Public Events

Artists Le’Ana Asher and Chris Pappan are joined by DePaul students Angelina Alvarez and Salise Sepulveda from DePaul Native American & Indigenous Student Association (NAISA) to converse about displacement and the value of land acknowledgement. How should we acknowledge the peoples of this land on our campus? What is beyond land acknowledgements? How do we engage our community in this learning process? In what ways are land acknowledgments living documents and how to address that?

Le’Ana Asher is an artist deeply passionate about celebrating and preserving Native American culture. Her art embodies the enduring spirit of Indigenous people, emphasizing themes of identity, resilience, healing, and memory.

Chris Pappan is an American Indian artist of Osage, Kaw, Cheyenne River Sioux and mixed European heritage. His art confronts the dominant culture’s distorted perceptions of Native peoples whilst proclaiming that “we are still here!”

Salise Sepulveda is a DePaul University student majoring in Environmental Science. She works as a STARS Peer Mentor at DePaul, and is the Vice President of DePaul’s Native American and Indigenous Student Association.

Angelina Alvarez is a DePaul University student majoring in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies. She works in DePaul’s Latinx Cultural Center, and is the President and Co-Founder of DePaul’s Native American and Indigenous Student Association.

This event is part of DePaul’s Native Heritage Month programming.

Organized by DePaul Art Museum, DePaul’s Latinx Cultural Center, Office of Institutional Diversity & Equity, and Division of Student Affairs.

Please join us for a two-day celebration of queerness and the art of Drag and related expressions. In collaboration with Karmaklubb* and artist Brendan Fernades, this will be a weekend of international exchange anchored in the local Chicago scene.

Karmaklubb* is an autonomous nomadic queer club concept and conversational platform, and considered the most active platform of its kind in the Nordic region.

Friday, November 17, 6–8pm: Screening and Panel conversation

Metamorphosis (2018; 25:23 min) by Marte Gunnufsen shows two drag artists transforming themselves before performing in drag, accompanied by the score “Metamorphosen” by Richard Strauss, arranged by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Metamorphosis is filmed in Chicago at Berlin Nightclub, with drag artists Lucy Stoole and Benji Morino / Girlboifriend.

Queen! (2018; 4:19 min) by Marte Gunnufsen is named after the weekly drag event at smartbar in Chicago. While making this film Gunnufsen and her collaborators filmed the queue as club goers posed more than willingly.

Queering the Museum — Preus (2022) by Karmaklubb* with Cassie Brødskive and Frida Marida. This video is starring the Drag activist Frida Marida (Hani Assaf, LEB) and artist and Drag academic Cassie Brødskive (Jens Martin Hartvedt Arvesen, NOR) presenting a raw response — touching, teasing, and perceiving the architecture of the Preus Museum in Horten, Norway.

Supported by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Presented in partnership with DePaul University's John T. Richhardson Library, Department of LGBTQ Studies, and the LGBTQIA+ Center.

Draglesque/Burlesque show with Oslo and Chicago artists.

Afterparty TBA!

Participants from Oslo, Norway: Tine Semb / Karmaklubb* + Mary Ann Skretteberg Andersen / Phoenix D'vine + Hani Assaf / Frida Marida + Jens Martin Hartvedt Andersen / Cassie Brødskive + Carina Carlsen / Fifi von Tassel + Peter Ramthun / Eliza Fierce + Marte Gunnufsen

Supported by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Presented in partnership with DePaul University's John T. Richhardson Library, Department of LGBTQ Studies, and the LGBTQIA+ Center.

Please join us for a conversation with Life Cycles artists William J. O’Brien, Devin T. Mays, Iris Bernblum, and Ava Wanbli moderated by Bibiana Suárez where they will share their changes as artists, their experiences as teaching artists, and art as a mode of survival.

Chicago-based artist William J. O’Brien works in multiple media: drawing, painting, ceramic, metal sculpture, installation, and assemblage. His artistic expression, which is grounded in drawing, reflects a broad range of cultural influences, including ethnography, psychedelia, pop, poetry, geometry and art history.

Devin T. Mays is a Chicago-based artist who has developed an interdisciplinary practice that he often refers to as an investigation of the infinite, a practice-in-participation, a practice-in-practice. Through sculpture and installation, sound, performance, and photography, Mays creates poetic gestures of observation and ritual.

Iris Bernblum is a cross-disciplinary, conceptually based artist with a deep interest in psychoanalysis. She explores ideas around human nature, power and vulnerability, focusing primarily on the way we frame our sense of self in regard to gender, sexuality, pleasure and desire.

Ava Wanbli is a new media performance artist who uses video, performance, 3D scanning, sculpture, and game engines to reconstruct dynamics of spectacle and intimacy through eroticized mediation of the body.

Bibiana Suárez, born and raised in Puerto Rico, has resided in Chicago since 1980. She has a BFA (1984) and an MFA (1989) in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently a professor in The Art School at DePaul University.