School of Art and Visual Studies Announces Spring Visiting Artist Series Lectures

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 31, 2022) — The University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies (SA/VS) continues its Visiting Artist Series this semester with lectures featuring artists from around the globe, spanning multiple disciplines.

Each year, the school hosts a series of free, public talks with scholars and artists concerned with contemporary visual culture. The Visiting Artist Series features lectures, exhibitions and workshops in cooperation with the Art History and Visual Studies program. 

The series will begin Feb. 2 with artist, designer and master printer from Philadelphia, Tim Eades, and culminate with a virtual discussion between sculptor/ceramic artist Li Hongwei and SA/VS Professor Andrew L. Maske. The lecture is in conjunction with Hongwei’s Brilliant Illusions: Crafted Forms on display at the UK Art Museum Jan. 21-June 4.

Find this spring's artists and presentations for the Visiting Artist Series below:  

Tim Eads: Visiting Artist Lecture 

Noon Wednesday, Feb. 2, Room 229, Art and Visual Studies Building 

Tim Eads is an artist, designer and master printer in Philadelphia. He received a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and teaches regularly at Penland School of Craft and Tyler School of Art. Recent exhibitions include Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia; Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington. 

Michelle Doll: Visiting Artist Lecture 

12:30 p.m., Thursday, March 10, Room 225, Art and Visual Studies Building 

Michelle Doll’s paintings capture quiet, intimate moments hinged on personal connections between her subjects. Her paintings are imbued with femininity and introspection, and explore the themes of love, desire and connection. She was born in Canton, Ohio, and received her BFA from Kent State University and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art. She was awarded the Prince of Wales / Forbes Foundation Travel Grant in 2006, received an Artist in Residence at Eden Rock on St. Barths (French West Indies) in 2008, The Bennett Prize Honorable Mention in 2018 and received a 2019 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Doll’s paintings have been exhibited in the US and internationally in cities such as New York, San Francisco, London and Basel, Switzerland. Michelle Doll lives and works in Hoboken, NJ. Doll is represented by Lyons Wier Gallery in NYC, Galleri Ramfjord in Oslo, Norway, and Albemarle Gallery in London, UK. 

Kelsey Elder: Visiting Artist Lecture 

Noon, Friday, April 1, Room 136, Art and Visual Studies Building 

Kelsey Elder is an educator and typographer whose practice investigates letterforms as sites of significance, and whose research argues for these sites as culturally important epicenters for queerness, subversion, and dissent. Hailing from the true North (Detroit by way of Minneapolis), he grew up grazing cold knuckles while wrenching away in the garage on cars and motorcycles. He is an avid petrol head, owner of a small lifestyle company and custom car garage called Lowered Values. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and has priorly taught at Purchase College of the State University of New York, and Virginia Commonwealth University, He received his BFA in graphic design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, his MFA in 2d-Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is a graduate of the Typeface Design Intensive at the University of Reading. 

Jennifer Hager and Lance Vickery: Virtual Artist Lecture 

Noon, Friday, April 22, Room 136, Art and Visual Studies Building 

Jenny K. Hager is a professor of sculpture at the University of North Florida, where she has been teaching since 2006. She received her MFA in sculpture and digital media from San Jose State University. Interested in a variety of processes and materials, including steel, cast iron, post-it notes, video, wood, digital photography and found objects, she finds inspiration in dreams, objects from her childhood, gadgets, sea life and other curiosities. She is also very interested in collaboration; the spirit of community is important in both her teaching practice and in her own work. 

Artist to Curator, Scholar to Creator: Li Hongwei and Andrew L. Maske in Conversation 

Online Event via Zoom: 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb.17. Contact Andrew Maske andrew.maske@uky.edu for zoom link 

Join UK professor Andrew Maske and sculptor/ceramic artist Li Hongwei as they discuss Li’s innovative steel and ceramic sculpture, on view at the UK Art Museum from Jan. 18–June 4. 

Li Hongwei (b.1980) is a contemporary artist working primarily in steel and ceramic. He works and lives in Beijing and New York. Hongwei holds a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and an MFA in ceramic art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His work has been acquired by prominent institutions including the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Art Institute of Chicago and has been exhibited around the world at places as diverse as the National Art Museum of China, The US Embassy in China, The New Mexico Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Dublin Castle in Ireland.