With frenetic editing, absurdist humor and a stubbornly improvisational ethos, artists Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin create deliriously non-narrative videos, sculptures and installations that both investigate and embody the arch, hyper-self-consciousness of social media and reality television.
On Feb. 4, Fitch and Trecartin will discuss their collaborative practice as part of the spring Public Lecture Series, sponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. In all, the series will feature 22 virtual presentations by renowned artists, architects, designers and scholars.
Events will begin Jan. 30 with a panel discussion about the work of Charles E. Fleming, a 1961 alumnus and one of the first African American students to earn an architecture degree from Washington University. Co-sponsored by the school’s College of Architecture and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, as part of the museum’s “In Conversation” series, the discussion will include Fleming as well as fellow architecture alumnus Michael Willis (AB ’73, MArch ‘76/MSW ’76) and faculty architectural historians Shantel Blakely and Eric Mumford.
Following Fitch and Trecartin, the lecture series will continue Feb. 10 with a panel discussion on “Architectural History and Conservation,” and Feb. 16 with Ghanaian-American interdisciplinary artist Addoley Dzegede (MFA ’15). Next up will be Valentina Castellani, former director of New York’s Gagosian Gallery (Feb. 20), architect Edward R. Ford (Feb. 22), urban designer Alex Krieger (Feb. 24) and designer-in-residence Jude Agboada (also Feb. 24).
On Feb. 25, the Sam Fox School, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the university’s recently founded Center for Race, Ethnicity and Equity (CRE2) will host a panel discussion with artist-in-residence Jordan Weber.
The “In Conversation” series will continue March 6 with artist and deaf activist Christine Sun Kim, whose site-specific mural, “Stacking Traumas,” recently was installed in the museum atrium. Amy Sillman, whose animated short “After Metamorphoses” (2015–16) is on view this spring in the museum’s Video Gallery, will discuss her work April 10.
Note: Due to COVID-19, the Kemper Art Museum is currently closed to the public but remains open to Washington University students, faculty and staff. For more information, visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
Other talks will include artist and architect Amanda Williams and Assemble, a multidisciplinary collective (March 4), illustrator Ping Zhu (March 5), Island Press visiting artist Erika Blumenfeld (March 22), architect and urban designer Toni L. Griffin (April 8) and landscape architects Charles Birnbaum (April 19) and Kotchakorn Voraakhom (April 27). For a complete list, see below.
All events are free and open to the public and will be hosted online. RSVPs are required for individual lectures; links will be provided via the Sam Fox School website closer to the event dates.
For more information, call 314-935-9300 or visit www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu.
Spring 2021 speakers
All times Central
10:30 a.m. Jan. 30
“African American Architecture in St. Louis: The Case of Charles E. Fleming”
Kemper Art Museum’s “In Conversation” series. Shantel Blakely, Eric Mumford and Michael Willis will serve as respondents.
6 p.m. Feb. 4
Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture
11:30 a.m. Feb. 10
Discussions in Architectural History and Theory:
“Architectural History and Conservation”
Fallon Aidoo (University of New Orleans), Daniel M. Abramson (Boston University), Maristella Casciato (Getty Research Institute) and Michelangelo Sabatino (Illinois Institute of Technology)
6 p.m. Feb. 16
Addoley Dzegede
MFA Lecture Series
11 a.m. Feb. 20
Valentina Castellani
Women and the Kemper Public Lecture
6 p.m. Feb. 22
Edward R. Ford
With support from the Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Fund
11:30 a.m. Feb. 24
Alex Krieger
Master of Urban Design Lecture
6 p.m. Feb. 24
Jude Agboada
Louis D. Beaumont Artist-in-Residence Lecture
6 p.m. March 1
Zeuler Lima
Architecture Faculty Lecture
12 p.m. March 4
Amanda Williams and Assemble
Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture
9 a.m. March 5
Ping Zhu
MFA Lecture Series
11 a.m. March 6
Christine Sun Kim
Kemper Art Museum’s “In Conversation” series. The program will include ASL interpretation.
7 p.m. March 8
Dana Levy
2019-20 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow Lecture
Co-sponsored by Saint Louis Art Museum
6 p.m. March 9
Jordan Weber
Artist-in-residence panel discussion, presented by the Sam Fox School, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and CRE2
11:30 a.m. March 10
Discussions in Architectural History and Theory:
“Architectural History as a Global Discipline”
Mark Jarzombek (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin), Zeynep Çelik Alexander (Columbia University) and Tao Zhu (University of Hong Kong).
6 p.m. March 22
Erika Blumenfeld
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture
6 p.m. April 8
Toni L. Griffin
Coral Courts Lecture
11 a.m. April 10
Amy Sillman
Kemper Art Museum’s “In Conversation” series. Meredith Malone, associate curator, and Rebecca Sears, lecturer in the Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences, will serve as respondents.
6 p.m. April 19
Charles A. Birnbaum
Inaugural Esley Hamilton Lecture
6 p.m. April 26
Igor Marjanović and Katerina Rüedi Ray
Architecture Faculty Lecture
6 p.m. April 27
Kotchakorn Voraakhom
Master of Landscape Architecture Lecture
5 p.m. April 28
“Women’s Work”
Arthur Greenberg Undergraduate Curatorial Fellows Lydia McKelvie, Alice Nguyen and Hannah Ward will discuss their Teaching Gallery exhibition, which opens April 23.
Kemper Art Museum’s “In Conversation” series.
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