Visiting Artists

Each semester, the School of Visual Arts’ Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series presents a series of lectures by various professional artists, including renowned painters, sculptors, printmakers, graphic designers, art educators, and art critics. Undergraduate and graduate students benefit from exposure to the lecturers’ work, engaging with them in dialogues about the art-making process, as well as benefiting from individual studio visits and critiques. Visiting artist lectures are free and open to the public.

2012–2013 Visiting Artists

Vik Muniz—Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series

October 5, 2012 4:30pm
Morse Auditorium
602 Commonwealth Ave.
Free and open to the public

Vik Muniz is a multimedia artist who uses whimsical materials such as chocolate syrup, diamonds, and trash.  His latest work, “Pictures of Garbage,” a series of photographic portraits made from trash and captured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waste Land, challenges familiar notions of art.

Dona Nelson—Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series

October 18, 2012 6:30pm
Jacob Sleeper Auditorium
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Free and open to the public

For three decades painter Dona Nelson has reflected an adventurously tough-minded approach to process and a vehement avoidance of anything conventionally ingratiating.  Her work presents a solid challenge, working often in primary colors and in reference to works by other abstract artists.

Amy Franceschini—Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series

March 26, 2013 6:30pm
Morse Auditorium
602 Commonwealth Ave.
Free and open to the public

Amy Franceschini, an interdisciplinary artist, founded Futurefarmers in 1995, which brings together artists to practice cultural and environmental activism across a variety of disciplines- from web design and database development, to interactive sculptures.

Andrea Zittel—Tim Hamill Lecture

April 3, 2013 6:30pm
Morse Auditorium
602 Commonwealth Ave.
Free and open to the public

Internationally recognized artist Andrea Zittel uses art to facilitate new forms of perception, blurring divisions between art and life.  Projects include a mock organization, A-Z administrative services (West), modular living environments, and a 44-ton floating island off the coast of Denmark.

Chris Jordan–Contemporary Perspectives Lecture Series

April 18, 2013 6:30pm
Morse Auditorium
602 Commonwealth Ave.
Free and open to the public

Internationally acclaimed artist and cultural activist Chris Jordan explores contemporary mass culture from a variety of photographic and conceptual perspectives, connecting the viewer viscerally to the enormity and power of humanity’s collective behaviors. Jordan’s work asks us to consider our own role in the incomprehensibly complex world we find ourselves part of. Presented in conjunction with Alternative Visions/Sustainable Futures.

 

Artist’s Lectures from 2006 and onward are available on the Boston University BUniverse website.