The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Athena LaTocha: Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series
Tuesday, April 4, 6:00–7:30 p.m.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation services.
Join us in person for a lecture by artist Athena LaTocha followed by an audience Q&A.
Athena LaTocha (BFA 1992) is an artist whose massive works on paper explore the relationship between human-made and natural worlds in the wake of Earthworks artists from the 1960s and 1970s. The artist incorporates materials such as ink, lead, earth, and wood while looking at correlations between mark-marking and displacement of materials made by industrial equipment and natural events. Her works are inspired by her upbringing in the wilderness of Alaska. LaTocha’s process is about being immersed in these environments while responding to the storied and, at times, traumatic cultural histories that are rooted in place.
LaTocha’s work has been shown across the country in places such as the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; CUE Art Foundation and Artists Space, New York; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, South Dakota; New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana; the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, Alaska; Smack Mellon and BRIC House in Brooklyn, New York; and MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York. Currently, her work is on view at JDJ Tribeca in Manhattan and at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
LaTocha is the recipient of artist grants, residencies, and awards, among them the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Pocantico Prize for Visual Artists in 2022; the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship; the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Painting; the National Academy Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 2021, and more recognition from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2019 and 2016, Wave Hill in 2018, CUE Art Foundation in 2015, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2013.
Presented in partnership with SAIC Alumni Engagement.
Portrait credit: Athena LaTocha
Artist Website
Green-Wood Cemetery Unveils Enormous, Thought-Provoking Installation
Brooklyn Reader | September 30, 2022
Athena LaTocha's Unrelenting Urge to Salvage
Laura Bannister | Frieze Magazine | May 9, 2022
Time Signatures: Athena LaTocha Interviewed by Christopher Green
Christopher Green | Bomb Magazine | May 2, 2022
Her Art Reads the Land in Deep Time*
Siddhartha Mitter | New York Times | November 24, 2021
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login
MoCNA — Athena LaTocha: "Inside the Forces of Nature"
Michael Abatemarco | The Santa Fe New Mexican | January 27, 2017
Art for a New Understanding by 
No Reservation: New York Contemporary Native American Art Movement by Athena LaTocha: After the Falls at Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
After the Falls (October 9, 2021 – January 23, 2022) responds to the landscape around the Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey.
Athena LaTocha: In the Wake of … at Gallery in BRIC House
In the Wake of … (September 30, 2021 – January 9, 2022) features an 8-channel soundscape and an over 55-foot long work of paper, water, ink, soil and other materials.
Athena LaTocha: Mesabi Redux at Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Mesabi Redux (June 10 – December 25, 2022) consists of cast iron reliefs produced during a month-long residency.
Athena LaTocha: Buffalo Prairie (Slow Burn) at Plains Art Museum
Buffalo Prairie (Slow Burn) (June 5, 2019 – January 25, 2020) is a monumental ink wash drawing created by LaTocha during her residency inside the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity at Plains Art Museum May 2 – June 4, 2019.
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977–98).