Michelle Grabner
Untitled, 2022
Oil on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Retail $5,000
For over 35 years, Grabner has created patterned-based work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, video and sculpture. Exploring themes such as domesticity and "Midwest pragmatism," she is best known for abstractions using material concepts such as burlap, bronze, crochet, spider webs, and gingham. Grounded in process and productivity, Grabner also combines her studio practice with tasks of writing, curating, and teaching.
With worldwide attention, Grabner has created a permanent mark on the Midwest art scene as an artist, writer, curator, and professor. She is based in Wisconsin and serves as the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught for twenty years. Grabner co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and curated the 2016 Portland Biennial. She has also served as co-artistic director for FRONT International - Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. She has had solo exhibitions at the Indianapolis Museum of Art; INOVA, The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Ulrich Museum, Wichita; and University Galleries, Illinois State University. Her artwork has been included in group shows at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate St. Ives, UK; and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland. With her husband, artist Brad Killam, she founded The Suburban in 1999 in Oak Park, Illinois. In 2021, Grabner was awarded the prestigious Fine Arts Guggenheim Fellowship.
