Cameron Martin joins faculty

Artist Cameron Martin will join the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as the new F.H. Sellers Professor in Painting, beginning in August. Martin is a passionate educator and a groundbreaking painter, and his appointment will advance the legacy of leadership and scholarship in the Painting and Drawing Department. Martin will be the fourth person to hold the professorship, following Ray Yoshida, Susanna Coffey, and Professor Emerit Candida Alvarez.

“We are thrilled to have Cameron fill this important role as the F.H. Sellers Professor,” said Camille Martin-Thomsen, dean of faculty and vice president for Academic Affairs. “With a Painting and Drawing program ranked No. 2 in the nation by US News and World Report, bringing an artist and scholar of Cameron’s caliber to SAIC will continue to elevate the program.” 

In his practice, Martin explores forms, palettes, and digital techniques, complicating the distinction between the handmade and the mechanical. His work has shifted over time from the representational to the abstract, and he has been a critical contributor to the contemporary discourse of painting. 

Martin has had solo exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, and the University Art Museum at SUNY Albany. His work is included in many museum collections, and he has received a Pollock Krasner, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received his bachelor’s from Brown University and completed the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program. Martin comes to SAIC from Hunter College, where he is the interim head of the BFA program.

“It is an honor to receive this professorship to teach at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, whose painting and drawing program I’ve admired for some time,” said Martin. “I’m excited to work with the next generation of artists coming out of Chicago.” 

The F.H. Sellers Professor is a full-time position at SAIC which Mary Morely Sellers established in 1939 in honor of her late husband. In this position, Martin will take a leadership role in forging the future of the department and the School; participate in student advising, committee work, and special projects; develop curricula; and participate in departmental administration and school governance. 

Martin is joined by Robert Burnier and Jessica Jackson Hutchins as new faculty members in the Painting and Drawing department. Burnier (MFA 2016) has had recent solo exhibitions at blank projects in Cape Town, Massey Klein Gallery in New York, David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, and The Arts Club of Chicago, and his work has also been exhibited at art fairs in London, Cape Town, Miami, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Copenhagen. Hutchins’ (MFA 1999) expressive and intuitive studio practice produces dynamic sculptural installations, collages, paintings, and large-scale ceramics, all hybrid juxtapositions of the handmade. She recently had solo exhibitions at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; the Hepworth Wakefield Museum; the Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, Michigan; and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Both are alums of SAIC.

“These three full-time hires bring exceptional breadth and rigor to our already distinguished department,” said Painting and Drawing Department Chair Michelle Grabner. Martin, Hutchins, and Burnier will join departmental full-time faculty Gaylen Gerber, Michelle Grabner, Sheridan Gustin, Anne Harris, Arnold Kemp, Jose Lerma, James Lutes, Frank Piatek, Scott Reeder, and Tyson Reeder. “We are a program rich in talent and the inexhaustible resources encompassing the Art Institute of Chicago,” stated Grabner.

About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 155 years, SAIC has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two in the nation, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities.