Sonya Clark | Wednesday, September 12 – 7:00 PM | Natural Science, 128
Woven of found materials, the work of contemporary fiber artist Sonya Clark is intertwined with an accumulated history that speaks to cultural heritage, racial identity, and gender politics. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship and is Chair of Craft/Materials Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Fritz Haeg | Tuesday, October 2 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
The art of Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum resident artist Fritz Haeg often occurs in the public arena. Taking the form of community outreach programs and activism, his recent work has engaged public and private spaces including gardens, public dances, domestic gatherings, temporary encampments, and urban parades.
Barry McGee | Monday, October 8 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
At times spilling beyond the frame of the white box, San Francisco-based artist Barry McGee explores the urban condition through a vocabulary of graffiti, comics, hobo art, and sign painting. His work was featured in the PBS Art 21 documentary series and the Berkeley Art Museum is currently exhibiting his first mid-career survey.
Julia Galloway | Monday, October 15 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
Utilitarian potter and Director of the University of Montana School of Art, Julia Galloway explores the objects of daily life in an investigation of intimacy, interaction, ritual, and celebration. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Studio Potter, and Art & Perception. A workshop demonstrating her process will take place on Tuesday, October 16.
Will Wilson | Tuesday, October 30 – 7:00 PM | Snyder Hall, C20
Navajo artist and community activist Will Wilson engages the historical relationship of photography to the colonization of Native North Americans. For him, photography and installation become tools of decolonization. Co-sponsored by AmericanIndian Studies and the Residential College in the Arts & Humanities, the Lookout Gallery will host an exhibition of Wilson’swork.
Mira Schor | Tuesday, November 13 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 109
Artist and writer Mira Schor is a major contributor to feminist art history and an advocate for painting in a post-medium visual culture. Her recent works consider the place of painting in contemporary culture, the visual artist as a thinker, and painting as a visualization of thought itself. Schor has been honored by the Warhol, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller Foundations.
Annie Lapin | Tuesday, November 20 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 109
LA-based painter Annie Lapin is concerned with the fluid space between abstraction and representation. Her chaotic landscape paintings are simultaneously figurative and abstract, layered and open-ended, concerned with illusory and actual space. In 2010 she was featured in Modern Painters as a major up-and-coming artist.
John Peffer | Thursday, November 29 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
A rising star in the field of contemporary African Art, Dr. Peffer’s recent book, Art at the End of Apartheid, was nominated for the Melville Herskovits Book Award in 2010. His contributions to contemporary critical theory and art in Africa and the African Diaspora are evident in Critical Interventions, the journal he co-founded.
Tuur Van Balen | Thursday, January 24 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
Employing an interdisciplinary methodology, Van Balen explores the larger implications of emerging technologies present in our everyday lives. His recent project Pigeon d’Or, completed in collaboration with biochemist James Chappell, received an award of distinction at Prix Ars Electronica. Van Balen is the inaugural Artist in Residence in Electronic Art & Intermedia at MSU.
Jens Hauser | Monday, January 28 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
A preeminent critic and curator of biologically inspired art work, the Paris-based Jens Hauser writes on the interactions between art and technology, trans-genre, and contextual aesthetics. His curatorial work includes L’Art Biotech (Nantes,2003), sk-interfaces (Liverpool, 2008/Luxembourg, 2009), and the Article Biennale (Stavanger, 2008).
John Caserta | Thursday, January 31 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
Graphic designer and RISD faculty member John Caserta generates informational design for new media and print with clients ranging from the Rockefeller Foundation to the New York Times. He is the recipient of a Fulbright and his work has been acknowledged by AIGA 365, Communication Arts, and How Magazine.
Mary Robert | Saturday, February 9 – 1:00 PM | MSU Union, Ballroom
London-based artist Mary Robert explores the relationship between people and their cultural context. Co-sponsored by theMSU Museum, Robert’s exhibition, East Meets West will be on view in the Heritage Gallery January through April. Providing a rare insight into the lives of people in transition, the exhibition features photographic portraits that explore the complex identities of transsexuals living in Istanbul.
Kerry Chartkoff | February 26 – 7:00 PM | Kresge Art Center, 108
State Capitol Historian Kerry Chartkoff will present a lecture featuring Michigan’s Capitol: Muses, Memoirs and an ArtistRevealed. In 1987, Chartkoff began working on the restoration of the State Capitol. Chartkoff served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Capitol Committee, the legislative-executive body charged with the restoration and maintenance of the Capitol. In 1987 she began working on the restoration of the State Capitol and in 1992, she successfully nominated the Michigan State Capitol as a National Historic Landmark.
Diana Guerrero-Maciá | March 14 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
Cuban-American artist Guerrero-Maciá is best known for her hand-sewn paintings constructed from wool, leather, fabric, and neoprene that manipulate text sampled from album covers, street signage, and newspaper headlines. She is currently a faculty member in Fiber & Material Studies and Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Gary Stephan | Tuesday, March 19 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 107
Renowned abstractionist Gary Stephan embraces painting’s ambiguity and lack of utilitarian purpose, an emblem andartifact of the searching process itself. His work can be found in collections from MOMA to the Metropolitan and has been honored by the NEA, Guggenheim, and American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Jorge Pardo | Wednesday, March 27 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 105
Questioning the distinctions between fine art and design, MacArthur Fellow Jorge Pardo works at the intersection of painting, design, sculpture, and architecture. With works ranging from murals to home furnishings to larger-than-life fabrications, he transforms familiar objects into forms with multiple meanings and purposes.
Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman | Thursday, April 11 – 7:00 PM | South Kedzie Hall, 109
Operating under the name Larson+Shindelman, these collaborative artists produce work that considers the cultural understanding of distance, as perceived in modern life and network culture. Larson teaches at MICA and Shindelman at University of Georgia. The team will offer a photography workshop on Friday, April 12.
