Jan Tichy

Jan Tichy is Associate Professor of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and a contemporary artist whose practice spans video, sculpture, architecture, and photography. Born in Prague in 1974, he earned his BFA from the Jerusalem School of Photography (2002), MFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts (2007), and second MFA from SAIC (2009).

Research Interests:

• Socially and politically engaged conceptual art
• Intersections of video, sculpture, and architecture
• Public art and community-based projects
• Light, projection, and spatial interventions
• Digital technologies and contemporary photographic practices

His major community projects include Project Cabrini Green (2011), which illuminated the last high-rise of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing complex with spoken-word projections during its demolition, and the ongoing Heat Light Water Project in Gary, Indiana (NEA-supported since 2014).

Selected Awards:

• Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Award
• Council for Advancement and Support of Education Award

Exhibitions & Collections: Tichy’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Richard Gray Gallery, The Broad Museum (Michigan State), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, and Chicago Cultural Center, among others. His pieces are held in the permanent collections of MoMA (New York), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Israel Museum (Jerusalem), and Magasin 3 Stockholm Kunsthall.

Courses Taught: Black-and-White Photography, Theory Seminar, Digital Light Projections, Public Light and Space, and Graduate Projects in Photography.