https://www.instagram.com/shonna_pryor/
BIO
Shonna Pryor is a conceptual art maker and art programs producer. Her multidisciplinary practice critically engages the politics of identity, memory, power, and play. An Afrofuturist aesthetic underscores the language of these expressions using reclaimed objects, painting, installation and public programming. Pryor's visual art has been exhibited in major cities such as Chicago, Detroit and New York, with esteemed artist residencies such as the Hyde Park Art Center’s Jackman Goldwasser Artist Residency, Chicago Artists Coalition Hatch Residency, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Homan Artist Residency and the Chicago Council on Science and Technology respectively. Her visual art and community-based program collaborations with local and nationally recognized organizations and institutions has been instrumental in employing visual art to inspire future generations across genres, including STEM -based programming. Pryor's engagement in the field of art and culture is further expanded by her award-winning, art-based broadcast media work that has sought to innovate through an intersecting of the two disciplines. She is an Emmy Award winning team contributor on the Terra Foundation sponsored Art & Design Chicago documentary, and was shortlisted for the 2017-18 Harvard University Knight Visiting Neiman Fellowship Award.
"Pryor animates the anthropological through experimental disordering of linear time: historical events, private familial touchstones, trauma, and irrepressible joy are clustered into conceptual ‘tableau vivant,’ acting out upon one another within Pryor’s constructs and critical apparatuses. she elevates a strata of lived history often swept away from what is canonically preserved by pernicious systems of power. she collects trails of crumbs that amass into trenchant stories that allow the artist and her audiences to revisit passages of perseverance, ingenuity, and grace within the Black American experience.
Food—bread, cheddar, and dough, for instance—is never exclusively metaphoric nor solely literal in Pryor’s practice. at the nexus of family recipes, meals recollected, as well as more sweeping analyses of wealth distribution and access to the means to build sustainable approaches to living, the artist traces the material realities of what might be called provisions, nourishment, investment. an accounting of the spiritual, psychological, and social ramifications of feeding and being fed.
Pryor’s inquiries press on the fraught pasts and multiple dazzling and disorienting futures of mutual care as a foundational political responsibility. in all seriousness and all playfulness, it’s great to be around what she does."
-Matt Morris, contributing writer to Artforum.com, Art Papers, ARTnews, Flash Art, Fragrantica, Sculpture, The Seen, and X-TRA
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnrzFlcLAo0/
CV
EDUCATION
2025—The New Art School Modality Revisionary Pedagogical Fast-track (hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago)
2024—Center for Conflict Resolution Certification (creativity focus), Chicago, IL
2016—The New School, MS Media Management, Arts Programming and Development (NY, NY)
2012—School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Master of Fine Arts Painting & Drawing, Fashion minor (Chicago, IL)
2002—College for Creative Studies, BFA Fiber/Materials Studies (Detroit, MI)
PROFESSIONAL
Studio Artist/Designer 2007-present—Multimedia visual fine art maker for public sale/exhibition; Art
Programs Producer; Independent Creative Consultant
Visual Arts Educator (Painting, Fashion, Concepts) and Undergraduate Admissions Review Staff 2012-present, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Undergraduate Fashion Merit Scholarship Judge 2024, 2025 School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fashion Design Program
Fashion Camp Program Instructor 2017, 2018, 2019 School of the Art Institute of Chicago Youth Fashion Camp
Television Production Fellow 2016-2017, WTTW/Chicago PBS, Chicago, IL—
Art & Design in Chicago Program Research and Development
AWARDS
2025 "Healing Loneliness Through Creativity" The Jeremy Noble Project Unlonely Grant
2024 The Fred Moten Fellowship c/o The New Art School Modality
2019 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Midwest Emmy Award— Arts/Entertainment Programing—Program/Special Series (Art & Design in Chicago)
2019 (Nominee) Peter Lisagor Award, WTTW Chicago Public Broadcast Television:
Best News/Specialty/Arts/Culture/Entertainment News–Feature or Series (Art &
Design in Chicago)
2017 (Shortlist) Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2016 Judy and John McCarter Fellowship Award, WTTW Chicago Public Broadcast
2012 Archibald Motley Jr. Artist Grant Award
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT/COLLABORATION
2022 – “Recipe Storytelling” Workshop, Three Walls + Dreaming Circle, Chicago, IL
2021 – “Mission to Mars Museum” Carole Robertson Center, Chicago, IL
“It’s Cyborg!” AT&T Community Youth Development Program + Chicago Parks District, (Murray Park), Chicago, IL
2018 – “Object Storytelling: Appropriating the AIC Museum” Baker College Prep High School, Chicago, IL
2016 – “Recipe Storytelling” Workshops, Lawndale Community Center, Chicago, IL
SOLO FINE ART EXHIBITIONS
2025
"Small Wall Project" Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL curated by Romi Crawford for the New Art School Modality
2023
“Of Portals and Pathways II: Fiscal Frontiers” Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
2022
“Of Portals and Pathways” Material Gallery, Chicago, IL
GROUP FINE ART EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2025
(forthcoming) Ortega y Gasset Gallery, New York, NY
2024
"The Domestic" The Greystone Collective Organization curated by Clemenstien Love
"Through the Portal" Wild Yams c/o University of Illinois Chicago Conference Symposium
"Anna and Frederick Douglass Pavilion Public Art Space" construction/curation by Norman Teague and Dorian Sylvain, Chicago IL
"Felicific", Chicago Artist Coalition Hatch Residency Exhibition, Chicago, IL
"We Are What You Eat", Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
2023
“To Be Continued…” Chicago Artists Coalition Hatch Resident Exhibition, Chicago, IL
“Neighbors” Purple Window Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Re/View Alumni Exhibition” curated by Sabrina Nelson, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
2022
"A Woman With A Baguette", Ruschwoman Gallery, curated by Matt Morris
"Relic", curated by Cierra McKissick, University of Chicago Arts Incubator, Chicago, IL
"Faculty Exhibition" Evanston Art Center, Chicago, IL
2020
"The TOGETHER Tablecloth Summer Tour Series", Black Lives Matter Rally(ies), Chicago, IL
“WallPAPER of Respect: The Freedman's Bureau Ledgers” guest artist with the AACM Great Black Music Ensemble, Stoney Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL
2018
“Take Root Among the Stars” curated by D. Denenge Duyst-Akpem, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
“High Concepts Lab Open House Show”, Constellation Chicago, Chicago, IL
"Female Curves", CAN TV Broadcast Channel, Chicago, IL
“Experience: Threewalls Annual Gala”, Threewalls Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017
“The Presidential Library Project: Black Presidential Imaginary” curated by Ross Jordan, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
2015
“Adorn”, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL “Gender Bombs and Other Cooking Ingredients” Impromptu Intervention Performance,
“Gender Bombs and Other Cooking Ingredients” Impromptu intervention performances: Expo Chicago The Armory Show, New York, NY Frieze, New York, NY
“Surface, Place”, Abrazo Interno Gallery, New York, NY “Art from Excess”, Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts, Gary, IN
2014
“Gender Bombs and Other Cooking Ingredients” Impromptu intervention performances:
Art Basel, Miami; Whitney Biennial, New York; New York Frieze Art Fair, New York; Expo Chicago; New York City Gallery tours led by Jerry Saltz courtesy of Vulture Magazine—Gagosian Gallery, Luhring Augustine Gallery, Andrea Rosen Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Petzel Gallery
“Female Curves” CAN-TV art video programming hosted by ExTV SAIC, Chicago, IL
2013
"Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity" Performance Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago
Museum, Chicago, IL
“Gender Bombs and Other Cooking Ingredients” Impromptu intervention performance, Expo Chicago
2012
"Graduate Thesis Exhibition", The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
2011
"Dialogical Self", The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2010
“Post-Baccalaureate Thesis Exhibition”, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL "Midnight Snacks", 1366 Space, Chicago, IL
2007
“Full Circle”, G.R. N'Namdi Gallery, Detroit MI 2006
"75th Anniversary Show", Detroit Artists Market, Detroit MI
RESIDENCIES
2024
The School of The Art Institute of Chicago Artist-In-Residency (Lawndale/Homan), Chicago, IL
2023-4
Wild Yams Residency x Oxbow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI
Chicago Artists Coalition, Hatch Residency, Chicago, IL
2022
Chicago Council on Science and Technology Residency, Chicago, IL
Wild Yams Residency c/o The Cre.ae.tive Room Organization for Artists, Chicago, IL
2019
Artist Winter Intensive Residency, High Concept Labs, Chicago, IL
2016
Jackman Goldwasser Artist Residency, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
COMMUNITY / COLLABORATION
2025 – (forthcoming) "Healing Lonliness Through Creativity" Jeremy Noble Project Unlonely
2024 "The Domestic, A Dinner Symposium" The Greystone Collective Organization curated by Clemenstien Love via Terra Foundation
2023 – “Recipe Storytelling” Workshop, ThreeWalls + Dreaming Circle, Chicago, IL
2021 – "It's Cyborg!" AT&T Community Youth Development Program + Chicago Parks District (Murray Park), Chicago IL
2021 – "Mission to Mars Museum" Carole Robertson Learning Center, Chicago, IL
2018 – "Object Storytelling: Appropriating the AIC Museum" Baker College Prep High School classroom,
Chicago, IL
2017 – "Youth Summer Fashion Camp: Food Theme Inspired By First Lady Michelle Obama (Healthy
Food Initiative For Children)", The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2016 – "Recipe Storytelling: Senior Community", Lawndale/Homan Community Center, Chicago, IL
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2014
“Female Curves”, ExTV Broadcast, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2011
“Dialogical Self”, co-curated with Tony Lewis and Christina Long, School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, Chicago, IL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 "Routes to Freedom: Shonna Pryor's Speculative Future" by Kerry Cardoza, NewCity
Magazine, October 18
2022 “Deeper Research and a Politics of Care”, by Kerry Cardoza The Chicago Reader
2022 “Top 5 Weekend Picks” Visualist Chicago, January 27 + February 2
2021 “60-Word Minute: Shonna Pryor” by Chicago Tribune contributing art critic, Lori Waxman for New City Art Magazine
2017 "See It Now", by J.R. The Chicago Tribune
2014 “Street Style: Frieze Edition”, Refinery29
2007 “Motown Leaders Envision a New Paradise Valley: Enclave to Showcase Black Culture”, The
Associated Press
LECTURES + WRITINGS
2025 "Making New Monuments" c/o The New Art School Modality x Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
2023 “The Soul of Philanthropy” Panel Discussion, ThreeWalls Organization, Chicago
2021 “Visual Art As Journalism”, Women's History Month Talk, Waubonsee Community College, Chicago
2015 “The Great Good Place” publication, Curated by Brandon Alvendia, Threewalls Gallery, Chicago, IL
PUBLIC SERVICE
(current) Board Member, Narrow Bridge Art Center • Auxiliary Board Member, Chicago Council on Science and Technology—2020-2022 • National Academy of Television Arts & Science Midwest, Awards Judge 2020 • Member Toastmasters (Loop Trustmasters)—2020 • WTTW Community Advisory Board member, Chicago, IL—2015 • Dorchester Community Garden Project volunteer, Chicago, IL—2015 • Associate Board of Ambassadors, American Cancer Society, Chicago—2015 • Member of Board of Directors and Fundraising Committee for Creative Arts Center Gallery, Pontiac MI—2007 • WDET Detroit Public Radio fundraiser and contributing newsletter writer—2007 • Exhibit Committee Member, Detroit Artists Market—2006 • Member of the Detroit Institute of Arts Speaker's Bureau—2005