Audrey Nicolaides

NEW JUNE COURSE! For Rosa Luxemburg, civilization faced a choice: “socialism or barbarism.” But how to actually achieve socialism was the driving preoccupation of Luxemburg’s life. Economist, journalist, politician, and streetfighter, Luxemburg threw herself into the great debates that roiled the international Marxist movement. She was a vociferous critic of parliamentary reformism, developing instead a singularly powerful internationalist and mass participatory theory of socialist revolution centered on the mass strike. She debated Lenin on problems of political organization and was the first to warn against the authoritarian degeneration of Bolshevism. An acute political economist, she wrote what stands as the first major Marxist attempt to grapple with the centrality of imperialism to the global capitalist system, The Accumulation of Capital. Over two decades of intense political and theoretical activity, she earned the admiration of her allies, the begrudging respect of her adversaries, and the mortal hatred of her enemies (who murdered her in 1919). To this day, Rosa Luxemburg continues to inspire leftists all over the world. But her theoretical and political legacy is also haunted by the failure of the political project she championed. How can we understand Luxemburg’s theoretical and polemical work in the light of the collapse of socialist revolution and internationalism? Is Luxemburg’s revolutionary vision, encapsulated in her famous slogan, still plausible today, with liberal democracy under siege by the reactionary and neo-fascist far-Right? “Socialism or Barbarism: an Introduction to Rosa Luxemburg (Chicago)” with @drifting_still starts Tuesday, June 9th at @haymarkethouse This course is offered at a reduced cost in partnership with @haymarketbooks . Please visit the Haymarket website in order to enroll. 📷: Unknown Author - Rosa Luxemburg

I haven't been on here much at all this year, but 2025 was actually a pretty big year for Josh and I. I finished my Ph.D., started working full time for @brooklyninstitute , grew the BISR Chicago program, and taught 10 courses. Josh curated 3 exhibitions at @twelvetengallery and participated to his first contemporary art fair. We also bought and renovated a condo and yesterday, just in time for the new year, we picked up the keys to our new gallery space. This expansion has been 6 months in the making and we're excited to start hosting shows and events again. Particularly dear to me is the backroom, which I plan to turn into a classroom/reading room and event space. It will eventually become the home base for BISR Chicago but it will also be open to the broader community. This year has really driven home the need for independent spaces for critical thought and continued education and I'm so happy to be able to provide a space for that kind of work. So, if you ever find yourself on the North Side of Chicago, come say hi!

NEW COURSE! A ruthless pragmatist, sharp-tongued polemicist, gifted theoretician, consummate revolutionary, and among the most brilliant political minds in modern history, Lenin was the first revolutionary Marxist to lead a successful revolution and the uncontested leader of the communist movement. Yet, his very fame and subsequent mythologization in both the communist and anti-communist Cold War imaginary have obscured the intricacies of his thought, the singularity of his political trajectory, and the extent to which both were shaped by the complex political context in which he evolved. Originally a social democrat, Lenin’s frustrations with reformism instilled in him the belief that achieving socialism required nothing less than a remaking of society from top to bottom, as led by a highly centralized, tightly disciplined vanguard party. But almost immediately after ascending to power, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were forced into a series of compromises–from the introduction of the New Economic Policy to the repression of the Kronstadt uprising–that called into question the very nature of the communist project. How, then, can we understand Lenin’s complex legacy? How can we reconcile his radical emancipatory vision with the troubled history of actually existing communisms in Russia and beyond? What were Lenin’s main contributions to Marxism? How did the specificities of the Russian situation influence him? And what is left of Lenin today? “What is to Be Done? an Introduction to Lenin“ with @drifting_still starts online Thursday, July 10th. For more information and to enroll, visit the “Current Courses” link in bio. 🎥: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen - THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

Marriage, year 9 unlocked

Two Church Doors in Inverness - Watercolor on paper

Landscape study - pastel on paper Playing around with pastels using a limited palette and some reference images taken during a recent trip to Scotland. Pastel is much less precise than watercolor forcing me to let go of the details and focus on large shapes instead #landscape #landscapepainting #pastel

Evening at Weko Beach - watercolor on paper Did this one last night and I'm pretty happy about it #watercolor #landscapepainting

Along the Des Plaines River - gouache on paper #landscapepainting #gouache #sketchbook #sketchbookhabit

Golden hour - watercolor on paper A quick one from yesterday #watercolor #urbanlandscape

Waukegan - gouache on paper #gouache #landscapepainting #sketchbookhabit #sketchbook

Back to plein air painting - 4th of July at Kathy Osterman Beach Gouache on toned paper #pleinairpainting #gouache #landscapepainting #sketchbookhabit

Playhouse - watercolor on paper Quick study in light #watercolor #urbanlandscape