JOHN PREUS

BIO

The son of Norwegian Lutheran pastors going back 6 generations, John Preus (rhymes with choice – b. 1971) spent his early years barefoot under a cathedral of trees in Makumira, Tanzania, then grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and northern Wisconsin.

After receiving his bachelors in studio art from Gustavus Adolphus College in MN, Preus apprenticed himself to master furniture-maker John Nesset and went on to fabricate for Nesset followed by many other artists and designers. He then moved to Chicago with his wife and 2 children to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a year then received his MFA from the University of Chicago in 2005.

While at UC Preus met Sara Black, David Wolf, Charles McGhee-Hassrick and Alta Buden who together founded Material Exchange, a collective dedicated to transforming waste materials into art projects. Black and Preus went on to work together for 6 years. Preus also co-founded SHoP, a community art space in Hyde Park with Laura Shaeffer in 2011. Around 2006 Preus met Theaster Gates and began working with him on the first building he owned on Dorchester which later became the Dorchester projects. Their collaboration culminated in 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, Gates’ project at Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, for which Preus was the project lead. Preus also contributed an essay for the book dedicated to the project.

Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia. mail@pentimenti.com

Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco. jenny@renabranstengallery.com

CV

PROFESSIONAL

2025-Art writer, Newcity Chicago
2025-Adjunct Professor of Art, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI
2024-Instructor, Evanston Art Center
2023-current Visiting Faculty at Oxbow Art Residency/School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
2021-current Low Residency MFA Program Mentor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2019-2020 Artist in Residence, Sullivan High School, Chicago
2020 Open Practice Committee Lecture, University of Chicago
2019 Interpreter in Residence, year-long residency. Smart Museum. University of Chicago 2019 Visiting Lecturer, DePaul University, Chicago
2019 Mitchell Lecture Series. School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2019 Public Conversation with Glenn Adamson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2018 Visiting Lecturer, Montserrat College of Art.
2017 Visiting Lecturer UIUC Champagne-Urbana
2017 Juror – ACRE residency
2016 Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sculpture, Northwestern University
2016 Juror – Maker Grant, Chicago Artists Coalition
2015 Visiting Artist -Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN
2011-2013 Co-founder and co-director-SHoP (southside hub of production)
2011-2013 Lead fabricator,creative director for Theater Gates Studio
2008 Adjunct faculty, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2008 Adjunct faculty, City of Chicago, Truman College
2006-2008 Lead Fabricator for artist Dan Peterman
2005 Teaching Fellow, University of Chicago

PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS – SOLO

2020 A STATE OF THE UNION, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia PA
2019-2020 ADAPTATION Smart Museum, University of Chicago, in conjunction with the Harris School pf Public Policy.
2019 HOLDING PATTERNS, commissioned by the Chicago Cultural Center for Taste of Chicago
2018 THE EMPEROR STRIPPED BARE, EVEN: ADDENDA TO THE PUBLIC RECORD. Pentimenti Gallery. Philadelphia PA
2018 INFINITE GAMES: EXCERPT. Curated by John Preus w/ Mejay Gula, SAIC-AIADO department gallery
2018 THE BEAST:HERD MENTALITY. Montserrat Art Academy, Beverly, MA.
2017 INFINITE GAMES 50/50, curated by John Preus, Open House Contemporary, with Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2017 BUNKER FURNISHINGS, The Outhaus. Champagne Urbana. IL
2016 JOHN PREUS: NEW WORK, The Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 THE RELATIVE APPETITE OF HUNGRY GHOSTS, The Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2014 JOHN PREUS: ON DRAWING, Vogelmann Kunsthalle, Heilbronn Kunstverein, Heilbronn Germany
2014 THE BEAST, Hyde Park Art Center, gallery 1, Chicago, IL
2014 SLOW SOUND, Audible Gallery/Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 WILL YOU BE MY PLUS ONE? Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2024 RADICAL CRAFT, Jane Addams Hull House, Chicago
2023 AMULETO THE FRANKLIN, THE MAYFIELD, THE HYDE PARK ART CENTER, Chicago
2022 EXPO Chicago, IN SITU, installation represented by Rena Bransten Gallery
2020 BETWEEN YOU AND ME, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
2020 BETWEEN YOU AND ME, curated by Shannon Stratton, John Michale Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
2019 REWORKING LABOR – Sullivan Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2019 ART MIAMI – Pentimenti Gallery
2019 UNTITLED MIAMI, Rena Bransten Gallery
2019 HUTOPIA – Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, University of Chicago
2018 PULSE – Miami. Pentimenti Gallery, and Rena Bransten Gallery
2018 INTO THE WOODS – Rena Bransten Gallery
2018 ART BASEL-Miami, THE ARMORY SHOW, ADAA. Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2017 ART BASEL-Miami, THE ARMORY SHOW, ADAA. Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2017 PULSE-Miami, Rena Bransten Gallery.
2017 EXPANDED CHICAGO GALLERY WEEKEND, solo booth – Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2017 THE CITY BEAUTIFUL, The Donnelley Foundation, Chicago
2017 THE CURE, Weinberg Newton Gallery, with the Shriver Center for Poverty Law, Chicago
2017 THE NEW YORK ARMORY AND ADAA FAIR, NYC, with Rhona Hoffman
2016 40TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION, PART 3. Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2016 PULSE MIAMI, Rena Bransten Gallery
2016 MIAMI/BASEL, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Miami FL
2016 EXPO Chicago, Rhona Hoffman Gallery and the Rena Bransten Gallery.
2016 THE NEW YORK ARMORY FAIR, with Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
2016 ART DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, NYC, with Rhona Hoffman Gallery
2016 THE ELMHURST BIENNIAL, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst IL
2015 MIAMI/BASEL, with Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Miami FL
2015 THE FREEDOM PRINCIPLE, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
2015 REGENERATION, Ryerson Woods Nature Center, Chicago
2015 AN INVISIBLE HAND, David Weinberg Gallery, Chicago,
2015 DIVISION OF LABOR, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago.
2015 EXPO CHICAGO, with Rhona Hoffman gallery.
2014 A SPECTRUM OF IMMERSION. operetta directed, written and composed with Leroy Bach (Wilco), starring soprano, Sarah Lawrence and tenor, Calland Metts. performed in The Beast at the Hyde Park Art Center.
2014 THE SWING AND THE WALL. SHoP @ the Comfort Station.
2014 EVEN MORE LOVE HOURS THAN CAN EVER BE REPAID: COLLECTIVE KITCHEN @ EXPO Chicago.
2013 METAMORPHOSIS, Noyes Cultural Center, Evanston, IL.
2013 SPONTANEOUS INTERVENTIONS: design actions for the common good. US pavilion at the Venice architecture biennial, re-exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center.
2013 REMODELING HOME, Home Gallery, chicago.
2013 NEW MATERIAL- performances with instruments made of broken furniture. New Material has performed at the MCA Chicago, Dock 6, The Elmhurst Art Museum, Black Cinema House.
2012 SLOW RECOVERY, Dock 6 annual exhibition, Chicago.
2012 THREEWALLS CSA (community supported art) commission to make 35 objects, sold as a package with 3 other objects from csa artists, to local collectors.
2012 YOU COMPLETE ME @ Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Mi.
2012 ANTHEM/REQUIEM-Huguenot House, Kassel , Germany, during Documenta 13.
2012 THIS HOUSE IS NOT A HOME-SHOP, Chicago.
2012 P-SAD, Harold Washington College, Chicago.
2012 co-curator with laura shaeffer, toward a union of public artists, SHOP, chicago.
2012 co-curator with laura shaeffer, on making things matter: strategies for preservation, SHOP .
2011 chicago co-curator with laura shaeffer, this house is not a home, SHOP, chicago.

SELECTED GRANTS/AWARDS

2024 Jane Addams Hull House commission
2020 Not Just Another Pretty Face commission
2019 Smart Museum project commission
2019 Chicago Cultural Center/Taste of Chicago project commission
2017 Efroymson Foundation Grant
2016 NEA grant awarded to Montserrat college of art in Beverly, MA for The Beast: Herd Mentality
2016 Nominee for USA artist Fellowship
2016 Kaplan Residency Fellowship, Northwestern University
2016 DCASE individual artist grant
2015 Propeller Fund
2014-2015 Efroymson Fellowship Award
2014 Maker Grant, 1st prize
2014 DCASE individual artist grant
2014 Graham Foundation-awarded to the Hyde Park Art Center for programming in the Beast
2014 Illinois Humanities Council – awarded to the Hyde Park Art Center for programming in the Beast.
2012 Threewalls Community Supported Art Prize
2012 Propeller Fund Award-with Laura Shaeffer and Jim Duignan
2012 project stipend and travel grant for “You Complete Me” @ the Devos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University
2011 project stipend, “the World as Text”, Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts,2010 project and travel grant, “Rebuilding Mayfield”, Museum of Contemporary Craft,
2010 Threewalls commission, “2nd-Hand Reading Room”
2010 project and travel grant, “I’d Rather Be Fishin'”, Northern Michigan University and the Devos Art Museum
2008 project and travel grant, “democracy in america”, creative time
2008 project and travel grant, Braddock Active Arts
2006 project stipend, “Biographical Extensions”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2005 commission: Benches in Service of Looking at Beyond Green @ the Smart Museum

RESIDENCIES

2019 – 2020 CPS Lives Artist in Residence, Sullivan High School, Chicago
2019 Interpreter in Residence. Smart Museum of Art, Chicago
2018 CPS Lives artist residency – Sullivan High School. Chicago
2016 Kaplan Residency, Northwestern University
2015 Artist in Residence, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Partner School Initiative- John Hancock College Prep
2015 Visiting Artist – ACRE artist residency
2013-2014 Jackman-Goldwasser resident, Hyde Park Art Center
2010 visiting artist – Harold artist residency, Ohio
2010 project-based residency, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR
2009 project-based residency, Northern Michigan University, Marquette MI
2008 project-based residency, creative time, incubate, and the elizabeth foundation for the arts, new york, ny
2008 project-based residency, braddock active arts, braddock, pa

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

REVIEWS WRITTEN BY PREUS:

EXPO CHICAGO 2025: FIVE THINGS WORTH YOUR TIME AT EXPO. New City, 4.26.2025
BREAKOUT ARTISTS 2025: CHICAGO’S NEXT GENERATION OF IMAGE MAKERS: SEBASTIAN BRUNO HARRIS. New City, 4.2.2025
AS SACRED AS IT IS MUNDANE: AARON SPANGLER at ENGAGE PROJECTS CHICAGO. New City, 1.16.2025
CONGREGATE AROUND A SHARED LACK: ANTHONY ADCOCK at IGNITION SPACE. for New City, 12.5.2024
WINDOWS LOOK BACK AT US: ANNEKE EUSSEN at DOCUMENT CHICAGO. New City, 11.22.2024
2025 Catalog Essays for Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, MN for artists Jesse Dermody and Daniel Kerkhoff, 6.15.2025

2018 THE BEAST: HERD MENTALITY. catalog published by Montserrat College of Art in conjunction with the exhibition.
2018 ART AS SPECULATION. published in Legacy Arts Magazine. Issue 15. pp.14-17
2017 RAFAEL SUCKS. RAHM BLOWS. published by the Invisible Institute and Jamie Kalven. 2013 ON LOVE AND LABOR: Thoughts That Accompanied the Making of a Table. Proximity Magazine, Summer.
2012 ANTHEM/REQUIEM-John Preus for, Theaster Gates: 12 ballads for Huguenot House. Walter Konig press. pp.
2012 ANTICIPATING DEPARTURE. AREA magazine. Chicago.
2012 RELATIONAL PROSTHETICS – exhibition catalog for YOU COMPLETE ME at the Devos Art Museum
2011 THE WORLD AS TEXT-exhibition catalog

A Guide to Democracy in America. Thompson, Nato. edited by Creative Time. New York, new york. 2008.
Place as Medium, New Grounds for thinking in contemporary art, Dr. Katherine Farrington, Routledge Press, 2024.
Left Behind, review of Infinite Games by Glenn Adamson for January 2019 issue of Craft Magazine.
Across the Art/Life Divide: Performance, Subjectivity, and Social Practice in Contemporary Art, Martin Patrick, Intellect press, New Zealand,
2017  Radio program on WBEZ Chicago public radio by Linda Lutton featuring Preus’s work with CPS materials.
From a Cabin in the Woods: Dieter Roelstraete’s “Hutopia” and the Shelters of Thought, Waxman, Lori, Momus.ca
Left Behind, review of Infinite Games by Glenn Adamson for January 2019 issue of Craft Magazine. UK
The Beast, discussed in Across the Art/Life Divide: Performance, Subjectivity, and Social Practice in Contemporary Art, Martin Patrick, Intellect press, New Zealand, 2017
Infinite Games featured on WBEZ Chicago public radio, Linda Lutton featuring Preus’s work with CPS materials. 2018
Featured in 3 page spread in Legacy Magazine. 2018
Infinite Games – Best of 2017 in Chicago Tribune. 12.14.2017.
Infinite Games – Feature review in the New Art Examiner. http://www.newartexaminer.org/infinite-games-5050.html.
Infinite Games – reviewed in German design magazine, Bauwelt. http://www.bauwelt.de/themen/betrifft/Massenware-mit- Gebrauchsspuren-Chicagoer-Biennale-John-Preus-3045581.html.
Review by Susan Snodgrass on In/Site: Reflections on the Art of Place
Top 5 Commercial Gallery Exhibitions. The Relative Appetite of Hungry Ghosts at Rhona Hoffman. New City, 2016
Chicago Art 50, Preus listed among Chicago’s top 50 artists of 2016. New City
Meditating on the Personal and the Public; A Review of John Preus at Rhona Hoffman Gellery, Fogt, Brent, New City Chicago, 2016
Rhona Hoffman Gallery Opens Exhibition of Works by Spencer Finch and John Preus, Artdaily.org, 2016
Artist-Designer John Preus; And, Also, Too, Norman, Lee Ann, Daily Jstor, 2016
Eye Exam; Going Down Swinging; Review of John Preus at Rhona Hoffman, Reichert, Elliot, New City, 2016
Chicago’s Best Visual Art in 2014, (The Beast). Waxman, Lori, Chicago Tribune, 12.12.2014 Children Welcome: Art by Chicago Parents, Waxman, Lori, Chicago Tribune. Jan 28. 2015
Die Politik des Handwerks. Roeschman, Dietric. Artline Kunstmagazin. 10. 2014
Wie Alles Zusammenhängt. Sommer, Andreas. Heilbronn Gazette, Sept. 5. 2014
John Preus in the Belly of the Beast, Waxman, Lori, Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2014
Artist Profile, Artslant, with Thea Liberty Nichols
Into the Belly of John Preus’s Beast. Levitt, Aimee, Artist Profile, Chicago Reader, April 10. 2014. p. 33
Profile of the Artist: John Preus. Sethi, Shreya Ashok. New City, April 2014.
You Should Know Chicago Artist John Preus. Foumberg, Jason. Chicago Magazine. April 11. 2014
Hyde Park Art Center Will Expand with New Wing For More Artists. (features the Beast) Cholke, Sam. DNA INFO. April 14. 2014
The Beast/75 Years of the Hyde Park Art Center. Litoff, Nina. The Seen. April 22, 2014 Kickstarter Aids Chicago Hyde Park Art Center’s Anniversary Show. (featuring the Beast) Dluzen, Robin. April 10. 2014
Hyde Park Art Center newsletter-feature profile. March 2014
Ballads from a Bedpost, Peter Margasac, Musicworks, pp. 32-33, Spring 2014
Craftsman Preserves ‘Social Memory’ by Reconfiguring Desks, Tables, Chairs. Dawn Turner. Chicago Tribune 10.28.13
Collaboration Through Craft. Circling Back Into That Thing We Cast Forward: A Closing Read on Gestures of Resistance. Bloomsbury Press, 2013. Shannon Stratton and Judith Lehman pp. 219-232
The Real Estate Artist. New Yorker, Jan. 20. 2014, p.29
A Room With a Brew: on Red Flags Pub in SHoP, Ise, Claudine. Chicago Magazine, feb, 2012 http://whitecube.com/channel/in_the_museum/ theaster_gates_12_ballads_for_huguenot_house_documenta_13_2012/.
The World as Text. Ise, Claudine. critics’ pick, Artforum, july 29, 2011
Booked Solid: “the World as Text” immerses visitors in artists’ publications. Weber, Candice. Timeout Chicago, july 14, 2011
An Alternative Summer Reading List. Waxman, Lori. the Chicago Tribune, july 14, 2011
A More Imperfect Machine: Sara Black and John Preus Invoke the Demiurge in Portland. Stabler, Bert. Proximity Magazine. spring/summer 2010, p. 122.
The Art of Recycling. Moore, Anne Elizabeth. The Progressive Magazine. march 2010 issue.