Related programming: “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today”

Hugo Crosthwaite, “A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez,” 2018. Stop-motion drawing animation (3:12 min.). Winner, first prize, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Collection of the artist, courtesy Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.© Hugo Crosthwaite

In conjunction with “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today,” the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will host a series of artist talks and other events throughout the fall semester.

All programs are free and open to the public. Registration is required unless otherwise noted. Closed captioning is provided for online programs, and recordings will be made available on the Museum’s YouTube channel. All times listed are in the Central Time Zone. 

View full event descriptions and register at kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.

Saturday, Sept. 11 
11 a.m.
ONLINE
In Conversation
Screening & Artist Talk with Hugo Crosthwaite
Artist Hugo Crosthwaite speaks with Taína Caragol, curator of painting and sculpture and Latinx Art and History at the National Portrait Gallery, and co-curator of the fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Crosthwaite won first prize for his stop-motion drawing animation “A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez” (2018). The animation will be screened during the conversation.

Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25 and 26 
2–5 p.m.
ON-SITE
Me, You, Us: Stories as Portraits
Visitors are invited to contribute to this participatory program inspired by “The Outwin.” During 30-minute sessions, trained storytellers from Humans of St. Louis will interview and photograph participants for a collaborative project exploring the lives, joys and struggles of the St. Louis community. A selection of these “photostories” will be shared on both the museum’s and Humans of St. Louis’s social media platforms, and several will be printed and displayed at Washington University’s Danforth University Center. This drop-in program does not require registration, but space is limited.

Saturday, Oct. 23
11 a.m.
ONLINE
In Conversation
Artists Jess T. Dugan and David Antonio Cruz with Amber Johnson
“The Outwin” artists Jess T. Dugan and David Antonio Cruz join Amber Johnson, professor of communication and associate provost, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at Saint Louis University, to discuss representing friends, family, and activists in the queer community, as well as how the artists’ work disrupts the traditionally heteronormative genre of portraiture by centering queer bodies and queer intimacy.

Consuming Kinetics Dance Company. (Photo: Dave Moore Photography.)

Thursday, Oct. 28 
7 p.m. 
ONLINE 
Screening
“Art Movement
In this video performance, dancers from the Consuming Kinetics Dance Company respond to artworks in “The Outwin,” inviting us to consider the role of art as a catalyst for movement. View the video on the Museum’s Facebook or Instagram channels, or receive a link to it via the museum’s e-newsletter. After the premiere, it will be available on the museum’s YouTube channel. 

Thursday and Friday, Nov. 18 and 19
11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
ON-SITE
Performance
“Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down)” by Sheldon Scott
“The Outwin” artist Sheldon Scott performs “Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down)” in the museum’s Saligman Family Atrium. The artist will hull and winnow grains of rice from sunrise to sunset for two days, recalling the labor of and cruel conditions experienced by his enslaved ancestors in the pre–Civil War South. No registration necessary.

Sheldon Scott, from “Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down), 2018 (premiere 2018). Performance with rice and HD video (approx. 13 hours). Collection of the artist, courtesy of CONNERSMITH.

Saturday, Nov. 20 
11 a.m.
ONLINE
In Conversation
Artist Talk with Sheldon Scott
“The Outwin” artist Sheldon Scott speaks with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Bicentennial Term Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, about his performance “Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down).”

Saturday, Dec. 4 
11 a.m. 
ONLINE
In Conversation
Artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker with Adrienne Davis
“The Outwin” artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker speak with WashU’s Adrienne Davis, William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law in the School of Law and Professor of Organizational Behavior & Leadership in the Olin Business School. Both artists use portraiture to depict the complexity of Black subjecthood, exploring themes of race, identity, beauty and gender politics.