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People

LORELEI STEWART, DIRECTOR

Lorelei Stewart, Director of Gallery 400 since 2000, has organized over 40 exhibitions, including the Joyce Award-winning exhibition Edgar Arceneaux: The Alchemy of Comedy …Stupid (2006). In 2002 she initiated the acclaimed At the Edge: Innovative Art in Chicago series, a commissioning program that encouraged Chicago area artists’ experimental practices. She holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, a BA from Smith College, and a BFA from Corcoran College of Art and Design.

DENNY MWAURA, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Denny Mwaura is the Assistant Director of Gallery 400. Exhibitions and public programs he has organized and supported include The Mask of Prosperity (2024), A Species of Theft (2022), Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art (2021), and Crip* (2022) at Gallery 400; Malangatana: Mozambique Modern (2020) at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich: Speculative Archives (2021) at Conversations at the Edge. He received his MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a recipient of the Schiff Foundation Fellowship for Critical Architectural Writing, an award granted by the Dept. of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago.

MARY KIRK, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE ASSOCIATE

Mary Kirk is the Business Administrative Associate of Gallery 400. Kirk received her BA from the UIC School Art & Art History Department. She has a background in arts administration and has recently held a position within a West Loop gallery to support programming that amplifies the voices of underrepresented artists within the art history canon. She has also worked as a registrar within an art conservation studio and maintains a continued interest in the practice of conservation and archival methods. She has held assisting roles at renowned Chicagoland cultural museums, such as the Ukrainian National Museum & the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

INÉS ARANGO-GUINGUE, EXHIBITIONS COORDINATOR

Inés Arango-Guingue is a Colombian curator, arts administrator, and writer. With a belief in the potential of art to shift paradigms, she engages with curatorial contexts that explore non-rationality, illegibility, and community building. Growing up surrounded by syncretic magical practices, she gravitates towards epistemologies that look away from Western standards of reason and categorization. Her recent research focuses on Caribbean and South American art and philosophy that acknowledge the social power of the unknown, the opaque, and the illegible. She has curated exhibitions, led artist spaces, and directed art education projects in Colombia and the United States. She holds an M.A. in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.F.A. in Art and Cultural Projects from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. 

IVANKA SUSKA, GRADUATE PUBLIC PROGRAMS STAFFER

Ivanka Suska is a Master’s student in the UIC Department of Art History studying New Media art and pursuing a concentration in Museum and Exhibition Studies. She is particularly interested in how rapid technological advancements change the way artists and audiences create, experience, and interact with art. Her research focuses on how intersections between art and technology reflect current cultural anxieties. She has served as a Gallery Assistant at Harold Gregor gallery in Bloomington, IL, and has contributed to programs through independent consulting projects. Ivanka received her BA from Illinois State University in 2020, where she studied Art History and Spanish.

COLBIE SYMONE COOK, GRADUATE CURATORIAL STAFFER

Colbie Symone Cook is an MA student at the University of Illinois Chicago studying the history and theory of photography in late 19th and 20th century America. Her interests are grounded in constructions of American identities through early modes of portraiture, documentary photography, and post-war absurdity. Most recently, she served as Curatorial Assistant at the Lowe Art Museum. Working in exhibitions, curatorial and research capacities, she contributed to multiple exhibitions including Charles White: A Little Higher (2023), American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection (2021), and A Fine Line: Highlights from the Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation (2023). Colbie received her BA from Indiana University in English Literature and Black Studies in 2021.