Announcing the Spring 2020 Visiting Artist Lecture Series!

Posted on December 2, 2019

Three images: Several military figures rendered in flat colorful patterns against a background of green hills and a wooden covered structure; Headshot of a man in a coat; Large group of people sitting at tables with scraps of paper littering the floor and the words "money factory" on the wall behind them

All lectures are free and open to the public.

Alisha Wormsley
Tuesday, January 28
6:30pm, Kresge Theatre

School of Art Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow Alisha Wormsley investigates collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color. Working in many mediums—including print, film, digital media, sculpture, sound, social practice, and cultural production—she engages with communities around the world, fostering artistic ideas and celebrating identities. Her work has been presented at The Andy Warhol Museum, the Houston Art League and Project Row Houses, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, among many others.

Jaume Plensa
Tuesday, February 4
6:30pm, McConomy Auditorium
Jeff Pan Visiting Artist Lecture

Spanish artist Jaume Plensa creates sculptures and installations that aim to unify individuals through connections of spirituality, the body, and collective memory. Plensa’s work in steel, glass, stone, light, water, sound, and other materials can be found in public spaces around the globe, including at Bonaventure Gateway in Montreal, Millennium Park in Chicago, BBC Broadcasting Tower in London, and Shanghai IFC Mall, among many others. He is the recipient of numerous international awards including the Medaille de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, and the Velázquez Prize for the Arts, awarded by the Spanish Minister of Culture.

Hilton Als
Tuesday, February 18
6:30pm, McConomy Auditorium, Jared L. Cohon University Center
Robert L. Lepper Distinguished Lecture in Creative Inquiry

Pulitzer Prize winning critic Hilton Als’ writing and curatorial work shifts cultural awareness around issues of race, class, sexuality, and identity in America. He is a staff writer and lead theater critic for The New Yorker. His book White Girls was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2014 and winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for nonfiction. Als has curated several exhibitions, including a recent solo show of Alice Neel and “God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin” at David Zwirner Gallery. He is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Johannes DeYoung
Tuesday, February 25
6:30pm, Kresge Theatre

Blending computer animation with experimental processes in painting and drawing, School of Art Assistant Professor Johannes DeYoung’s work explores themes of animism and human psychology. His works have been exhibited internationally including in the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image in Frankfurt, Germany; in the Images Festival at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada; at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, Taiwan; and at Eyebeam in New York City.

Walid Raad
Tuesday, March 3
6:30pm, Kresge Theatre
Jeff Pan Visiting Artist Lecture

Informed by his upbringing in Lebanon during the civil war, Walid Raad’s work examines the role of photographic and video documentation in the representation of collective traumatic events and their use in the construction of memory and narrative. He has had solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. In 2015, MoMA presented a retrospective of his work, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and the Museo Jumex in Mexico City. He is a professor of art at The Cooper Union.

Renée Stout
Tuesday, March 17
6:30pm, Kresge Theatre
Distinguished School of Art Alumni Lecture

Renée Stout’s work in painting, drawing, mixed media sculpture, photography, and installation blends spiritual roots in the African Diaspora with elements of contemporary life to create works that encourage self-examination, self-empowerment, and self-healing. Her works are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art, among many others. Stout is the recipient of the 2018 Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980.

Stephanie Syjuco
Tuesday, March 31
6:30pm, Kresge Theatre
Jeff Pan Visiting Artist Lecture

Stephanie Syjuco creates large-scale spectacles of collected cultural objects, cumulative archives, and temporary vending installations, often with an active public component, that investigate issues of economies and empire. Her work has been exhibited at MoMA; the Whitney Museum; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the ZKM Center for Art and Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany; and at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in the 2015 Asian Art Biennial. She is an assistant professor of sculpture at the University of California Berkeley.

The Carnegie Mellon University School of Art Lecture Series is made possible in part by the Elizabeth (Thompson) and Thomas M. Cox (A’29) Distinguished Artists Fund, the Jeff Pan Visiting Artist Lecture Fund, and the Robert L. Lepper Distinguished Lecture in Creative Inquiry.

Left to Right: Walid Raad, Appendix 137 (detail), 2018. © Walid Raad.; Portrait of Hilton Als, Photograph © Ali Smith; Stephanie Syjuco, Money Factory (An Economic Reality Game), 2015. Project commission for the 2015 Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Fine Arts Museum, Taichung, Taiwan.