CHICAGO, IL.- This fall, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s SAIC Galleries exhibit the first major survey of seminal contemporary artist Jacolby Satterwhite. The exhibition, Jacolby Satterwhite: Spirits Roaming on the Earth, maps a holistic view of the artist’s multidisciplinary and visionary practice, bringing together a wide range of works from the past 13 years. It runs from September 11 to December 2.

Satterwhite is best known for his fantastical, layered, and exuberant world building realized through video, performance, 3D animation, virtual reality, painting, sculpture, prints, and music. Drawing on a lexicon that is informed by mythology, video gaming, and dance, as well as his own queer, Black perspective, he interweaves art historical motifs with contemporary visual culture to create Afrofuturistic universes that serve as escapist spaces of freedom, desire, power, and inclusivity.

“SAIC is committed to supporting visionary, provocative, and multidisciplinary artists in our academic curriculum as well as our public programming,” said Director of Exhibitions Staci Boris. “This fall, SAIC Galleries is proud to present the work of Jacolby Satterwhite, whose videos, paintings, and sculptures explore identity, memory, and desire; challenge traditional narratives and boundaries; and offer a vision of the world that is expansive, experimental, and inclusive.”

The exhibition, curated by SAIC alum Elizabeth Chodos (Dual MA 2008), first premiered at the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon University in 2021. Since then, it has also traveled to the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. This iteration at SAIC Galleries features several pieces by Satterwhite not included in the previous exhibitions.

“Jacolby Satterwhite has a singular ability to masterfully synthesize personal, theoretical, and pop-cultural influences across a wide range of materials and genres with unmatched skill and dexterity, affirming his position as one of the preeminent makers and thinkers of our time,” said Chodos.

Satterwhite’s work has been presented internationally in numerous exhibitions and festivals, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the New Museum in New York, and is included in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. He has collaborated with several musicians, including Solange Knowles, The 1975, and Perfume Genius. In 2016, he was awarded the United States Artist Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellowship. He is represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York.

SAIC Galleries is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. A state-issued ID is required for entry. Visit saic.edu/exhibitions/saic-galleries to learn more.

This exhibition features contemporary art with adult content and is intended for mature audiences.