In Progress | Susy Bielak and Fred Schmalz

Susy Bielak is an artist and writer who draws upon encounters in daily life to speak to larger human concerns including history, migration, displacement, and the relationship between domestic life and disaster. With a practice centered in drawing and language, she works across media including installation, performance, photography, printmaking, and video. Bielak’s work has been collected and exhibited widely, including by the International Print Center, Museo Tamayo, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Walker Art Center, and has published in Art Papers, Poetry Magazine, and New American Paintings. She was a 2020-21 BOLT artist-in-residence at Chicago Artists Coalition, and is a 2022 Spudnik Press artist-in-residence. Together with Fred Schmalz, Bielak is an ongoing artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center, with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Fred Schmalz is an artist and poet whose debut poetry collection, Action in the Orchards (Nightboat Books), responds to encounters with dance, music, and visual art. His recent writing has appeared in The Canary, Poetry, Conduit, and Oversound. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center in his ongoing art collaboration with Susy Bielak, Balas & Wax. He was poet-in-residence for the LA Philharmonic’s 2018 FluxConcert in its season-long fluxus festival. In 2017, he collaborated with Lou Mallozzi on “Tracking Shots” for the MCA’s 50th Anniversary celebration. He lives in Chicago, where he cocurates the Poetry & Biscuits reading series.