Steppenwolf 50: Through the Eye of Sandro Miller - The Art Center-Highland Park

Installation View, The Art Center Highland Park

I was first introduced to the work of Sandro Miller while attending this year’s Member Show at The Arts Club of Chicago. I arrived early and was waiting for a friend, so I began to wander around the space. I found myself standing in front of a black and white photograph, gazing at an intense portrait of a man whose face displayed the lines and creases earned by years of lived experience. His expression conveyed both exhaustion and pain. I looked down at the label and found that the subject was actor Al Pacino. (The image can be found at the conclusion of this article)

Later, I came across a post in which Miller reflected on the image:

"Capturing legends on the fly! This candid black and white portrait of the iconic Al Pacino was taken just as he walked out the stage door after his performance in the 2012 Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. Even in an impromptu moment, the raw emotion and presence shine through, showcasing the timeless power of photography." —Sandro Miller

That encounter stuck with me, so last weekend, I made a point of visiting The Art Center - Highland Park, to see Miller’s exhibition titled Steppenwolf 50: Through the Eye of Sandro Miller.

The exhibition presents a beautifully curated portrait series featuring performers from the historic Steppenwolf Theatre Company. While the exhibition includes two expansive groupings of individual images as well as singular portraits, its centerpiece is a series of diptychs displayed throughout the main gallery. The evident collaborations between each uniquely theatrical subject and the gifted photographer result in the collection of compelling diptychs. Each pairing includes a bold black-and-white headshot, with a vibrant—and often playful—color image in which the actor engages with a large circular aperture set against a bold red backdrop. Together, the images reveal both the introspective and performative sides of the subject.

Installation View, The Art Center Highland Park

As I moved through the exhibition, a hypnotic French soundtrack drifted through the gallery, creating a cinematic atmosphere that somehow heightened the photographs’ dramatic interplay of light and shadow. The experience was immersive, intensifying Miller’s presentation of each individual subject.

At the entrance to the main gallery, a curator’s statement sets the tone for the exhibition with a thoughtful observation by TAC Manager, Caleb John Smith:

"...Miller captures humanity at its most animated; Steppenwolf 50 is an intimate look at the physicality of the contemporary actor through the eye of someone who sees them as they are: human, alive, and full of light."

Smith’s observation aptly describes the exhibition. While the photographs celebrate the actors as well as their abilities to perform, they are ultimately images of people—revealing vulnerability, confidence, and humor. The images present the existence between the artist’s public persona and the private self. Miller’s gift is his ability to unite the subject’s authentic humanity through stunning images of artistic beauty.

Steppenwolf 50: Through the Eye of Sandro Miller continues through June 13 at The Art Center - Highland Park. The Art Center is located at 1957 Sheridan Road, in Highland Park. Learn more at theartcenterhp.org

Sandro Miller, Al Pacino, New York City, 2012, Digital archival print, 17 x 22"

From The Arts Club of Chicago, 2026 Members Show

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Sandro Miller is a globally renowned photographic and video artist whose mastery of lighting and visual storytelling has shaped a distinguished career spanning 45 years. Based in Chicago, he has developed an approach that blends artistry with empathy, treating his subjects as collaborators rather than mere sitters. Drawing inspiration from legends like Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, and Sebastião Salgado, Miller absorbed the visual history of photography, building on these influences to create his expressive style.

Miller’s approach is rooted in collaboration and authenticity, emphasizing genuine emotional exchanges during portrait sessions. His skilful use of light and composition allows him to capture the essence of his subjects, revealing the truth behind their appearances. His work, whether in black and white or colour, digital or film, explores the deeper dialogues of contemporary life, transcending cultures and settings. His global reach, combined with his local roots, creates a dynamic, evolving body of work that reflects the complexities of human experience.

The Art Center Highland Park, a not-for-profit organization, is the North Shore’s home for artistic discovery and creative exploration. Through innovative programs, exhibitions, and classes designed for all levels and ages, The Art Center provides a welcoming space for our diverse communities to experience and participate in the arts.

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THE MEMBERS' SHOW - The Arts Club of Chicago

Tanya Gill, to gather (detail), 2025, found vase and thread

The 92nd Exhibition of Visual Artist Members
January 27–March 7, 2026

Last weekend, I was invited to visit The Arts Club of Chicago to experience the annual members’ show. The exhibition is intentionally eclectic, celebrating and showcasing the creative work of the club’s artist members. The works presented offer a wide range of media, styles, genres and forms, all produced within the past two years.

As I wandered through the expansive exhibition, which features more than eighty works of art, I found myself reacquainted with recent pieces by artists I have either worked with in the past or whose careers I’ve followed over the years.

Throughout the show, I became aware of the recurring theme of stitching and threadwork. The exhibition offers a number of fiber-based works, reflecting what seems to be a broader trend in the contemporary art world. For decades, fiber and textile arts were marginalized as craft. Today, that distinction continues to blur, as exhibitions increasingly highlight fiber as a conceptual and critical medium—recognizing the artistic relevance rather than dismissing it as merely decorative.

In a world saturated with digital imagery, curators seem drawn to artists whose handmade fiber-based processes highlight environmental issues—sustainability, consumerism, and their long-term impact on the planet. 

Tanya Gill, to gather, 2025, found vase and thread

One intriguing piece, to gather by Tanya Gill, brought to mind Kintsugi—a Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with lacquer mixed with powdered precious metal, intentionally highlighting the fracture. Rather than attempting to restore the object to its original state, kintsugi accepts the break as a part of the object’s life. It is believed that the object becomes more meaningful—highlighting modesty and impermanence—in its new state.

But Gill offers a new twist on this idea. Using a found vessel and thread, Gill reconstructs a shattered vase by meticulously reassembling its broken segments with a web of carefully intertwined fibers. On her website, Gill explains the conceptual origin of the work. A stroke survivor, she describes the firsthand experience of her brain repairing itself—highlighting that her traumatic experience is not unique, but part of the collective story. She says, “We all experience traumatic events that change our course, demanding that we remake ourselves.”

Vanessa Filley, The Sunlight Dragged Me Here (detail), 2025, watercolor and colored pencil on paper with thread.

Another highlight of the exhibition is the geometrically precise The Sunlight Dragged Me Here, by Vanessa Filley. A watercolor and colored pencil work on paper, adorned with meticulous pinholes and stitched lines of thread, the piece exudes quiet refinement that invites the viewer into a meditative world of precision.

The 92nd Exhibition of Visual Artist Members features an impressive range of work. While attending the show, be sure to seek out pieces by Susan Aurinko, William Conger, Lisa Goesling, Katherine Lampert, Maggie Meiners, Sandro Miller, Eric Steele, and Serene Wise. 

The exhibition continues through March 7th. The Arts Club is located at 201 East Ontario Street, Chicago, IL 60611. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11-6 and Saturday 11-3. The Arts Club is closed on Sunday and Monday. Learn more at www.artsclubchicago.org.

Vanessa Filley, The Sunlight Dragged Me Here (detail), 2025, watercolor and colored pencil on paper with thread.

TANYA HASTING GILL is a multimedia artist and educator whose work explores collapsing environments, adaptation, and restoration through object making, painting, drawing, video and fiber. Material investigation is central to her practice; she is invested in material properties, limitations and context. Gill constructively plays with material limits and combinations, drawing out new meanings. Her work shifts between the political, social and personal realms, endeavoring to visually articulate and reverberate feelings that we all share. Gill has been a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, as well as in residence at McDowell, Haystack Mountain School of Craft and The Ragdale Foundation. She received a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and earned a MFA in painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Gill calls Northern California, Northern India, and Chicago home. Currently she is nestled in Chicago, IL where she is a Community Artist in Residence at Hyde Park Art Center.

VANESSA FILLEY is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Evanston, IL. She is interested in the energetic threads that orient and connect us, ground us in place and time yet tether us to our ancestral past and future, the lines that bring us home. Her work ranges from large scale sculptural installations to tiny embroidery pieces to poems, photographs, and drawings in watercolor, pinprick and thread. Filley was voted one of Photolucida’s Top 50 in 2018 and has shown work nationally and internationally including the Sonoma County Museum of Art, Berlin Photography Week, the Lishui International Photography Festival, FOCUS PhotoLA, Stricoff Gallery, Galerie Joseph Turene, Western Michigan University, Vivid Art Gallery, Arbor3Arts, The Affordable Art Fair,The Nashville Public Library, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, the US Consulate General in Saudi Arabia and the inaugural Cosmic Geometries show at Secrist Beach in 2024.

Since 1916, THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO has been a preeminent exhibitor of international art, a forum for established and emerging artists, and a celebrated venue for performers from around the world. For over 100 years, The Arts Club has opened its membership to artists and patrons of the arts, and its exhibitions to the public. At its inaugural meeting, the mission of the Club was defined as: “to encourage higher standards of art, maintain galleries for that purpose, and to promote the mutual acquaintance of art lovers and art workers.” The mission of the Club has since grown and expanded, and is now:

To encourage, foster, promote, and sponsor activities and presentations which would aim to increase public interest in the arts and related activities;To expand the artistic horizons of a public interested in the arts and related activities, which will include lectures, lecture/demonstrations, symposia, gallery talks, films, music, and dance presentations, and related educational programs designed to further these purposes; To maintain a facility for the presentation of these activities and exhibitions; To acquire by gift or purchase, and maintain a permanent collection of fine art, and to present temporary exhibitions of the fine arts in a gallery open to the public.

The Arts Club continues to uphold this mission, offering between three and four public exhibitions per year, a permanent collection including work by many modern and contemporary masters, and a diverse calendar of programming offered to its membership and guests.