PōCHIS (Nancy Pochis Bank) is a Chicago based visual artist. For more than two decades, she has run the Pochis Bank Art Studio, a full-service art studio creating custom murals and other large scale installation artwork for unique locations, products and special events. Over the years her studio has provided artistic gig work for many of Chicago’s young artists who have gone on to successful solo fine art and arts administration careers. She is a multi-year recipient of the Chicago Neighborhood Arts Program Grant. 

PōCHIS started her professional career in business, earning a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago. In 2000, after twelve years in management consulting, she turned toward her lifelong passion for painting, enrolled in the Continuing Education Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and studied with Chicago artist Ed Hinkley.

PōCHIS founded and manages Studio 4040 with two partners since 2014. Studio 4040 is a 5,000 square foot modern shared studio space in the Albany Park neighborhood with individual studios for twelve fine artists of various disciplines.

PōCHIS is an active arts advocate. She dedicates her time and art skills to benefit the community and raise awareness for a range of social issues. Through public artwork including five “Cool Globes”, she highlights solutions to address Climate Change. She also serves on the board of the Woman Made Gallery and is working with the Chicago Special Projects Group to develop a new Mural Arts Center in North Lawndale’s Ogden Avenue Corridor (scheduled to open in Spring 2027).

Currently, PōCHIS is enrolled in the Low-Residency Masters of Fine Arts Program (MFA) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she works with paint, animation, and stories to explore liminal spaces in which ordinary rules of visibility, bodily control and social identity become unstable. She will graduate in the summer of 2028.

PōCHIS is the mother of two sons. She is an avid biker, hiker and racket-sport player.