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Seasonal Art Program
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curated by
Melina
Ausikaitis
contact
art_lulacafe
Current Exhibition
SUMMER 2026
opening reception
Tuesday, June 30th
6-9pm
Jean Cate
Jean Cate (b. 1990, Pasadena, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur based in Chicago. She earned her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, specializing in painting, drawing, and ceramics, with further studies in papermaking, philosophy, and performance at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency.
Cate’s work revolves around the theme of atmosphere, drawing inspiration from the ever-changing and dramatic forces of nature, using watercolor, pastel, ink, and salt on raw birch wood panels. She is drawn to how visual metaphors mirror the experience of life and consciousness.
She has taught at institutions including the Driehaus Museum and Ghost Ranch. Cate has been featured in a solo exhibition at VSG Contemporary (2025) and has attracted commercial recognition through a licensing deal with Crate & Barrel.
As the owner of Martha Mae Art Supplies & Beautiful Things and The Center of Order and Experimentation, collaboration and community is at the heart of all of her ventures.
Cate’s work revolves around the theme of atmosphere, drawing inspiration from the ever-changing and dramatic forces of nature, using watercolor, pastel, ink, and salt on raw birch wood panels. She is drawn to how visual metaphors mirror the experience of life and consciousness.
She has taught at institutions including the Driehaus Museum and Ghost Ranch. Cate has been featured in a solo exhibition at VSG Contemporary (2025) and has attracted commercial recognition through a licensing deal with Crate & Barrel.
As the owner of Martha Mae Art Supplies & Beautiful Things and The Center of Order and Experimentation, collaboration and community is at the heart of all of her ventures.
pricelist
for further inquiry please contact artlulacafe@gmail
Website: jeancate.com
Instagram: jeanmcate
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Zoelle Nagib
This body of work started in 2021, with a question and a bundle of colorful scrap glass. That year, at the age of 40 I accepted parts of myself that I had long kept hidden and came out as queer. My earliest rainbows were made from brightly colored scrap glass that my dad had kept for literally decades, too precious for the trash bin but too showy or small for everyday projects. I found this a fitting analogy for what I was going through at the time, getting back into glass after more than a decade of not using a medium that had provided a lifesaving point of focus as a young survivor of sexual assault, school bullying, and being closeted. During this time, I was recovering memories long shoved away and attempting to embody my true self. It seemed the perfect time to take these small and precious scraps and turn them into something whole and new and ready for imperfect acceptance. I kept making rainbows in the following years, especially utilizing a small stock of handpulled tubing that my dad and his friends David Wilson and David Smith had made in North Carolina in the late 1990’s. Glass has memory, it holds stress. It was a difficult road to find my adult voice in a medium that carried so many personal memories, many of them very stressful. By 2025, more comfortable with myself and my glass-working skills, I set up hot shop time with Sean Bradley, a friend and glassblower from Philadelphia, to pull a batch of my own tubing, increasing my hand in my creations and empowerment over my narrative. This specialized and truly unique process incorporates colors, surface designs, and textures that are not available through commercial neon glass suppliers. What you see scattered on the wall here is bits of memory, new pairings and salvaged colors, the incorporation of paint (another medium I am very fond of) and ultimately an acceptance of what came before, with an openness to infinite possibility.
pricelist
for further inquiry please contact artlulacafe@gmail
Website: neon-chicago.com
Instagram: z_o_e_l_l_e
Lula Cafe - PAST EXHIBITIONS
Spring 2026
Diego Bleifuss Prados
Jesse Malmed
Winter 2026
Chris Strong
Grant Newman
Fall 2025
Eric Claridge
Melina Ausikaitis
Summer 2025
Claire Mooney
Christopher Michael Hefner
Spring 2025
XLAOOC
EXTRA LARGE AND OUT OF CONTEXT:
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an exhibition curated by Anders Nilsen
Participating Artists:
Yvan Alagbe’
Charles Burns
Genevieve Castree
CF
Kevin Huizenga
Jack Kirby
Aidan Koch
Marijpol
Anders Nilson
Laura Park
Chris Ware
Flor Flores
Marzena Abrahamik
Fall 2024
Zander Raymond
Claire Moore
Spring 2024
Carie Lassman
Brian Wells
Winter 2024
Sue Crawford
Day Brierre
Spring 2023
Lee Miko Romero
Mariano Chavez
Summer 2023
Ray Borchers
Ann Marie Greenberg
Winter 2023
Kaylee Wyant
Angela Lopez
Summer 2022
Lori Seidemann
Cody Hudson
Winter 2022
Grace Rother
Volker Saul
Fall 2022
Robert Jordan
Sam Rosby
Summer 2021
Amy Case
Caroline Walp
Adam Sherman
Dan Devening
Doug McCombs
Juan Chavez
Wesley Kimler
Rex Flodstrom
Winter 2021
Michelle Bolinger
Monica Rezman
Spring 2020
Pamela Frasier
Rose Lazar
Spring 2019
Ray Borchers
Morgan Sims
Summer 2019
Emily Counts
Melina Ausikaitis
Winter 2019
Allen Moore
Dan Black
Fall 2019
Rob Mazurek
Nathan McKee
Spring 2018
Marzena Abrahamik
Beth Hoeckel
Summer 2018
Jeremy Bolen
Claire Arctander
Winter 2018
Jordan Martins
Fall 2018
Anu Sankarin
Leslie Baum
Spring 2017
Joe Cassan
Melina Ausikaitis
Summer 2017
Gwendolyn Zabicki
Garrett Jensen
Fall 2017
Nathan Vernau
Tim
Nickodemus