Meet the Platforms Jurors

Antenna will host 2019 Platforms Fund national jurors Tonika Johnson and Robin Gallite for a night of conversation in the gallery on the evening of July 18th. Tonika is a visual artist from Chicago and Robin Gallite is the Deputy Director of RedLine, a new Warhol Foundation re-granting organization in Denver. Each will present about their work and also participate in a moderated conversation with Antenna Director of Programs, Nic Aziz.

Food provided by Stella Maris.

Tonika Johnson Bio

Tonika Johnson is a visual artist/photographer from Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood. She received her BA in Journalism & Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2003 and her MBA from National-Louis University in 2005. In 2010, she helped co-found Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.). She was featured in Chicago Magazine as a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year for her photography of Englewood’s everyday beauty, countering its pervasive media coverage of poverty and crime. In 2017, her two Englewood-based photography projects, “From the INside,” and “Everyday Rituals,” were exhibited at Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Harold Washington Library Center. In August 2017, the Chicago Reader ran a photo essay by Johnson as its cover story titled “Life Beyond The Headlines.” Selected work from her two projects were n exhibited at Loyola University’s Museum of Art (LUMA) from Feb. – June, 2018. Her latest and ongoing multi-media project, Folded Map, uniquely illustrates Chicago’s residential segregation while bringing residents together for a conservation was also exhibited at LUMA from July 2018 to October 20, 2018.

Robin Gallite

Robin is an educator, artist, advocate and explorer of different cultures. She is also a quasi-Buddhist and has a passion for fashion. Prior to joining the RedLine team in 2011, she taught middle school math and visual arts at Aurora Public Schools for five years and in Monterrey, Mexico for one. Robin believes that artists can be powerful agents for social change, by promoting education and community engagement. At RedLine, Robin gets to challenge conventional ways of teaching, thinking, making art, and being in the world.