I wear my culture in every curl on my head

Sam Kirk’s practice centers on how identity is formed and revealed over time. Drawing from lived experience, memory, and community dialogue, her work examines moments of transition—both personal and collective—and how these moments shape who we become.

A multidisciplinary artist, her vibrant, narrative-driven practice explores identity, culture, and the power of collective imagination. Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Kirk creates work that centers underrepresented stories and celebrates the beauty, resilience, and complexity of everyday life.

Working across public art, studio practice, illustration, and design, Kirk is known for a bold visual language rooted in expressive line-work, saturated color, and layered symbolism. Her murals, installations, and mixed-media works engage intersections of identity, place, and belonging—inviting viewers to reflect on how personal and collective histories inform both individual experience and shared cultural memory.

While much of Kirk’s career has been rooted in Chicago, travel has been essential in shaping her practice. She has lived and worked in Brooklyn, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, and currently splits her time between Chicago’s South Side and a small town in New York’s Hudson Valley. This movement between urban and rural contexts allows her work to remain fluid, responsive, and grounded in lived experience.

Kirk’s practice is informed by a multidisciplinary foundation and a nontraditional artistic path. She received a BFA in Interior Design and a BA in Marketing Communication, and spent over a decade working in advertising before transitioning in 2010 to focus fully on her art practice. While her career is informed by professional experience within the art industry, her artistic development has been shaped primarily through self-directed exploration, peer learning, and community collaboration.

Kirk currently teaches at the UIC School of Art and Art History in Chicago. Her practice is deeply rooted in community collaboration and change-based work, emphasizing reciprocity, dialogue, and collective authorship. Whether partnering with cultural institutions, nonprofit organizations, or corporate collaborators, community engagement remains central to her creative process. Alongside her studio and teaching practice, Sam works with municipalities, foundations, and civic institutions as a public art consultant and participatory grant maker, bringing the same community centered approach to organizational partnerships, grant programs, and large-scale civic commissions.

Her work has been recognized with both industry and community-based awards and is held in permanent collections including the Obama Presidential Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of Mexican Art, the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, Disney, and private and corporate collections nationwide.

SELECT PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Obama Presidential Center Smithsonian National Museum of Mexican Art Gerber Hart Library and Archives Disney Durand Art Institute Erb Memorial Union, University of Oregon Private and corporate collections nationwide