About the Artists:

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957) A cultural figure of international renown, Ai Weiwei is an activist, architect, curator, filmmaker, and China’s most famous artist.

Bridget Riley (British, b. 1931) Bridget Riley is an abstract painter who came to prominence in the American Op Art movement of the 1960s.

Carmen Herrera (Cuban, b. 1915) Carmen Herrera, who sold her first painting at the age of 89, was mostly unknown and unseen until 2009, when a large-scale survey of her work opened in the U.K. and she was deemed "the find of a decade" by the Observer. Herrera's geometric, hard-edged abstract paintings, influenced by her university degree in architecture and singularly focused on the interactions of space and color, prefigure the Op Art and Minimalism of artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, and Kenneth Noland.

Caroline Kent (American, b. 1975) Chicago based artist, Caroline Kent, explores the limits of language, the process of translation, and the joys of wandering “in the dark” in her other-worldly abstractions. Kent’s practice embraces uncertain and cosmic spaces; the dark, expansive grounds of her paintings become sites for ideas waiting to land, converge, and transform.

Clarence Morgan (American, b. 1950) Clarence Morgan’s abstract art reflects an interest in geometry and line. He combines painting, drawing and collage to create intricate works that represent order among chaos.

Donald Judd (American, 1928-1994) Donald Judd, widely regarded as one of the most significant American artists of the post-war period, is perhaps best-known for the large-scale outdoor installations and long, spacious interiors he designed in Marfa, Texas. His oeuvre has come to define what has been referred to as Minimalist art.

Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923-2015) Since the beginning of his career, Ellsworth Kelly's emphasis on pure form and color and his impulse to suppress gesture in favor of creating spatial unity have played a pivotal role in the development of abstract art in America.

Jeff Koons (American, b. 1955) Jeff Koons is recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals.

Matthew Barney (American, b. 1967) Known for large-scale multimedia projects—often made in series over several years—Matthew Barney is among the most ambitious artists of the past two decades. His work is invested with layers of art-historical references, archetypal imagery, and historical re-enactment.

Michael Craig- Martin (Irish, b. 1941) Conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin—who taught Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, and others at London's Goldsmiths College in the 1970s—is often called the godfather of the Young British Artists. His early work referenced Minimalism and Dada's depiction of mass-produced objects.

Pamela Carberry (American, b. 1965) Pamela Carberry’s prints explore the relationship of color on color and the shifting horizons as she moves about in the natural environment. Her work addresses landscape as the art of selection and balance and explores how representation can wander towards abstraction.

Robert Indiana (American, 1928-2018) One of the central figures of the Pop Art movement, Robert Indiana takes his inspiration from commercial signs, claiming: “There are more signs than trees in America. There are more signs than leaves. So, I think of myself as a painter of American landscape.”

Sabina Ott (American, 1955-2018) Sabina Ott is known for her broad range of work-- from painting to installation to sculpture-- and her central role in the art world as teacher, administrator, and as the founder of the exhibition space Terrain, which invites artists to create installations and performances using the exterior of her Oak Park home.

Sol LeWitt (American, 1928-2007) One of the leading exponents of Conceptual art, Sol LeWitt stressed the idea behind his work over its execution. LeWitt is best known for his large-scale “Wall Drawings,” rigorous arrays of designs, shapes, grids, and colors rendered in pencil and paint in coherence with strict instructions and diagrams to be followed in executing the work.

Squeak Carnwath (American, b. 1947) For Squeak Carnwath, painting is a form of questioning, through which she reflects on the nature of reality, illusion, and experience.

Tom Otterness (American, b. 1952) Since the 1970s, Tom Otterness has been populating public spaces with his impish human and animal sculptures, through which he gently lampoons American society.