A.J. MCCLENON  b.1986
                                                       
EDUCATION

2014 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFAW Fellowship
Recipient, Chicago, IL

2011 University of Maryland College Park, BA, Studio Art, Creative
Writing  Minor, College Park, MD

2006 The New School, Media Studies, New York, New York

TEACHING

2023 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Writing Lecturer

2022 - present School of the Art Institute of Chicago Film/Video/New Media, Lecturer

2022 - present School of the Art Institute of Chicago Sound Department, Lecturer

2020 - present School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Contemporary Practices, Lecturer

2019- present Chicago Parks District, Teaching Artist, Chicago

2017 -2018 Gary Light Open Works, Teaching Artist, Gary, Indiana

2017- 2020 SAIC @ Homan Square, Faculty, Chicago

SELECTED SOLO PERFORMANCES / EXHIBITIONS

2025
Watershed Art & Ecology, Vega & Ramo w/Zachary Nicol, Chicago, IL

2024
Watershed Art & Ecology, Foot Soldier, Chicago, IL

2023
Elastro AV Festival, I Had Cut My Face Up Into Tiny PiecesChicago, IL
Afrofuturist Weekend at Elastic Arts, Notes of VEGA, Chicago, IL

2022
Poetry Foundation, Orca Translations, Chicago, IL
Nightingale Closing Festival, Notes on VEGA, Chicago, IL

2021
Hyde Park Art Center, Notes on VEGA, Chicago, IL
The Nicholson Project, Notes on VEGA, Washington, D.C.
NONopera, All the Pretty Little Horses, L’s GA, Chicago

2020
Experimental Sound Studio, Streets, Quarantine Concerts, online                                       
Hyde Park Art Center, RIP Ancestral Daydreaming, Chicago, IL
Springfield Art Gallery, Untied, University of Illinois, Springfield, IL

2019
Museum of Contemporary Art, VEGA, In Progress, Chicago, IL
Une Nuit D'artistes/ Ansanm, Yon Nwit Ak Atis Cultural Exchange,
Cap-Haitian, Haiti
Roman Susan Gallery, Black Water: Polarity, Chicago, IL

2018
Links Hall, Led Zeppelin Can’t Steal My Daddy’s Black, Chicago, IL
Read/Write Library, RIP Eugene Williams, Chicago, IL
Black Cinema House,  Black Water, Chicago, IL
Hume Gallery, Performance Series at Dogleach, performance,
Chicago, IL
Links Hall, Black Water: Polarity, performance, Eclipsing Festival,
Chicago, IL

2016
Filmfront, Black Water, screening + sound series, Chicago, IL
F4F, Black Water, Chicago, IL

SCREENINGS / SOUNDSCAPES

2025
cam.contemporarie, VOTE4VEGA2124, Chicago, IL

2022
Logan Center for the Arts, All That Light: A Ten-Year Retrospective
of the Artists-in-Residence Program (2012-2022) Showcase,
Chicago, IL
Rapture Film Festival, Speaking Into Existence in group screening, Detroit, MI

2021
Arts + Public Life, New Witnesses: Artists-in-Residence Exhibition,
Chicago, IL

2020
Chicago Parks District, Your Night Out At Home, Chicago, IL

2019
Threewalls, In-Session w/ Angel Bat Dawid, Chicago, IL
Echo Park Film Center, LA Film Forum, Los Angeles, CA
FLOAT w/Jefferson Pinder, 31st ST Beach, Chicago, IL

2018
Threewalls, Tongues Untied w/Amina Ross, Chicago, IL
Water Music on the Beach, performance w/Uhuru Moor, Chicago, IL
Constellation, Third Coast International Audio Festival, Chicago, IL
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Sackler Museum,
Washington, D.C.
Counterpath, The Unseen Festival, Denver, CO
Third Coast International Audio Festival, Imaginary Advice, Chicago, IL

2017
Rootwork Gallery, Altar Call, sound, Chicago, IL
Fine Art Complex 1101, Nasty Women, Tempe, AZ
The Promontory, The Corner, Chicago, IL
4th Ward Project Space, Sneaker Boy Dreams by Ashley Teamer, Chicago, IL
Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL
Compound Yellow, Mothering, Oak Park, IL

2016
Chicago Filmmakers, Super 8 Lives! Chicago, IL
Comfort Station, Her Environment, Chicago, IL
Woman Made Gallery, Feminism (n): Plural, Chicago, IL

COLLABORATIONS / GROUP SHOW

2025
Elastic Arts, Elastro Night: Regina Martinez & A.J. McClenon, Chicago, IL

2025
EMPAC, Gestures Investigating the Good and Not So Good… w/ Katherine  
Simóne Reynolds, Troy NY

2024
ingrown gallery, a tumbling ave fell onto itself, Chicago, IL
Roman Susan: Berger Park Coach House Theatre, a Girly Show w/ Jared
Brown, Chicago, IL
Night Out In the Parks Outdoor Film Series, Film School, Chicago, IL

2021
Arts + Public Life: Artists-in-Residence Exhibition, New Witnesses,
Chicago, IL
Springfield Art Gallery, Untied, University of Illinois, Springfield, IL

2019
Threewalls, In-Session w/ Angel Bat Dawid, Chicago, IL                                    

2018
Threewalls, Tongues Untied w/Amina Ross, Chicago, IL
Hyde Park Art Center, The Art of Being Dangerous, Chicago, IL

2017
Gallery 400, Make Room, Chicago, IL

2014 
Arts Incubator, Intersectionality Critique Exchange, Chicago, IL
FLAT Space, I Understand and I Wish to Continue, video, Chicago, IL              
Defibrillator, Never Satisfied, Chicago, IL          

2013 
G-Fine Art, Revival, Chicago, IL

2011
Longwood Arts Center, Toys & Games, video, Bronx, NY
Reston Greater Arts Center, BITE: identity & humor, Reston, VA       

2010 
Brentwood Arts Center, IMPRESSED, Hyattsville, MD

COMMISSIONED WORK

2025
18th Street Art Center, Revival Revival, Sage Ni’Ja Whitson,
Santa Monica, CA

2019
Danspace Project, Oba Qween Baba King Baba, Sage Ni’Ja Whitson,
New York, NY

Aspect Ratio, What Does She See When She Shuts Her Eyes, Sabina Ott & Dana Duff,
Chicago, IL
Chicago Cultural Center, This Is Not A Drill w/ Jefferson Pinder, Chicago, IL
Cultural D.C., This Is Not A Drill w/ Jefferson Pinder, Washington, D.C.

2017
Steppenwolf, Black As Eye Wanna BE, Jenn Freeman, Chicago, IL

CURATORIAL / COMMUNITY WORKS

2023 - Present
Film School, Co-Founder
touring film series that feature Black films that have remained in
obscurity.

2018 - Present
Columbus Park, Artistic Youth Programmer, Chicago, IL
Programming collaborative video/sound/performance projects and events with youth ages 12-21.

2016 - 2022
F4F, Co-Founder, Chicago, IL
Specialized in the programming & exhibition of experimental sound performances, local artist-led workshops, and community-oriented events.

2016 – 2019   
Beauty Breaks, Co-Organizer, Chicago, IL        
co-curated, designed, and programmed workshops and participatory performance series by and for femme-identified people of African descent. Beauty Breaks has hosted workshops by over 40 artists with over 100 unique workshop participants in Chicago, Bronx, NY, and Los Angeles. 

GRANTS / AWARDS

2022
3ARTS Next Level Recipient

2020
3ARTS Award Recipient
SPARK Grant Recipient

2019
3ARTS Make A Wave Grant
MAP Fund Recipient
Night Out In the Parks

2018
Emergency Fund Grant, Foundation of Contemporary Arts
Full Diversity Scholarship, Center Program

2017
POWER Grant

2014
SAIC MFA Writing Fellowship
SAIC Edes Fellowship for Emerging Artists Nominee

2012
SAIC MFAW Small Grant Recipient
SAIC Merit Scholarship Recipient

2009
Paula Santan Scholarship for Art

2008
Stephanie E. Pogue Memorial Award

RESIDENCIES

2024 EMPAC, Troy, NY
Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
Surf Point, Surf Point, Maine

2023
The Luminary, St. Louis, Missouri

2021
LAMBDA Literary Retreat, Los Angeles, CA
The Nicholson Project, Washington, D.C.
Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago

2020
The Nichols Tower Artist-in-Residence

2019
The Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

2018
Center Program, Hyde Park Art Center Chicago
Links Hall, Co-Mission, Chicago

2017
High Concept Labs,Chicago

2015
ACRE Residency, Steuben, WI

2009- 2011
Jimenez-Porter Writer’s House, College Park, MD

PRESS

2022
Sixty Inches from the Center “Our Message in a Bottle, Notes from VEGA: A.J. McClenon”
by Isra Rene, March 25, 2022

2021
Washington Post review on “Notes from VEGA at The Nicholson Project,”
April 16, 2021

2020
New City Art, “Breakout Artists 2020: Chicago’s Next Generation of Image Makers,”
April 30, 2020

2019
Chicago Artists Writers, “Led Zeppelin Can’t Steal My Daddy’s Black,”
by Holly Warren, April 21, 2019

2018
Washington Post “Smithsonian’s new film festival offers opportunity and hope to filmmakers of
color”  by Stephanie Williams, October 18, 2018
Art Intercepts “Movement Matters: An Interview with A.J. McClenon” by
Michael Workman, January 23rd, 2018

2017
Sixty Inches from the Center “Versatility and Storytelling in the Work of A.J. McClenon”
by Tempestt Hazel, March 12, 2017

PUBLICATIONS

2022
Foglifter Journal “Grandparents,” edited by Luiza Flynn-Goodlet, Fogliter Press, pg. 84

2021
EMERGE Anthology, “still 17” and “wind,” edited by Michael Chang, Lambda Literary, pgs. 96-98

2017
Blueshift Journal,“Earth Collapses,” Loom Radiant series

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2023 - Present
Terrain Exhibitions, Board Member, Chicago
Serving on the Biennial Committee to uphold artistic practices of long-term neighbors and community members on the west side of Chicago.