Mika Horibuchi

The native San Franciscan and painter, whose work plays with perception and illusion, moved to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute, where she earned her BFA in 2013. She booked a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2018 and received widespread praise for an ongoing project in which she reproduces, in oils, photos of her Japanese grandmother’s watercolors. Last year, the Art Institute acquired one of Horibuchi’s works for its permanent collection, allowing her to shed any last remains of impostor syndrome: “I finally felt comfortable saying, ‘I am an artist.’ ” More of her work can be seen at Patron Gallery in East Ukrainian Village.

Her studio: The Ukrainian Village resident, 33, shares one in East Garfield Park with her boyfriend, painter Daniel Rizzo-Orr. “We wanted it to feel really comfortable, not just to make art but to hang out there. So we have a bunch of plants, a lot of them from his mother’s garden in Phoenix.”