The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will host a series of three artists’ talks and discussions on Feb. 7, 8 and 9.
All three events come in conjunction with two new exhibitions: On the Margins, which explores the impact of war and disaster on a range of contemporary artists; and Thaddeus Strode: Absolutes and Nothings, which features more than two dozen large-scale paintings by the acclaimed Los Angeles painter.
Events begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, when the Irish video installation artist Willie Doherty will discuss his work in the university’s Steinberg Auditorium. Doherty — whose haunting 2007 video Ghost Story is featured in On the Margins — was born in Derry in 1959 and as a child witnessed the infamous Bloody Sunday incident. His photographic and video works explore the atmosphere fear and uncertainty that became pervasive throughout the North Ireland conflict, while also exhibiting a deep skepticism about mainstream media depictions of The Troubles.
Doherty’s work has been widely exhibited at galleries and museums across Europe and the United States. In 1993 and 2007 he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale and in 2003 represented Great Britain at the São Paulo Art Biennial. He was short-listed for Britain’s prestigious Turner Prize in both 1994 and 2003.
Both On the Margins and Absolutes and Nothings will open from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in the Kemper Art Museum. As part of the reception, at 7:30 p.m. Strode will host a walk-through of Absolutes and Nothings with Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., director and chief curator of the Kemper Art Museum, and Meredith Malone, Ph.D., assistant curator.
Finally, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, art critic Eleanor Heartney will moderate an On the Margins panel discussion at the Center of Contemporary Art (COCA). The panel will include the artists Willie Cole and Jane Hammond as well as critic Paul Krainak. Both Heartney and Krainak contributed essays to the exhibition catalog, which is distributed by the University of Chicago Press. Introducing the discussion will be curator Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts.
All events are free and open to the public. COCA is located at 524 Trinity Ave. in University City. The Kemper Art Museum is located on Washington University’s Danforth Campus, near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Steinberg Auditorium is located in Steinberg Hall, immediately adjacent to the museum.
Both exhibitions remain on view through April 21. The Kemper Art Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays.
For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
MILDRED LANE KEMPER ART MUSEUM
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is committed to furthering critical thinking and visual literacy through a vital program of exhibitions, publications and accompanying events. The museum dates back to 1881, making it the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi River. Today it boasts one of the finest university collections in the United States.