August 31–November 21, 2026
August 31–December 5, 2026
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) presents two major parallel exhibitions at SAIC Galleries: LeRoy Neiman: A Keen Observer of Style and Style is the Body Thinking. These concurrent exhibitions speak to the continued resonance of the body as a critical presence, conveyor, and social marker of identity within culture. Both exhibitions open August 31; A Keen Observer of Style will close on November 21, and Style is the Body Thinking will close on December 5.
LeRoy Neiman: A Keen Observer of Style focuses on Neiman’s (SAIC 1947–50, HON 2006) striking fashion illustrations. Originally curated by Sara Hume for the Kent State University Museum in partnership with the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, the exhibition explores how this lesser-known work influenced Neiman’s lifelong interest in capturing the clothing, gesture, and style of his subjects. A Keen Observer of Style unites 70 drawings spanning Neiman’s early work in commercial illustration in Chicago and his sketches and studies throughout the ensuing decades, showcasing themes such as masculinity, celebrity, and the formal elements of gesture, line, and color. Neiman attended SAIC from 1947 to 1950 and taught figure drawing and fashion illustration at SAIC for the following decade. He received an honorary degree in 2006, and his work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and others.
“LeRoy Neiman’s legacy is woven into the fabric of SAIC, where he both studied and taught,” said SAIC President Jiseon Lee Isbara. “This exhibition is a beautiful homecoming that shows us how his early mastery of fashion illustration and human gesture laid the groundwork for his extraordinary career.”
Style is the Body Thinking is a group exhibition of international artists curated by SAIC Crown Family Professor in Painting and Drawing Michelle Grabner that further explores iterations of style in contemporary art. It examines the social and aesthetic affordances of style, portraiture, and figuration from the 1960s to the present, addressing style’s relationship to identity, power, labor, resistance, taste, the body, technology, and affect. The exhibition features the work of 56 artists across disciplines, including SAIC alumni Elijah Burgher (Post-Bacc 2002, MFA 2004), Ed Paschke (BFA 1961, MFA 1970, HON 1990), Aliza Nisenbaum (BFA 2001, MFA 2005), Christina Ramberg (BFA 1968, MFA 1973), and Saya Woolfalk (MFA 2004).
“This exhibition considers style not as surface articulation, but as embodied thought,” said Grabner. “Across six decades, the artists in this exhibition use the figure to make visible the ways art, history, power, and attitude are performed and lived through the body and in the artistic imagination.”
Generous support for Style is the Body Thinking was provided by Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson with additional support from Joan and Marshall Goldin. Exhibition programs at SAIC are made possible through the generous support of BLICK Art Materials. SAIC also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council and the Statsinger Cohen Foundation.
SAIC Galleries is free and open to the public Monday–Saturday, 11am–6pm. Visit here.
Full list of artists participating in Style is the Body Thinking
Benny Andrews, Diane Arbus, Vanessa Beecroft, Kelly Beeman, Dawoud Bey, Amoako Boafo, Elijah Burgher, Nick Cave, Nik Cho, Paul D’Amato, Angela Dufresne, Jeanne Dunning, Mari Eastman, Hossein Fatemi, Nan Goldin, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Rodney Graham, Maïmouna Guerresi, Sheila Held, Sky Hopinka, Peter Hujar, Michelle Im, Ayana V. Jackson, Brad Kahlhamer, Deborah Kass, Kiko Kostadinov, Jose Lerma, Yvette Mayorga, Patric McCoy, Shimon Minamikawa, Marilyn Minter, LeRoy Neiman, Aliza Nisenbaum, Lorraine O’Grady, Julian Opie, Tony Oursler, Martin Parr, Ed Paschke, Ebony G. Patterson, Brianna Perry, Jason Pickleman, Cheryl Pope, Robert Pruitt, Christina Ramberg, Collier Schorr, Chloe Seibert, Tschabalala Self, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Cindy Sherman, Cauleen Smith, Dylan Spaysky, Tony Tasset, Jake Troyli, Tristan Unrau, Gillian Wearing, Karl Wirsum, Saya Woolfalk, and more.
