Jon Veal Obituary, Death – Jon Veal, 30, Auxiliary Board Member at Design Museum of Chicago has passed away on Thursday, December 21, 2022. Jon was co- Founder and Director at ALT-Chicago. His artistic style was ritual-based, pedagogical, and inspired by the individual’s religious convictions. He was a multi-talented artist who worked in various mediums. Jon is involved in the process of deconstructing gender politics through the use of communal performances, image fabrication, and poetry. At the same time, he is tackling racism and the long-term effects of injustice inside the social fabric of the United States.
He is addressing the subject of police violence in particular. In addition to having his work featured at Silent Funny, the Dusable Museum, and the William Hill Gallery, Jon was commissioned by the Homewood Science Center to create a piece of public interactive art for their site.His approach is collaborative and interdisciplinary, and it is informed by interpersonal relationships. He was particularly interested in the strategic possibilities of symbolic gesture, and he employs his artistic agency as a platform for the creation of common areas. His primary focus was on the strategic potential of symbolic gesture. Jon was the first African American artist to hold the position of Artist in Residence at the Oak Park Public Library.
Jon’s work is part of the library’s permanent collection. In addition, Jon spent the year 2019 as an artist in residence at the Chicago Artist Coalition’s Field/Work program. Both the 3Arts “Make A Wave” grant and the Chicago Artist Coaliton’s “Spark” grant, both presented in recognition of extraordinarily gifted artists working in the city of Chicago, were conferred upon him in the year 2020. Both of these awards are given in appreciation of particularly brilliant artists working in Chicago.
2021 In addition to his current role as the 2021 Spring Latham Fellow at the IIT Institute of Design, Jon has been invited to join the Resource Global Chicago Cohort. Jon is presently a member of the Chicago Avenue Corridor Improvement Study Team as well as the auxiliary Board of Directors at The Design Museum of Chicago. This research is being carried out in collaboration with the Lamar Johnson Collaborative and the Chicago Department of Transportation.