Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago

2018-19 Artists-in-Residence. From left to right: Delano Dunn; Ben LaMar Gay; Anna Martine Whitehead

Delano Dunn (he/him) was born in Los Angeles. Through painting, mixed media, and collage, Dunn explores questions of racial identity and perception through various contexts, ranging from the personal to the political, and drawing from his experience growing up in South Central L.A. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, among others. In 2017 he received the Sustainable ArtsFoundation Individual Artist's Grant. He was the 2016 recipient of the College Art Association’s Visual Arts Graduate Fellowship. Group exhibitions include The Wassaic Project, ArtSpace in New Haven, Spring/Break Art Show, Project for Empty Space, PULSE New York, The Delaware Contemporary, La Bodega Gallery, and more. Dunn has been featured in The New York Times, PBS News Hour,  VICE Media’s The Creators Project, and Hyperallergic, amongst others. Other awards include the Delaware Contemporary’s Curator’s Choice Award, and SVA’s Edward Zutrau Memorial Award and Alumni Thesis Scholarship Award. Residencies include The Wassaic Summer Artist Residency, Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. He is represented by Lesley Heller Gallery in New York, and is a Teaching Fellow at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two children. Website: delanodunn.com

Ben LaMar Gay (he/him) is a composer/cornetist who moves components of sound, color, and space through folkloric filters to produce brilliant electro‐acoustic collages. The unification of various styles is always in service of the narrative and never solely a display of technique. The Chicago native’s true technique is giving life to an idea while exploring and expanding on the term “Americana”. His musical influences derive from his collection of experiences in all of the Americas and the gathered data channeled by technology and its amplifying accessibility. The fact that the world is closer via technology and that everyone has access to the possibility of exploring different ideas, makes his avant-garde version of “Americana” very global. Embracing international vision while remaining true to his roots, Gay’s creative output aligns with the honest notion that he only knows how to be a man from the South Side of Chicago. Active in the vibrant experimental music scene of Chicago, including a three‐year residency in Brazil, allows him to collaborate with some influential figures in the world of music. The list includes George Lewis, Itibere Zwarg, Black Monks, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Mike Reed, Joshua Abrams, Celso Fonseca, Tomeka Reid, Bixiga 70 and the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians, to name a few.

Anna Martine Whitehead (she/they) does performance. She has been presented by venues including the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art; San José Museum of Art; Velocity Dance Center; Chicago Cultural Center; Links Hall; AUNTS; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She has developed her craft working closely with Onye Ozuzu, Jefferson Pinder, taisha paggett, Every house has a door, Keith Hennessy, BodyCartography Project, Julien Prévieux, Jesse Hewit, and the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, among others. She has been recognized with awards and fellowships from the Graham Foundation, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, 3Arts, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, Rauschenberg Foundation, and Djerassi. Martine has written about blackness, queerness, and bodies in action for Art21 Magazine, C Magazine, frieze, Art Practical; and has contributed chapters to a range of publications including Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (Oxford, 2017), Organize Your Own: The Politics and Poetics of Self-Determination Movements (Sobsercove, 2016), Platforms: Ten Years of Chances Dances (2016), and Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism (NYU, 2009). Martine is the author of TREASURE | My Black Rupture (Thread Makes Blanket, 2016). Website: annamartine.com