Contemporary Art Lecture Series

CONTEMPORARY ART

TINYURL.COM/CAL-SERIES20 THURSDAYS 6 PM | VIA ZOOM

SEP 3 | J. LEIGH GARCIA | VIGILANTES Major events in Texas history such as the MexicanAmerican War, Battle of the Alamo, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and Bracero Program have created a complex relationship between J. Leigh Garcia’s two cultures: Texans and Mexicans. The residual racial discord that has resulted from these historical moments—particularly, the racialization and displacement of unauthorized Latinx immigrants—is both the context and focus of her work. Through printmaking, papermaking, installation, and socially engaged art, Garcia encourages awareness of our current immigration and foreign affairs policies through the lens of her biracial cultural identity.

J. Leigh Garcia is an artist born and raised in Dallas, TX. Garcia received Master of Fine Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of WisconsinMadison, and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from The University of North Texas. Garcia is currently a Print Media and Photography Professor at Kent State University in Kent, OH. [jleighgarcia.com]

SEP 17 | JIM ARENDT | PIERCED & MENDED: LESSONS IN PERSISTENCE

Jim Arendt is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Gallery Director at Coastal Carolina University. He received his BFA from Kendall College of Art & Design and his MFA from the University of South Carolina. He has participated in residency programs including The Fields Project in Illinois, Arrowmont’s Tactility Forum, and From Waste to Art VI in Baku, Azerbaijan. His work is exhibited internationally in numerous group and solo shows.

Recently, Arendt received First Prize during Fiberarts International 2019, was short-listed for The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art and a 2018 finalist for the Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA. He has received the South Carolina Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship 2014 and his work received the $50,000 top prize at ArtFields 2013. His work was chosen for the 2013 Museum Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Netherlands, and he has work included in the Arkansas Art Center’s permanent collection of contemporary craft. He is an artist whose work explores the shifting paradigms of labor and place through narrative figure painting, drawing, prints, fabric and sculpture. Influenced by the radical reshaping of the rural and industrial landscapes he grew up in, he investigates how individual lives are affected by transitions in economic structures. [JimArendt.com]

LECTURE SERIES Fall 2020

ART 281: CONTEMPORARY ART FORUM

SEP 24 | A CONVERSATION WITH EMILY DENLINGER Emily Denlinger is a Multimedia/New media artist addressing social justice issues using fine art, social media, and graphic design. In her lecture she will discuss her social activism art practice and how it runs parallel to reoccurring themes in her fine art images. Her social activism work involves identifying important issues that need promotional resources, building online communities through graphics, and engaging these communities in the world outside of the computer to enhance their reach and impact. Voter registration nonprofit nonpartisan group, SEMO Votes, and social justice movement, Justice for Madi, will be discussed in detail.

See pages 22-23 for two additional co-sponsored events.

SEP 28 (MONDAY) | 7:30 PM |TERRY BARRETT, RESPONDING TO ART: A LIFE OF ENGAGEMENT Presented by the Art Education Department

OCT 15 | 6 PM | STEVE SCHAPIRO, FREEDOM IN BLACK AND WHITE: THE MAKING OF A PHOTOGRAPHER-ACTIVIST Presented by the Miami University Art Museum with support by FOTOFOCUS

NOV 5 | LIZ MAUGANS, COMMUNITY SERVICE 53.0 : ALONG WITH A FEW RAINBOWS AND DEER SIGHTINGS

In this massively vulnerable talk, Liz Maugans will illustrate real and relatable struggles of her own “worst year ever” (which surprisingly was not 2020, but 2018) to encourage each of us to see the beauty in being alive, and the growth that can only be learned through struggle, challenge and discomfort. Art and Community play the leading role in this talk, as she waxes reflection and rallies a call to action in both her community engagement work as well as her individual studio practice.

Maugans received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and studied printmaking at Kent State University. She was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Community Partnership for Arts and Culture in 2013, Ohio Arts Council International Residency to Dresden, Germany in 2009, Artist-in- Communities Grant in 2005, and Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 2000. She was awarded the Martha Joseph Prize for Distinguished Service from the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2012 along with Zygote co-founder Bellamy Printz. She is represented by HEDGE Gallery at 78th Street Studios, Cleveland. [lizmaugansart.com]

TINYURL.COM/ARTEDTALK2020

Virtual ARTIST TALK

OCT 15, 6-7:15 PM TINYURL.COM/MUAMEVENTS

Freedom Summer Bus, 1964

Steve Schapiro. The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow, Russia (Oct 2012) CC0

PHOTOJOURNALIST STEVE SCHAPIRO

best known for photographing the March on Washington (1963) and the Mississippi Summer Project (1964), will discuss his work in the context of American social history.

Cosponsored by the Contemporary Art Forum Above right image: Steve Schapiro (American, b. 1934); We Shall Overcome; Freedom Summer Bus, 1964; Silver gelatin print, Number 3 of an edition of 25; Partial gift of Stephen Schapiro and partial purchase by Miami University Art Museum with contributions from the Kezur Endowment Fund; 2019.23. We Shall Overcome;

CHASING LIGHT BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY