2024 Artists

Spiegel Aihara Workshop is a transdisciplinary design firm, operating at the nexus of architecture, landscape, and urban design. Megumi and Dan believe in the transformative power of good design, in the inextricable relationship between building and context, and in the vital role the built environment plays in the development of community. They view design as a collaborative, research-based process, and work closely with clients to better understand their needs and advance their goals. Current recipients of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

Megumi Aihara, SAW founder, and Landscape Architect, has played a significant role in the design and construction of landscapes of all scales across the United States and beyond. Her work at SAW and her teaching focuses on blurring distinctions between landscape and architecture. She holds an MLA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is a licensed Landscape Architect in California and Hawaii.

SAW founder Dan Spiegel is an architect and educator, leading the SAW’s architectural practice while leading advanced graduate architecture studios at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Dan’s work spans scales and timelines, intertwining the conceptual with practical, using a background in Public Policy to engage design as tool for community engagement and development. Dan was the recipient of the League Prize from the Architectural League of New York in 2018. He holds an MArch from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is a licensed Architect in California and Hawaii.

Spiegel and Aihara will work with an architect Tamotsu Teshima to create an artwork that will study representations of ‘landscapes after the fire’ across cultures in film, literature, and artifacts of the built environment in the United States and Japan, with a focus on the devastation and renewal brought about by fire. The completed work will be exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

Speigel Aihara Workshop

J’Sun Howard has presented his works internationally as a Chicago-based dancemaker. He is a 2020 3Arts Awardee, a recipient of their inaugural Esteemed Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), and a 2019 Asian Cultural Council Fellow. A Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow, a Ragdale Foundation Sybil Shearer Fellow, 2017 3Arts Make A Wave Awardee, and 2014 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist. He has been commissioned by Common Conservatory, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, World Dance Alliance, and The Art Institute of Chicago. He holds an MFA in Dance and a certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan.

Howard will work with the music and dance unit Ging Gang Gong to create a dance piece that highlights the stories of dancers from diverse backgrounds in Japan and the United States and fosters empathy and mutual understanding.The dance will be performed in the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

Andrea Myers is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on textiles, paper, installation and the space between two and three-dimensionality through abstraction, patterning and saturated color. She received her BFA in Printmedia in 2002 and her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies in 2006 both from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited widely including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Toledo Museum of Art, Fiber Arts International, the Columbus Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, and the Springfield Art Museum.

She has participated in artist residencies at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, MI, A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University (New Orleans), Fortress Man Textile Symposium (Daugavpils, Latvia), the Textile Art Center (New York City), and in 2018 traveled to Dresden, Germany for two months as part of the Greater Columbus Arts Council artist exchange program. Myers was one of five 2011 Efroymson Fellowship recipients and has also been awarded artist’s grants from the City of Chicago, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

Myers will work with a textile artist Mariko Kobayashi to create a collaborative art piece focusing on the habitats of endangered bird populations native to Yumeshima; home to around 100 bird populations, including the endangered black-winged stilt and little tern. The completed work will be exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

andreamyersartist.com

Katelyn Rebelo is a documentary and experimental filmmaker whose work uses intentionally slow processes such as handcrafted animation, analogue manipulation, and rhythms found in nature to explore personal stories that question systems of power. Her film “Mizuko” was supported by Tribeca Film Institute, and is now streaming on The Criterion Channel. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the IDA Documentary Awards, won Best Documentary Short at Atlanta Film Festival, and received special jury awards at SXSW and IDFA. From 2021 – 2022 she was a Jacob Burns Creative Culture Filmmaking Fellow. Most recently, her film “Through Sunless Ways” premiered at DOCNYC 2023, and “I Don’t Know If You Remember This” screened at Film Diary NYC 2024.

Rebelo will work with a filmmaker Kira Matsubara-Dane to create a filmthat observes the passage of time using an ancient calendar, splitting the solar year into seventy-two distinct micro-seasons. The completed film will be exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai.

katelynrebelo.com

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