Suellen Rocca, Little Palm Tree Nite Light, 2018
Lamp, stencil, and spray acrylic paint
13 x 10 x 10 in.
Edition of 25

Soirée 2018 is held in honor of the influential artist and curator Suellen Rocca. In the 1960s, Rocca and five other artists formed the groundbreaking group the Hairy Who, known for their powerfully graphic images and brazen sense of humor. Rocca began teaching at Elmhurst College in 1983, and since 2006 she has been the Curator and Director of Exhibitions, overseeing the College's internationally known collection of Chicago Imagist art.

Early in her career Rocca developed a unique vocabulary of symbols-wedding rings, purses, and palm trees-inspired by advertising imagery. In her works she often arranged these images in repetitive patterns, creating compositions that have been likened to modern hieroglyphs. This special edition, generously made for the fundraiser, recalls her Palm Tree Lampshade painting from 1969.

Suellen Rocca's work will be featured this fall in the Art Institute of Chicago's comprehensive retrospective Harry Who? 1966-1969. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York. Most recently, her work was in group shows at the Fondazione Prada, Milan; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; United States Embassy, Stockholm; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; and many others. Her work is in the collection of numerous important institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago.