Author: Liam Otten

The newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will reopen with a major exhibition of work by Ai Weiwei. The renowned Chinese dissident artist and activist is known all over the world for rigorous, compassionate and complex artworks that address themes of political, ethical and social urgency. “Ai Weiwei: Bare Life” opens Sept. 28 and will feature more than 35 artworks created over the last two decades in a wide variety of media — including a handful of newly conceived, large-scale and site-specific projects and major pieces never before exhibited in the United States.

“Ash is Cold,” a solo exhibition featuring new work by Tim Portlock, associate professor of art at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is on view through May 3 at Monaco, the artist-owned cooperative gallery.

Carl Phillips, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry for his collection “Wild is the Wind: Poems” (2018).

A tuba establishes the simple, five-note motif. Woodwinds respond. The full ensemble quickly joins the fray. On Thursday, April 25, the Washington University Wind Ensemble will perform Gustav Holst’s celebrated Second Suite for Military Band, along with works by Aaron Copland, Cécile Chaminade and others, in the 560 Music Center.

This week’s fire at Notre Dame in Paris, which destroyed the Cathedral’s iconic spire and much of the roof, gripped the world and led to outpourings of support. But the damage could have been far worse, said architectural historian Eric Mumford.

For its 2019-20 Great Artist Series, Washington University in St. Louis will present four affordably priced concerts by some of today’s finest performers.

Arthur Osver won international acclaim for his evocative depictions of the American city. And though his work evolved, that ramshackle topography remained part of his painterly DNA. So argues art history Professor Angela Miller in “Arthur Osver: Urban Landscape, Abstraction, and the Mystique of Place” (2019).

Los Angeles sculptor Elana Mann and Chicago public artist Erik L. Peterson have won the 2019 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards, presented by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Each winner will receive $25,000 to advance their studio practice.

The Performing Arts Department presents the world premiere of “Florida,” a new play by recent alumnus Lucas Marschke, April 11-14 in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Workshopped last fall as part of the A. E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival, the play recounts a dysfunctional vacation for the ages.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual arts will present its 90th Annual Fashion Design Show April 14 in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The event will feature dozens of models wearing scores of outfits created by sophomore, junior and senior fashion majors.