Lauren Iacoponi
Visual Art
Chicago, IL
Lauren Iacoponi (Ike) is an artist, curator, writer, and arts administrator deeply invested in the DIY art scene of Chicago. She is a curatorial assistant at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and previously served as the Director of Exhibitions at Columbia College Chicago. Iacoponi has worn many hats while running independent project spaces from exhibitions coordinator at Rubberneck Gallery in West Town (2017-2019), director and co-founder of Unpacked Mobile Gallery exhibiting out of a moving truck (2017-present), and founding Purple Window Gallery in Pilsen (2020-present). Her curatorial mission includes gallery accessibility, the importance of art as experience, and strengthening the relationship between institutions, society, and artists. She produces inclusive, intersectional exhibitions and public programs that uplift the diverse communities of Chicago and the greater Midwest.
Iacoponi has over a decade of experience working as a fine arts professional and is adept in independent curation, exhibition coordination, and fine art promotion. Iacoponi is keenly interested in the development of living artists and actively promotes the work of emerging, mid-career, and under-represented artists. Iacoponi is an art critic and freelance writer, her writing has been published in Sixty Inches from Center, New Art Examiner, Chicago Reader, Chicago Artist Writers, Odyssey, DEFINE ART, APOTH Creative, and Discovering Art in Chicago in addition to catalog essays for Glass Curtain Gallery and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.
Iacoponi received her MFA from Northern Illinois University with a Certificate in Art History and her BFA from Columbia College with a Minor in Art History. She was the 2016-2017 recipient of the Northern Illinois University Fellowship for the School of Art and Design. Iacoponi has exhibited at Hokin Gallery (Chicago), C-33 Gallery (Chicago), Studio Oh! (Chicago), Elephant Room Gallery (Chicago), Ground Level Platform (Chicago), Beverly Arts Center (Chicago), Zhou B Art Center (Chicago), ARC Gallery (Chicago), Gallery 214 (DeKalb), Annette and Jerry Johns Gallery (DeKalb), Terrain Exhibitions (DeKalb), Gallery UNO (Berlin) and Becco Gallery (Kansas City). She has exhibited solo and two-person exhibitions at the University Club of Chicago and Purple Window Gallery (Chicago). Iacoponi has guest-curated exhibitions at Rubberneck Gallery (Chicago), MdW Fair 2022 at Mana Contemporary Chicago, BOCCARA Art (Miami), Heaven Gallery (Chicago), Mies van der Rohe's McCormick House at Elmhurst Art Museum, and STNDRD Exhibitions (Granite City, IL).