Sandra Binion
Sandra Binion is a Swedish-American artist based in Chicago whose artistic practice includes fine-art exhibitions, multimedia installations involving, and performance art. Her work has been performed and exhibited at museums, galleries, theaters, and festivals in the US, Europe, and Japan. Some of the venues that have featured her work include the Evanston Art Center, Link's Hall, Kunstraum (Stuttgart), The Goodman Theatre, and Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art History. Her early performance art, begun in the mid-1970s is frequently affiliated with Fluxus performances. After graduating with a BFA in dance from University of Cincinnati – College -Conservatory of Music in 1975, she performed in Charlotte Moorman's Annual Avant-Garde Art Festival in 1974, 1975, and 1978. "Egyptian Frieze Walk" was performed in the Festival's 15th iteration in Cambridge, MA. Documentation of these performances was included in Block Museum of Art's "Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s-1980s." Her early performances of the 1970s, often challenge the separation between art and life, elevating mundane activities like ironing clothes, scrubbing steps, dining and doing laundry, and incorporating them into art performances. Her live performances often incorporate live sound performances; She has collaborated  with sound artists and musicians such as Lou Mallozzi, Michael Zerang, and Tatsu Aoki. Since the early 1980s she has also created installation artworks. In the 1992 she earned a MFA in Filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her installations range from single-channeled video installations to entire multi-channeled video architectural facades (such as "Seasons" installed at Hyde Park Arts Center in 2007), and often expand to incorporate media such as sound and photography, as well as scents (such as her 2016 installation of "Distille"). Her recent exhibitions have emphasized her work in photography and  painting, which she has been involved in throughout her career. Her early photographic-collaborations include work with Dirk Bakker. Many of her artworks make reference to literary works, including readings from novels by Marguerite Duras, and most recently Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary". As an arts organizer she has curated exhibitions at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago since 2007. In 2010 she begun the 70+ Visual Artist Oral Archive project with Linda L Kramer, which documents contributions and achievements of Chicago artists age 70 and over. The archives will be stored at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the  Art Institute of Chicago. Collections. Public collections that hold works by Sandra Binion include: University Art Museum of Kyoto City University of Arts (Japan), Bibliothèque patrimoniale Villon (Rouen, France), Musée Flaubert (Rouen, France), Museo della Grafica di Pisa (Italy), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago History Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, International Center of Photography (New York), Monasterio de San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Venice, Italy), Museum of Modern Art (New York). Binion also has works in private collections in India, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States.