The Waubonsee Community College Art Department invites the public to a new exhibit “Closer Than You’d Think,” by James Jankowiak. The artist will also offer a lecture that is free and open to the public on Sept. 7.
Jankowiak’s work will be displayed from August 10 to September 11 in the college’s Arrowhead Room Gallery, located in Dickson Center on the Sugar Grove Campus, Route 47 and Waubonsee Drive. Viewing hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and closed on Sunday.
The lecture takes place at 11 a.m. on Sept. 7 in Von Ohlen Hall, Room 200, also on the Sugar Grove Campus. J
ankowiak was born and raised in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. He honed and developed the knowledge and skills he gained from his early years as a graffiti artist, and now applies them to his full-time endeavors as a professional artist, activist and educator.
Although mostly self-taught, Jankowiak studied for short periods of time at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
He currently works as a teaching artist with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Urban Gateways, and After School Matters through their visual arts program’s “Contemporary Painting Studio” at the Eric Solorio Academy High School.
Jankowiak’s Public Art commissions include the 2011 artwork design for the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s permanent entrance; and the 2016 Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) Downtown Public Art Project. This summer, the CTA will unveil Jankowiak’s one-of- a-kind art on glass panels, which will be featured in the Union Station Transit Center underneath the canopied waiting areas for bus patrons.
Jankowiak’s work has also been exhibited widely throughout Chicago; venues include the MCA, SAIC’s Roger Brown Gallery, the Hyde Park Art Center, Johalla Projects, and the Chicago Cultural Center. In 2017, he will be engaged in a project facilitated by the Avondale neighborhood venue Corner Gallery. For more information, contact Cecilia Vargas, Art Coordinator, at cvargas@waubonsee.edu or (630) 466-2964.
