UK SA/VS presents Fall 2025 Visiting Artist & Scholar Series

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 8, 2025) — The University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies (SA/VS) Fall 2025 Visiting Artist and Scholar Series launches this semester with a slate of free, public programs featuring visiting artists discussing their works engaging with contemporary culture.

Each semester, the UK SA/VS hosts a series of talks, screenings and workshops that invite the community to explore diverse perspectives in the visual arts. The series, presented in cooperation with the Art History and Visual Studies program, is designed to connect audiences with nationally and internationally recognized artists and scholars. All events in the series are free and open to the public.

The Fall 2025 lineup includes:

Artist Talk with Matthias Mu
Wednesday, Sept. 17 | noon-1 p.m.
Room 214, Art and Visual Studies Building

Matthias Mu is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher based in Antwerp, Belgium. His practice embraces speculative world-building, neo-folklore, and technoromanticism in relation to nature. Through objects, environments, interactive installations, and sound works, Mu explores the intersections of technology and artistic expression, often using digital fabrication techniques such as 3D printing. His ongoing research project "Neo Seer: A Syncretic Animacy" at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp investigates artworks as active participants, challenging traditional viewer-object dynamics through material and technological experimentation.

Artist Talk with Ceirra Evans
Friday, Sept. 26 | noon-1 p.m. 
Painting Room, Art and Visual Studies Building

Kentucky-based painter Ceirra Evans creates work that depicts Appalachia and rural narratives, offering a nuanced exploration of place, culture and identity. Her paintings have been reviewed by Hyperallergic, The New Yorker and other major publications. Exhibition highlights include solo shows such as “Come Home With Me” at Virginia Tech’s Perspective Gallery (Blacksburg, Virginia) and “A Wild Weed” at Gallerie Geraldine Banier (Paris, France). Currently, her work is on view at the Speed Art Museum (Louisville, Kentucky), 21C Museum (Lexington), and The Carnegie (Covington, Kentucky). Evans holds a degree in Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies from Spalding University in Louisville.

Artist Talk with Krzysztof Wodiczko
Monday, Sept. 29 | 6-7 p.m.
Room 136, Art and Visual Studies Building

Krzysztof Wodiczko, born in Warsaw, Poland in 1943, is internationally renowned for his large-scale projections on architectural facades and monuments, with more than 90 projects realized across 20 countries. His work has been presented at major international exhibitions, including Documenta, the Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennial, and Liverpool Biennial, and is held in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Gallery of Poland, Centre Pompidou and Walker Art Center.

Wodiczko is a professor emeritus of art, design and the public domain at Harvard Graduate School of Design, former director of MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies and currently visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and adjunct professor at Columbia University. His honors include the fourth Hiroshima Art Prize “for the contribution as an international artist to the world peace.” His work is featured in the PBS series “Art in the Twenty-First Century” and in the 2022 documentary “Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Art of Un-War,” directed by Maria Niro.

Gallery Talk with Josh Copus
Friday, Oct. 3 | noon-1 p.m.
Bolivar Art Gallery

Josh Copus, an artist and creative entrepreneur from Marshall, North Carolina, is internationally recognized for his ceramics practice rooted in local materials and place-based making. A 2006 recipient of the prestigious Windgate Fellowship and a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Copus has exhibited and taught extensively across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. His work is included in museum and private collections worldwide.

In addition to his studio practice, Copus has founded and led numerous community-driven projects, including the Clayspace Collective in Asheville’s River Arts District, the Building Community Project and the adaptive reuse of the Old Marshall Jail into a hotel, music venue, social practice art project and community hub. His ongoing initiatives, including revitalizing a trailer park into affordable housing and community space, demonstrate his commitment to art as a vehicle for connection and transformation.

Artist Talk with William Estrada
Friday, Oct. 10 | noon-1 p.m.
Cornerstone Theatre

Known as “The People’s Art Teacher,” William Estrada uses both teaching and artmaking to explore shared histories, movement and collective memory. He engages public spaces as sites for transformation, dialogue and collective creativity — documenting and amplifying stories within communities while challenging established systems.

For more information about the Fall 2025 Visiting Artist & Scholar Series and future programming, visit the UK School of Art and Visual Studies website.