A white woman with thick cat eye glasses smiles into the camera. She sits in front of three large sequin smiley faces and is wearing a shirt with more smiley faces on it.

Photo by Kate Hassett

Libby Evan is a disabled artist, researcher, and activist. Originally from Albany, NY, she now resides in Chicago, IL. She is currently a PhD student in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. In 2024, she earned her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Washington University in St. Louis, The Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Evan’s art practice and research focuses on her experiences of having invisible disabilities as she breaks down the facade of being okay on the outside but not so much on the inside. Previous exhibitions include Graduate Exhibition Two at the SAIC galleries, Voices Embodied IV and IV at the Design Museum of Chicago, The Full Light of Day at VAE in Raleigh, and Connected: VSA Emerging Young Artists Exhibition. In 2019, she was awarded an Award of Excellence for emerging young artists with disabilities at the Kennedy Center. In 2021, Evan was featured in Home Sick, an international juried exhibition in Poughkeepsie where she was awarded second prize.


Artist Statement

Sale: $19.95 for a traumatizing experience. Note: Therapy, fish food, and plant burial are not included. You are probably reading this wondering how this could ever be the beginning of an artist statement and also– is Libby okay? Also, $19.95 is a steal for a hand sewn sequin and latex piece of art. But, this piece is worth so much more to me and captures the strange essence of my art practice. I am selling the experience of hysterically laughing and crying after seeing my pet fish die in his tank (his name was Ziti and he is resting in peace in a plant I bought to bury him in). I excavate absurd moments that exist at the cross section between joy and sadness in order to celebrate my strange and funny life as a chronically ill artist obsessed with making art that continuously tests my body’s overly limited capacity. 

Often stuffed with poly-fil, my work is largely held together with sloppy stitches. I use slanted, bold text that shouts at viewers in soft materials that cushion any blow. Underneath all the faux decadence of sequins and plasticky fabrics are homemade structures that fight gravity the same way my body fights to be upright and productive. Sometimes, I give into gravity and collapse into a pile of poly-fil. Luckily, I have a giant neon green phone that I can use to call for help. Or perhaps, I just need to rest under my haphazard, luminescent quilt. I am sure you can tell by now, that my work is seeped with tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic humor. So, rare moments when I am completely vulnerable like my photo series Chronic Fatigue… cut through the noise of my constant chatter to unveil the very heart of my practice which is my exploration of how to exist in a body that cannot always do what I want or need it to do. Now that you have read more about me, $19.95 is a really good deal right?