Writer/Artist Wayne Koestenbaum to Lecture

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 12, 2015) — The University of Kentucky's Art Museum and MFA (Master of Fine Arts) Creative Writing Program in the Department of English welcomes to campus essayist, poet, artist and cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum to discuss his paintings and writings with UK Art Museum Director Stuart Horodner at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, in 106 White Hall Classroom Building.

The talk by Koestenbaum is presented in conjunction with the Department of English's  Visiting Writers Series and the first solo exhibition of his work, "Wayne Koestenbaum: Unfamiliar Grammar, Paintings from 2010-2015," at the UK Art Museum. Individuals attending the talk have an opportunity to meet with Koestenbaum prior to his presentation from 5-6 p.m. Friday, at the UK Art Museum. The talk, lecture and reception are all free and open to the public.

A graduate of Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University, Koestenbaum's work explores the male body and the sexual, emotional and social impact that comes with its exposure. He has authored several poetry and prose collections and novels over the past 20 years. Koestenbaum likened his writing process to a bodily endeavor: “I extrude my vulnerable inner lining. I purge. And then I examine the contents — my expulsed interior — and begin the bloody interrogation."

Koestenbaum is the author of several collections of poetry, including "The Pink Trance Notebooks" (2015), "Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background" (2012), "Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films" (2006), "The Milk of Inquiry" (1999), and "Ode to Anna Moffo and Other Poems" (1990), which was named one of the Village Voice Literary Supplement’s "Favorite Books of the Year." His prose works include "Humiliation" (2011); "Hotel Theory" (2007); the novel "Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes" (2004); "Cleavage: Essays on Sex, Stars, and Aesthetics" (2000); and National Book Critics Circle Award–nominated "The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire" (1993).

In recent years, paintings by Koestenbaum have been exhibited at institutions including the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Brian Morris Gallery and White Columns.

Koestenbaum's first solo show "Wayne Koestenbaum: Unfamiliar Grammar, Paintings from 2010-2015" opened at UK Art Museum Sept. 12 and runs through Dec. 18.

As an artist, Koestenbaum has examined such subjects as Andy Warhol, Jackie Onassis, Harpo Marx, opera, fashion, desire and humiliation. In 2010, he took up the paintbrush, and, since then, has produced hundreds of canvases of male portraits and nudes, landscapes and dense abstractions rife with meandering lines, riotous colors and suggestive iconography. One work features a male head looking straight at the viewer with the phrase “I pose problems” written above. This may be true of Koestenbaum’s creative output in art and literature, but it must also be said that he offers outrageously complex and candid revelations about the self and society.

Without any formal training but spurred by his numerous friendships with visual artists and years as a contributing critic to many magazines, Koestenbaum’s painting investigations continue those of modernist forebears like André Derain, Henri Matisse and Alice Neel.

In addition to his campus visit, Koestenbaum will also do a reading as a part of the pop-up exhibition "Peoples Portal," this weekend, an exhibition featuring established artists from Lexington, London, Atlanta and Chicago aiming to draw attention to the Peoples Bank's history and recent relocation efforts. Koestenbaum's talk will begin 2 p.m., Nov. 14, at the bank located at 343 South Broadway. This talk is also free and open to the public.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu