BJ Krivanek

BJ Krivanek embraces the multiple roles of designer, art educator, and public artist. He was principal of BJ Krivanek Art+Design, with a clientele ranging from the Union Rescue Mission (Los Angeles) to The Irvine Company, a major developer in California. His design work has been published/ written about in numerous design publications, including a feature article about his work in Graphis 310 (Zurich/ New York).

As founding artistic director of Community Architexts, he implements public art programs which provide a voice for embattled and stigmatized urban communities. To support his work, he has been awarded a research fellowship by the Graham Foundation (Chicago), an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, five individual artist grants by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, three individual grants from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and an individual grant by the National Endowment for the Arts/ Design Arts Program.

He joined the faculty of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 as Associate Professor of Art, affiliated with the Visual Communication Department. He had been a member of the faculties at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts/ Valencia), the UCLA Extension Arts Program, the Otis College of Art & Design (Los Angeles), and Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles). His work has been honored by the ID Annual Design Review, the American Center for Design (Chicago), the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD/ Washington), The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA/ New York) and the Art Directors Club of New York, recipient of a Gold Medal in 1996. His work has also been awarded a Federal Design Acheivement Award by the NEA. His landscape installation for California State University was included in the National Design Triennial: Design Culture Now at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum/ Smithsonian Institution/ New York in 2000.