Art Faculty

Tim Lowly is an inter-disciplinary artist, working with painting, drawing, installation, digital media, photography and music: both individually and collaboratively. His work has a lyrical realism and quiet spirituality that have contributed over the last thirty years to the development of a international reputation. While Tim’s art and music address a variety of subjects, the central pillar of his work has been his daughter Temma who is, in his words, “profoundly other”. The clinical diagnoses of “multiple impairment” or “spastic quadriplegia” do little to address the compelling presence of this young woman and the way her being and essence have shaped her father’s work.

Tim Lowly was born in Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1958. The son of medical missionaries, he spent most of his youth in South Korea. He attended Calvin College and received a BFA degree in 1981. His wife Sherrie Lowly is a United Methodist Pastor. They reside in Chicago, Illinois. Since 1994 Tim has been affiliated with North Park University in Chicago as professor, gallery director, and artist-in-residence. Tim is represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles.

For additional information (including exhibitions and collections) see Tim’s personal website: www.timlowly.com 

Raised in Nsukka, Nigeria, Nnenna Okore has emerged as one of the foremost artists of her generation. Her largely abstract works are inspired by textures, colours and landscapes of her milieu. Her work, by virtue of these influences, celebrates the transformation of discarded materials into cultural objects, forms, and spaces and brings a critical focus to bear on the consumption and recycling cultures in parts of Nigeria. Her materials include newspapers, wax, cloth, rope, clay and sticks and she applies various repetitive and labour-intensive techniques, like weaving, twisting, sewing, dyeing, waxing and rolling, which were learned by watching villagers perform everyday tasks. These processes accentuate colors, textures and other visceral qualities of her sculptures.

Nnenna Okore is Assistant Professor and Chair of the Art Department at North Park University, Chicago. She earned a B.A. in Painting at the University of Nigeria in 1999, and an M.A and M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Iowa in 2004 and 2005. She has received several national and international awards and been shown in numerous galleries and museums internationally.

Nnenna Okore’s personal website: www.nnennaokore.com

Kelly VanderBrug’s intricate gouache and ink paintings investigate the world of the imagination – that of child and mother. The imagery of the pioneer and the immigrant are reoccurring and carry both a sense of hope and loss. As the paintings are seen in relationship with one another, the paintings spin a myth – a myth that emerges from an ordinary experience. The discrete scale of the imagery creates intimacy with the viewer, drawing them into the movements to and from home and safe harbor.

Kelly VanderBrug is Associate Professor in the Art Department where she teaches Drawing, Painting, Advanced Studio, Printmaking, Early Modern and Contemporary Art History. She earned her B.F.A. degree (1994) and B.A. in Art History (1997) from Calvin College in Michigan and an M.F.A. in Painting from Washington University (2001) in St. Louis, Missouri. She shows her work regularly in Chicago and nationally.

Kelly Vanderbrug's personal website: www.kellyvanderbrug.com/