2 Chicago creatives receive MacArthur "genius grants"
Two people from Chicago were selected to receive "genius" grants through this year's MacArthur Fellow Program.
Ling Ma, a fiction writer, and Ebony G. Patterson, a multimedia artist, were among the 22 creatives who will receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached award from the Chicago-based organization.
Ma's work involves "mixing speculative and realist modes of storytelling to reflect on the systems that structure our lives in a globalized, capitalist era," according to the MacArthur Foundation website.
She published a novel, "Severance," in 2018 which told the story of a 20-something Chinese American woman who is one of the few survivors of a devastating fungal pathogen. "Bliss Montage," a collection of stories, was published in 2022.
Ma received her bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and a master's in fine arts from Cornell University. She's taught at both schools and will rejoin the University of Chicago as an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature next year.
Patterson creates "intricate, densely layered, and visually dazzling works that center the culture and aesthetics of postcolonial spaces." Her work spans painting, photography, video, performance, sculpture, textiles, and installation.
Her work has been exhibited at venues including the National Gallery of Jamaica, Alice Yard in Trinidad, the National Gallery of Bermuda, the New York Botanical Garden, The Museum of Art and Design, Perez Art Museum Miami, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, among others.
She received her bachelor's in fine arts from Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and an MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She's also taught at multiple schools, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.