Arts & Culture

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.

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).

Ryan Lawson, BFA ’04, is an interior designer who as a student switched from studying architecture to art. He says that Chancellor Wrighton took a keen interest in his choice because Lawson was a student during the early planning phases of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

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 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.

Sculptor and longtime faculty member Ronald Leax, the Halsey C. Ives Professor Emeritus of Art, will receive the Dean’s Medal for outstanding service April 4 as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ annual Awards for Distinction dinner.

This fall, one of the top programs for art, architecture and design at a U.S. university — the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis — will unveil two major new capital projects that will transform the campus, reshape the visitor experience and firmly establish the prominence of its art museum on campus. The newly constructed Anabeth and John Weil Hall will house state-of-the-art graduate studios, classrooms and digital fabrication spaces. A major expansion and renovation of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will strengthen visibility, better showcase the renowned permanent collection and accommodate larger and more varied special exhibitions.

Art schools are places of innovation and expression, of studio skills and critical analysis. But for many young artists, the transition to professional practice can be fraught. How do you start building a career? Opportunities for students like The MFA Fair this November help.

Junior Ruoyi Gan and senior Madeline Halpern are representing the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in Varsity Art XXIII. Hosted by Art St. Louis, the annual exhibition features work by undergraduate and graduate students from St. Louis college and university-level art programs.