell University Samek Art Gallery, Lewisburg, PA. Wellesley College, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, MA. Brauer Museum, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN. Loyola University Art Museum, Chicago, IL. Tarble Museum, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL. Chicago Public Library, Edgewater Branch, Chicago, IL (Commission Painting, Mundi). Purdue University Northwest Art Collection, West Lafayette, IN. Plus, numerous residential collections.

Selected Bibliography

Adrian, Dennis,

The Chicago Style, Painting, catalog essay, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1974.

Visions: Painting & Sculpture, Distinguished Alumni 1945 To The Present, catalog essay, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1976.

Chicago, Other Traditions, catalog essay, Madison Art Center, WI, 1983.

Painting at Northwestern, catalog essay, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1986.

“Painting in Chicago,” New Art Examiner, December 1987, pp.26-29.

“Private Treasures, Public Spirit,” Art In Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1996-97. Catalog essay p. 78; Biography, pp. 247-248.

Artner, Alan,

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1975.

“A Play of Power,” Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1976.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, April 21, 1978, sec. 3, p. 10.

“Art Institute’s Works on Paper,” Chicago Tribune, September 8, 1978.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1980.

“Lakeside Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1980.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, February 25, 1983, sec. 3, p. 16.

“Chicago Artists,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1983, sec.. 3, p. 12.

“Hyde Park,” Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1983.

“Artists of Chicago & Vicinity,” Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1984.

“Hyde Park Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, September 28, 1984.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1985, sec. 7, p. 45.

“Gallery Notes,” Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1985, sec. 5, p. 10c.

“Show Celebrates New Era At Northwestern,” Chicago Tribune, January 31, 1986, sec. 7, pp. 46-47.

“Terra Incognita,” Chicago Tribune, September 13, 1987, sec. 13, pp. 10-11.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, September 14, 1990, sec. 7, p. 68.

“Show and Sell,” Chicago Tribune, September 11, 1992, sec. 7, pp 36-37.

“William Conger, Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1994, Tempo Section.

“Conger’s Works Are Full of Power,” Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1997, Tempo Section, p.2.

High Flying Circus,” Chicago Tribune, February 4, 1999. sec. 5, p.2.

“William Conger keeps it fresh,” Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2001, Section C, p.32.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, September 17, 2004.

Art Expo scorecard, Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2005.

Art in Abstract, Chicago Tribune, August 18, 2005.

“William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, On The Town, February 23, 2007.

“Interview With William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2009.

Auer, J.,

“Northwestern Trio Show,” Milwaukee Journal, February 23, 1986.

Bacon, S.,

“Chicago Abstraction,” Grey City Journal, October 5, 1984.

Barry, E.,

“An Extended Exhibit for Illinois Artists,” Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1971.

Behrens, T.,

“Abstract,” The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA, February 27, 1983.

Bonesteel, M.,

“William Conger,” Art in America, November 1985, pp, 169-71.

“Giving Art to Evanston,” Pioneer Press, May 21, 1992, p. D7.

Born, Kathryn,

“William Conger,” Time Out Chicago, February 12-18, 2009, p. 55.

Brooke-Schliefer, Kristin,

“William Conger,” ArtNews, December 2000, p. 163.

Burleigh, R.,

“Nine Abstract Artists,” New Art Examiner, Summer, 1982.

Burstein, J.,

“Chicago Abstractionists,” ArtWeek, Los Angeles, CA, November 1982.

Campbell, L.,

“Reviews,” ArtNews, February 1960, p. 18.

Camper, F.,

“William Conger: Circus Paintings,” Chicago Reader, January 29, 1999. p. 30-31. ,

“William Conger,” Chicago Reader, September 24, 2004.

Carroll, P.,

“Inner Canvas – Chicago Artists,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 22, 1991, pp. 13-18.

Cassidy, V.,

Chicago Art Critics panel discussion re William Conger, October 2004.

Cox, W.,

“The Chicago Connection,” catalog essay, Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA, 1976.

Chung, N.,

“William Conger,” Arts Chicago, February 1986, pp. 14-15.

Cubbage, G.,

“Retrospective Brings Professor and His Paintings Together Again,” Northwestern Magazine, Winter, 2008, p. 9.

DeBartolo, A.,

“Women’s Co-op…,” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1992, sec. 5, p. 5.

DeKooning, E.,

“Albuquerque Artists,” New Mexico Quarterly, V. 30, no 1, 1960.

Gedo, Mary,

“The Secret Idol…,” Arts Magazine, December 1981, pp. 116-24.

“The Adrian Collection,” Arts Magazine, April 1982, p. 9.

“Abstraction As Metaphor: The Evocative Imagery of William Conger, Richard Loving, Frank Piatek, Miyoko Ito,” Arts Magazine, 1982, pp. 112-117.

“Interconnections: A Study of Chicago Style Relationships in Painting,” Arts Magazine, September 1983, pp. 92-97.

“DataBank Interview,” School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1985.

” William Conger,” Painting At Northwestern, catalog essay, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, 1986.

” The Meaning of Artistic Form and The Promise of The Psychoanalytic Method,” Art Criticism, edited by Donald Kuspit, SUNY V. 2, no. 3, pp 1-16.

“The Grande Jatte as The Icon of a New Religion: A Psycho-Iconographic Interpretation,” Museum Studies, The Art Institute of Chicago, V. 14, no. 2, notes, p. 249.

Glatt, C.,

“Abstract Art at Hyde Park Art Center,” The Herald, Chicago, October 3, 1984, p. 34.

“A LookBack…,” The Herald, Chicago, April 17, 1984, p. 30.

Glibota, A.

“Chicago,” Ciamise, Paris, France, 1981, No. 152, p. 23.

Goddu, Jenn.,

“Bookplates, at Printworks,” Chicago Tribune, December 30, 2005.

Guthrie, Derek,

“Bergman Gallery Exhibit,” New Art Examiner, April 1975.

“William Conger,” New Art Examiner, February 1976, p. 13.

Hanson, Henry,

“Spectator Sport,” Chicago Magazine, August 1985, pp. 94-96.

“NU Professors at Block Gallery,” Chicago Magazine, February 1986, pp. 92;94.

“ArtWorks,” Chicago Magazine, February 1990, p. 22.

“Galleries,” Chicago Magazine, December 1992, p. 35.

Hawkins, M.,

“17 Chicago Artists,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 11, 1985, p. 21.

“Challenging Popular Perceptions,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 22, 2000, p. 52.

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 2004.

Haydon, Harold

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 20, 1974.

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 21, 1975.

“A Wealth of Abstract Art In Chicago,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 29, 1976.

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 23, 1980, sec. 3, p. 3.

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 1983.

Henry, A.,

“Auctions,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 28, 1985, p. 84.

Holg, Garrett,

“William Conger at Roy Boyd,” ArtNews, January 1995, p. 169.

Klawans, H.

“Life, Death, and In Between,” The Collector, Paragon Press, NYC, 1992., P. 81.

Klein, P.,

A Museum in The Making, Chicago Life, Supplement to The New York Times, Fall, 2005.

Art at McCormick Place Chicago (a book featuring commissioned art), 2008.

Krantz, L.,

American Artists, The Krantz Co., Chicago, 1984.

Chicago Art Review, The Krantz Co., Chicago, 1989, p. 126.

Kuspit, D.,

“The ‘Madness ‘ of Art In Chicago,” New Art Examiner, May 1986, pp. 22-27.

“Always Abstractly True to Himself: William Conger’s Paintings,” catalog essay, 2009.

Leroux, Charles,

“The Lakefront,” Chicago Tribune, August 22, 2005.

Link, J.,

“Art Press Review,” New Art Examiner, November 1985, pp. 14-16.

Lyon, C.,

“Abstract Painting at Hyde Park Art Center,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 5, 1984.

“Coming In From The Cold,” Chicago Magazine, May 1984, pp. 156-169; 196-198.

“The Nation,” ArtNews, Dec. 1984, pp. 131-134.

“What Chicago Dealers Are Showing,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 5, 1985, p. 6.

McCracken, David,

“Gallery Scene,” Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1992, sec. 7, p. 60.

“Gallery Scene, ” Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1992, sec. 7, p.54.

” Conger’s Lake Michigan,” Chicago Tribune, December 4, 1992, sec. 7, p. 84.

McMahon, J., “

The Ninth Man Out – Nelson Algren Turns 100″, NewCity, April 2, 2009, p. 4.

Miller, C.,

“Portrait of The Artist – William Conger”, NewCity, February 12, 2009.

“William Conger & Vera Klement” review, NewCity, February 7, 2013.

Mullaney, Tom,

“Union League Club Turns 125”, Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2011.

Morgan, A.,

“9 Abstract Artists,” New Art Examiner, Summer, 1983, p. 18.

Moser, Charlotte,

Abstract/Symbol/Image, catalog essay, Illinois Arts Council Travel Exhibition, 1984.

“Regional Revisions, Houston & Chicago,” Art in America, July 1985, pp. 90-99.

“William Conger,” ArtNews, September 1985, pp. 119-120.

Morrison, C.L., “William Conger,” ArtForum, March 1976, p. 73.

“Chicago,” ArtForum, February 1977, p. 73.

“William Conger,” ArtForum, Summer, 1978, p. 79.

Nance, Kevin,

“A New Museum for Chicago Art,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 1, 2005.

“William Conger” Chicago Sun-Times, Showcase, February 27, 2007.

“William Conger, Chaotic and Serene,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 27, 2007,

“William Conger at Roy Boyd Gallery,” Art in America, December 2007, p. 164. ,

“William Conger at Printworks Gallery,” Exhibition Announcement essay, 2013.

“Artists in Their Studios,” Chicago Gallery News, May-August 2014, p. 22.

Newman, M.W.,

“Lampoon Draws Harpoons,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 15, 1988, p. 3.

Ostrow, Saul,

“William Conger’s Metaphysics,” catalog essay, Vendome Gallery, NYC, 2014.

Palmer, R.,

“Museum’s Exhibit Features Chicago Painter,” Mt. Vernon Sentinel, August 13, 2012.

Patner, A.,

“Select Galleries in Global Showcase,” Chicago Sun-Times, May 8, 1998, Arts Guide, p. 21.

Popson, T.,

“And Now, A Completely Different Sort of Baseball Card,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1985, sec. 7 p. H.

Propokoff, Steven, & Morrison, C.L.,

Abstract Art In Chicago, catalog essays, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1976. REK,

“Peer Review – William Conger,” University of Chicago Magazine, Jan-Feb. 2009, pp46-48.

Schulze, Franz,

“Chi-Art Shows Its Formal Side,” Chicago Daily News, 1974.

“Bergman Gallery, Chicago Daily News, April 20, 1975.

“The Harried Who,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 13, 1976, p. 10.

“Chicago, Nothing But Abstract,” ArtNews, Summer, 1976, pp. 154-157.

“William Conger,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 7, 1978, p. 76.

“Chicago,” ArtNews, Feb. 1979, pp. 40-45.

“Hyde Park Fans Show,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 9, 1983.

Silverman, L., “

William Conger,” Chicago Cultural Center Exhibition Brochure, 2009.

Soluri, T.,

“Artists by Number,” Chicago Magazine, May 1984, pp. 170-173.

Slaughter, A.M.,

“Reflections On A Decade,” Dialogue, An Art Journal, Sept.-Oct., 1988, p. 22.

Smith, E.L.,

American Art Now, Phaidon Press, 1985, pp. 128-29.

Spector, J.,

“The State of Psychoanalytic Research in Art History,”

Storch, C.,

Interview re MCA and Art Institute addition, Chicago Tribune, June 19, 2005.

The Art Bulletin, March 1988, p. 75.

Taylor, Sue,

“Abstract/Symbol/Image,” New Art Examiner, December 1984, pp. 55-56.

“Galleries,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 29, 1985, p. 16;22.

“Shaping Images For The Video Age,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 24, 1986, p. 46.

Villani, J.,

“William Conger,” Santa Fe New Mexican, April 3, 1992.

Varnell, P.,

“Conger’s Chicago Abstractions,” Chicago Free Press, February 26, 2009, p. 25.

Volk, Carol,

“Openings,” Arts & Antiques, April 1992, p. 23.

Wainright, L.,

“A Telling Surface,” catalog essay, Sazama Gallery, Chicago, 1991.

Walch, P. & Wilson, M.L.,

Albuquerque 50s catalog essays, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, September 1989.

Wilson, W.,

“Chicago Connection,” Los Angeles Times, February 20, 1977, p. 78.

Weins, A.,

“Galleries,” Chicago Collection, Winter, 2008, pp. 49-54.

“Canvassing Chicago – William Conger,” Chicago Magazine, Jan. 2009, p. 196.

Wirth, Steven,

“Portrait of The Artist William Conger,” New City, March 15, 2007, p. 15.

Yood, James,

“Imagism – Chicago,” New Art Examiner, May 1984, pp. 8-9.

“William Conger,” New Art Examiner, October 1985, p. 57.

“Midwestern Art,” Arts & Antiques, November 1988, pp. 50-52.

“William Conger,” text in Spirited Visions: Portraits of Chicago Artists, by Patty Carroll, University Illinois Press, 1991.

Second Sight: Printmaking in Chicago 1935-1995, Block Gallery, Northwestern University, 1996; catalog essay. p. 78.

“Eight From Northwestern,” brochure essay, Evanston Art Center, 1992.

Workman, Michael,

“True Colors: Artist William Conger,” Chicago Tribune, Section 4, P. 1; July 3 13, 2017.
Selected Online Reviews

Krainak, Paul, “Sub-Rural #14 Interview with William Conger, https://badatsports.com, May 2, 2022. McEachern, Ricky,”Experience 083 Painter William Conger,” rickymceachernartist.com, August 2, 2021. Golden, Deven, “Beyond Image: William Conger of Chicago,” ArtCritical, October 21, 2014. Karabenick, J., www.geoform.net (interview), 2007. Cassidy, Victor, “William Conger’s Summer of Paper,” www.artnet.com, March 4 , 1998. Polanski, G. Jurek, “William Conger: 2000 Collages,” wwwArtScope.net, March 28, 2001 Davis-King, J.B., “Reflections: Artists –William Conger,” Helium, 2009. Klein, P., “William Conger,” ArtLetter,February 16, 2007. “William Conger,” ArtLetter,November 16, 2009. “William Conger” ArtLetter,October 28, 2010. Also, see Google re “William Conger Art.”

Published Writing

Conger, William, “The MFA: Filling The Gap Between Seeing and Saying,” Artists/Alumni, Exhibition Catalogue, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, July 2001, pp. 23-31. , “Reflections,” Dialogue, Winter, 1999). , “Response to Thierry de Duve, Critical Inquiry (Vol. 26, No. 1), “Perspectival Diagram, Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergere,” Critical Inquiry, Autumn, 1998, Vol. 25, No. 1. pp 143-144. , “Diagrams and discussion of perspective in Edouard Manet’s Bar At The Folies Bergere;” related material. In Gedo, Mary, Looking At Art From The Inside Out, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, and NY, 1994. pp. 25, 31, 37-39; 53-55. , “Reginald Marsh,” catalog introduction, Douglas Kenyon Gallery, Chicago, 1982. , “A Letter,” New Art Examiner, June 1982, p. 2. ,. “Artist’s Statement,” Abstract/Symbol/Image catalog, Illinois Arts Council, 1984. , “A Review of Louise Nevelson: Iconography and Sources,” by Laurie Wilson, ” Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Art,” The Analytic Press, edited by M. Gedo, V. 1, no. 1, pp. 317-322. , “The Journal of Eugene Delacroix,” Psychoanalytic Studies of Biography, International Universities Press, 1987, pp.375-381; 403-404. , “Dreaming in New York and Chicago,” Chicago Art Write, No. 1, June 1986. , “On Drawing,” Whitewalls, #3, Spring, 1986, pp. 32-34. , “Abstract Painting” Fact, Fiction, Paradox,” Chicago Art Write, No. 2, August 1987. , “Art Limits,” Chicago Art Write, No. 4, June 1989. , “Toward a New Revolutionary Art, Again,” Pulse, Vol. I No. 1, 2008 (October). , “Co-author of Chapter 5, with Mary M. Gedo, Monet, and His Muse,” Univ. Chicago Press, 2010. , ” Abstract Painting and Integrationist Linguistics,” Linguistic Sciences, Vol. 23, Issue 4, July 2011. , “An Assessment,” in What Do Artists Know (Stone Theory Institute Symposium), edited by James Elkins, Univ. Penn Press, 2013, p 135 ff. , “Kiosk,” catalog essay for an exhibition of new work by Dan Devening, Tarble Museum, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston IL, Jan. 2014.

Lectures, Panels, TV
Recent

Lecture on my work, Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, Feb. 2016. Lecture on my work, Eastern Illinois University, Sept. 2014. On My Work, Hinsdale Public Library, Hinsdale, IL. 2013. Lecture in American Art Series, with Reginald Gibbons, Union League Club of Chicago, Feb. 2012. Panel Moderator, “Experimental Painting” Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, January 2011. Lecture on my Work, Arts Club of Chicago, March 5, 2009. Interview, Chicago Tonight With Phil Ponce, March 2009. Various Gallery Talks, Chicago Cultural Center, Jan-Mar. 2009. The MFA, Block Museum, Northwestern Univ., April 20, 2006 Panelist, Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chicago, 2005 On An Exhibition, Block Museum, Northwestern University, Nov. 2005. Eulogy for Ed Paschke, Art Institute of Chicago, March, 2005. Eulogy for Ed Paschke, Northwestern University, February 2005.

Earlier

“Modernist Painting,” Rock Valley College, Rockford, Il., April 22, 1971. “Art For DePaul,” DePaul University Women’s Board, Chicago, 1974. “About My Work,” Midway Studios, Univ. Chicago, 1976. “Issues in Contemporary Art,” DePaul Univ. Faculty Forum, Chicago, 1979. “Studio Visit, Affiliates of Women’s Board, Art Institute of Chicago, 1978. “My Work & Chicago Painting,” Cornell Univ. Art Dept., Ithaca, NY, 1979. “About My Work,” Countryside Art Center, Arlington Hts., Il., 1980. “Chicago Abstraction & Imagist Painting,” Affiliates of Women’s Board, Art Institute of Chicago, 1981. “Art At DePaul,” Board of Trustees, DePaul University, Chicago, 1981. “About My Work,” Midway Studios, Univ. Chicago, 1983. “Process And Theme in My Painting,” Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Il., April 19, 1984. “Relationships: Chicago Abstract & Imagist Art, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Il., April 24, 1984. “Studio Visit, ” Anderson College Students, October 1984. “Fireside,” Jones Residential College, Northwestern Univ., 1984. “Gallery Talk,” Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, November 14, 1984. “Allusive Abstraction: My Painting,” Art Institute of Chicago, April 1985. “Autobiography, Biography, Fiction,” panelist, Institute For Psychoanalysis, Chicago, October 1982. “Artist as Image Maker,” panelist, Loyola Univ., Chicago, June 16, 1984. “Music Education Graduate Seminar,” panelist, Northwestern Univ., November 16, 1984. “Content in Abstract Painting,” panelist, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, November 29, 1984. “About My Painting,” NU Day Northwestern University, 1986. “Chicago Style Abstraction, A Personal View,” Potpourri Program, Art Institute of Chicago, May 21, 1986. “La Grande Jatte, “Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago, May 20, 1986. “My Work: Influences From The Museum Collection,” Art Institute of Chicago, Teacher Education Program, Jan. 1987. “About My Work,” alumni seminar, Northwestern Univ., April 1987. “Gallery Talk,” Roy Boyd Gallery, December 2, 1987. “Viewpoints,” talk with Ed Paschke, Northwestern Univ, College of Arts and Sciences, December 5, 1988. “Aspects of Content in My Painting,” Museum of Contemporary Art Affiliates, Chicago, February 14, 1989. “From Evanston To Albuquerque and Back,” Northwestern Alumni Club of Albuquerque, NM., November 3, 1989. “Albuquerque 50s’ And My Work,” University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM., November 7, 1989. “About My Painting,” Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Il., August 14, 1990. “Chicago Art in Contemporary Context,” panel moderator, Arts Week, Northwestern Univ., October 26, 1990. “Chicago Art History Colloquia,” respondent, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, January 16, 1991. “New Psychoanalytic Perspectives on The Founder of Neo-Impressionism,” Div. 39, American Psychological Association, Chicago, April 12, 1991. “On My Work,” panelist, Alumni Seminar, Northwestern Univ., February 19, 1992. Gallery Lecture,” Thinking Modern Exhibition, Block Gallery, Northwestern Univ., March 13, 1992. “Gallery Talks,” Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, Nov. 17 & 24, 1992. “About a Chicago Collection, John Evans Club, Northwestern University, February 29, 1993; also 1998. “Chicago Abstraction & My Work,” Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, April 1993. “Artists in Academe,” College Art Association of America, NY, NY, 1994. “William Conger & Ed Paschke — An Artists’ Discussion, Northwestern University, November 22, 1994. “On Education for Artists,” Chicago Artist’s Coalition Panel, Chicago, February 18, 1995. “Gallery Talk,” Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Il., Feb 26, 1995. “On My Work,” Jones College, Northwestern Univ., May 1996. “On My Work,” School of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, October 1996. “Studio Visit,” Art Institute of Chicago Tour., November 1996. “Studio Visit,” Standard Club of Chicago, January 1997. “Gallery Talk,” Roy Boyd Gallery, March 1997. “Studio Visit,” Art Encounter, Chicago, October 1997. “Panelist” Mid-America College Art Association, Uni. Kentucky, October 1998 “Gallery Talk,” Jonson Museum, Univ. New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, October 1998 “Gallery Talk to Students from Northern Illinois Univ.,” Chicago, January 1999. “Gallery Talk,” Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, September 2000. “On My Work,” University of Tulsa, February 2001. “New Paintings,” Block Museum, Northwestern Univ., July 2001. “New Work By Graduate Students,” Block Museum, Northwestern Univ., June 2008. “On My Work,” Arts Club of Chicago, February 2009. “Retrospective” Five Gallery Talks, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Winter 2009. “Who Artists Are,” Award Event, Ravenswood Art Org., Chicago, Oct. 2009. “Studio Talk,” Art Encounter Group, Chicago, Sept. 2010.

Education

School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1954 part-time; 1956-57 full-time. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. summer,1959. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 1957-60, BFA. University of Chicago, 1956-57 part-time; 1964-66 full-time, MFA.

Other Professional Activities

Juror for Regional Watercolor Show, Tarble Museum Eastern IL Univ. 2014. Book Cover for Reginald Gibbon’s “Slow Trains Overhead,” Univ. Chicago Press, 2010. Chair, Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University 1984-2001. Chair, Department of Art and Art History, DePaul University, Chicago 1971-1977; 1980-1984. Advisory Board, Chicago Art Foundation, 2005-2007. Advisory Panel, Board of Directors, DePaul University Art Museum, 2005- Juror for various exhibitions of art in midwest since 1967. Consultant, General Services Administration, re WPA Art In Illinois. 1972-73. North Central Accrediting Association Team Member, Chicago, 1981. Board of Directors, OxBow, Art School, 1983-86. Charter Member, Alumni/ae Council, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1984-86. Member, College Art Association of America Professional Member, Arts Club of Chicago. Member, Advisory Board, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, 19881999 NEH Referee, 1989. Discussant, American Art Forum, Television Program, #312,313, 1989-90. Interviewed, “The Reviewing Stand,” Illinois News Network; AP/UPI, 1989. Founding Editor, with Richard Loving & Frank Piatek, Chicago Art Write., A publication of artists’ writings on art. 1984-91. Interviewed on Channel 5 TV Newscast, Chicago, IL., January 12, 1994. Paintings reproduced as textbook cover art, Harper/Collins Publishers, Glenview, Il., various books, 1994-1997. Trustee, St. Benedict High School, Chicago, Il., 1994;-1999, Chair, Education Committee; Principal Search Committee, 1996; Second Vice President, May 1997. Teaching of Art Award Committee, College Art Association, 1995-1998. Art Program Evaluator, Rockford College, Rockford, Il. 1995. “Paint With A Pro: Conger, Fitzpatrick, Paschke,” Block Gallery, Northwestern Univ., March 17, 1996; April 5, 1997. Presentation on Creativity, Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL, “Executive Residence in Creativity,” May 2, 1997. Reviewer, Univ. Edinburgh Press, 2001. Self Portrait (2000) drawing included in drawing text, Prentice-Hall. 2002. Tenure-Promotion Referee: University of Illinois-Chicago; University of Illinois-Urbana; DePaul University, Chicago; University of Chicago; Southern Illinois University; Washington University School of Art; University of Missouri-Columbia, Purdue University; Columbia University, NYC, Penn State University. School of The Art Institute of Chicago; Ohio State University, Loyola University, Chicago; others.

Awards and Biographical Reference

New American Paintings No. 125. 2016 Illinois Arts Council Grant, 2009, 2012 Elected “Distinguished Artist” Union League Club of Chicago, 2011. Pollock-Krasner Grant, 2011. Honors, School of Art Institute of Chicago, 1957. Scholarship Awards, painting, Univ. New Mexico, 1958, 1959, 1960. Phi Sigma Tau, National Honorary in Philosophy, Univ New Mexico, 1960. Graduate Fellowship, Univ. Chicago, 1965, 1966. Francis Friedman Prize for Painting, Univ. Chicago, 1965, 1966. Bartels Prize for Painting, Art Institute of Chicago, 1971. Cluseman Prize for Painting, Art Institute of Chicago, 1973. Faculty Research Grant, DePaul Univ., 1982. Illinois Academy of Fine Arts, finalist nominee as educator, 1992. City of Chicago Public Art Commission, 2001-02; 2014. Who’s Who in America, since 1980. Who’s Who in American Art, since 1980. Who’s Who in The Midwest, since 1984.

Eleana Daniel was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Chicago. She holds a BFA with honors in Visual Communication from Columbia College Chicago. After an almost decade-long career in advertising as an art director working for agencies such as Ogilvy and Leo Burnett, she returned to painting in 2019. She is currently a second-year MFA candidate in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Eleana’s work has been featured at Co-Prosperity Sphere, Dragonfly Gallery, Fulton Street Collective, Paper Hat Gallery, Split Rail, Zhou B Center for the Arts, and most recently at Woman Made Gallery where she placed first in the Midwest Open juried show. In 2024 she will participate in a group show In Here Out There at The Plan opening March 1. Eleana has also been the curator of mozart house, a series of DIY group art shows, and a volunteer graphic designer for Comfort Station Logan Square.

Each pot I create shifts into form through pinching and darting the surface of the clay. My fingertips guide the shape of the vessel, creating lines, giving rise to the visual landscape of my work. Through this slow and intimate process of pinching, I create a different type of relationship between the viewer and object. My fingerprints act as a brush stroke on the surface of the clay, each pinch making a formal impression of the hand that created it. Simplicity and the mark of the hand are important to my work, which steps back to a time where work isn't about production, but rather the touch of a fingertip.

Stoneware

22 × 16 × 7 in | 55.9 × 40.6 × 17.8 cm

Each pot I create shifts into form through pinching and darting the surface of the clay. My fingertips guide the shape of the vessel, creating lines, giving rise to the visual landscape of my work. Through this slow and intimate process of pinching, I create a different type of relationship between the viewer and object. My fingerprints act as a brush stroke on the surface of the clay, each pinch making a formal impression of the hand that created it. Simplicity and the mark of the hand are important to my work, which steps back to a time where work isn't about production, but rather the touch of a fingertip.