Lecture Series Archives - Page 3 of 3

Visiting artist Andrea Modica to give public lecture April 18

March 18, 2024 by Reynolds College

Photographer Andrea Modica will present a public lecture of her work on Thursday, April 18, 2024, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center, Jay Wasson Idea Loft, at 405 N. Jefferson Ave. in Springfield.

Photography professor Gwen Walstrand, of the Department of Art and Design, was instrumental in bringing Modica to Missouri State University.

Walstrand described Modica’s work as “poetic and evocative, both dark in content yet hopeful and tender.” She added that she has always been interested in Modica’s work and knew it would be beneficial for the students and community.

“Students will get to hear her articulate her ideas and explain how she thinks about the work she makes,” Walstrand said. “Modica models how to ask visual questions about her art and that of others. She employs much knowledge to offer students and will answer important questions of what it means to be an artist now and how to make a living as an artist.”

Visiting Artist Morehshin Allahyari to lecture on her work March 26

March 1, 2024 by Reynolds College

Visiting Artist Morehshin Allahyari will lecture on her work in digital fabrication, video and sculpture Tuesday, March 26 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center.

The event is free and open to the public.

About the artist

Allahyari, an Iranian-Kurdish artist currently residing in New York, employs 3D simulation, video, sculpture and digital fabrication to reinterpret myth and history.

Utilizing archival practices and storytelling, her artistic endeavors interlace intricate counternarratives, challenging the enduring impact of western technological colonialism within the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) context.

Allahyari’s work has been part of numerous exhibitions, festivals and workshops around the world, including the New Museum, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Venice Biennale Archittectura and Museum für angewandte Kunst.

Her works are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Current Museum and have been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Huffington Post, Wired, National Public Radio, Parkett Art Magazine, Frieze, Rhizome, Hyperallergic and Al Jazeera.

Allahyari has been awarded a United States Artist Fellowship, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, The Sundance Institute New Frontier International Fellowship and the Leading Global Thinkers of 2016 award by Foreign Policy magazine.

Lecture attendees should enter Jay Wasson Idea Loft from the west side of the efactory (Boonville-facing with murals). Parking is available in MSU Lot 46. Contact the Department of Art and Design at 417-837-2330 for additional details.

Sculpture on black background — Morehshin Allahyari, Gorgon from the series Material Speculation: ISIS. 3D printed resin and memory card., Image courtesy of the artist, 2016.

Black and gold sculpture on black background — Morehshin Allahyari, Zoba’ah, The Whirlwind, Virtual Sculpture and AR, Courtesy of the artist and the Museum for Samtidskunst, 2022-2023.

Digital still of artwork — Morehshin Allahyari, Moon-faced, still image from video, courtesy of the artist (2022)

News written by Mariah Hunter and edited by the Reynolds College Communications team.

Hunter is a graduate assistant for the Department of Art and Design. She is working towards her master’s degree in writing at Missouri State University.

History alum Dr. Maurice Gipson guest speaker at African and African American Lecture Series

February 27, 2024 by Lynn Lansdown

Missouri State University’s African and African American Studies program welcomed Dr. Maurice Gipson as guest speaker for its annual lecture series Feb. 7.

Gipson, who earned his M.A. in history at MSU, presented “Black Dirt, Black People and Black Power: The Radical Road to Freedom in Arkansas.”

His topic explored the work of Arkansas activists who embraced Black Power as an organizing philosophy during the 1960s and 1970s.

Gipson currently serves as Vice Chancellor, Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well as an affiliate faculty member of the history department. He earned his doctorate in history at the University of Mississippi.

Since its inauguration in 2015, the African and African American lecture series has been held annually, welcoming scholars from Mississippi State University, Rhodes College, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, St. Louis University, University of Minnesota and University of Oklahoma.

The African and African American Studies program is housed within the Department of History.

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