Artists in residence
The Kimball Arts Center AIR program is a platform for both emerging and established Chicago artists to exhibit and sell their work, and to expand their creative community within our multidisciplinary building. AIR fosters collaboration, resource sharing and accessible art collecting amongst the creative community of Chicago.
winter air 2026
ila creative x kac artists in residence exhibition february to april 2026
Back for a third year, we’re excited to announce the Winter 2026 Artists in Residence in partnership with ILA Creative Studio. Gabi Bozeman, Harlem West and Zakia Rowlett have been selected by our collaborators at ILA and will have their work in exhibition and for sale in our public hallways of the KAC from February til April 2026.
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Harlem West
Harlem Masimba West is a psalmist, griot and archival artist from Out South Chicago. Their practice is tethered to the portals that find black folks. Anchored in analog mediums, Harlem's work is centered at the crossroads of the post colonial taboo and ancestral veneration. They weave storytelling into a tapestry of sonic play, tintype portraits, cyanotype displays, & double 8 short films as tools for transcending linear time. At their center, Harlem is an eldest sibling doing their best to honor the name they momma gave 'em.
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Zakia Rowlett
She/Her/Hers
Zakia Rowlett - is a Texas born, Chicago made Interdisciplinary Printmaker, and Art Director. She uses digital and print media as tools to navigate identity, self-devotion, and interdependency. Her practice spans screen printing, risography, image manipulation, documentation, installation, and curation, approaching print as both a historical medium of knowledge-sharing and a contemporary site for Self Actualization.
She holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Illinois Institute of Art Chicago, dedicating her early Advertising career to multicultural storytelling, and activation. She’s been a fellow and studio monitor at Spudnik Press Cooperative concluding with the public program: Tessellate. She Conceptualized, and Co-curated alongside SUBlvl the Group Exhibition Epoch at Connect Gallery (2025). Throughout her practice she’s exhibited in shows such as Fluffy Crimes at MANA Contemporary, Spudnik Press Monitor Showcase, BYP100: She Safe, We Safe Art Installation, Chicago Art Book Fair, SUBlvl’s RCHvl Series 3 Community Zine Archive, Contextos: The Living Exhibit, Black Zine Fair Brooklyn NY, and SAIC’s Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection + Archives. Zakia is 1/5th of Chicago Based Experiential Creative Collective SUBlvl where programming is approached with a multidisciplinary lens, spotlighting Artists from underrepresented backgrounds.
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Gabi Bozeman
She/Her/Hers
Gabi Bozeman is a self-taught artist based in Chicago, IL. Since starting her practice in October 2024, she has created over 50 works, exhibited in 26 shows, painted a mural for the Uptown Chamber of Commerce, and been featured on Channel 21 as well as CBS Chicago. Working in acrylic, Bozeman blends surrealism and figurative expressionism, using bold color to capture emotions and mindsets at different stages of life, often centering Black women in her portraits.
interested in a piece?
All work is for sale unless otherwise noted. Please reach out to inquire! 25% of all sales goes directly back into funding future Artist in Residence programs at KAC.
Our AIR Director, Maddy, will get back to you ASAP :)
maddy@stockingurban.com
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