Below is the line up of events at LUAG for this semester. For more information about the events call us at 610.758.6880 or email luag@lehigh.edu.

September 10 at 5pm, LUAG Lower Gallery
Book Discussion: Envisioning Howard Finster Author Norman Girardot

Lehigh University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Norman Girardot presents several short films and discusses his recently published book Envisioning Howard Finster. Reception and book signing to follow.

Norman Girardot is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion at Lehigh University. Trained in the comparative history of religions under Mircea Eliade at the University of Chicago, he taught at Notre Dame University and Oberlin College before coming to Lehigh in 1980. His special research areas include Chinese religious tradition, especially Daoism, popular religious movements (e.g. the posthumous Elvis Presley cult), the intellectual history of the study of China and the rise of the discipline known as “comparative religions,” and the relation of religion and outsider/vernacular/visionary art.

Girardot’s recently publish book Envisioning Howard Finster is the first interpretive analysis of the intertwined artistic and religious significance of Finster’s work within the context of the American “outsider art” tradition. The Reverend Howard Finster (1916–2001) was called the “backwoods William Blake” and the “Andy Warhol of the South,” and he is considered the godfather of contemporary American folk and visionary art.

 

September 22 at 7pm, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center
Performance by Bill George: A Reflection On Revisiting South Bethlehem

Actor and Touchstone Theater co-founder Bill George presents a solo, avant garde theatrical reflection on LUAG’s exhibition Revisiting South Bethlehem, an exhibition celebrating Lehigh University’s past 150 years in photography. The 50 minute performance is a meditation on the overwhelming challenges and complexities relating to the evolving identity of Lehigh University and South Bethlehem. Bill George will mix movement, poetry, philosophy and personal stories with 54 images from the exhibition to question and better understand the Borough’s past, present and future.

Bill George received his B.A. in English Literature from Lehigh University and his M.F.A. in Acting/Directing from the Dallas Theatre Centre of Trinity University. He studied mime with Paul Curtis of The American Mime Theatre, founded the People’s Theatre Company in 1977 and later co-founded Touchstone Theatre in 1981 where he was Producing Director until 1990. He took a hiatus from Touchstone in 1996 and returned in 2003 as a full-time Ensemble Member where he has won numerous awards over the years–including a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and a Pennsylvania Solo Theatre Arts Fellowship.

 

 

October 8 at 5pm, LUAG Lower Gallery
Gallery Talk: . . . Of The Americas: Contemporary Latin American Art 

. . . Of the Americas: Contemporary Latin American Art gallery talk with writer and independent curator José Antonio Navarrete and LUAG Director/Chief Curator Ricardo Viera. Reception to follow.

José Antonio Navarrete is a critic, researcher, and independent curator of culture and visual arts who also practices art in photography and video. He has worked intensely as a curator in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. His range of professional experience includes working in museums and art institutions, curating exhibitions, editing for art publications, writing and lecturing. He has contributed with texts to numerous magazines, catalogues, academic publications, and newspapers.

Ricardo Viera is professor of art and Director/Chief Curator of the Lehigh University Art Galleries/Museum Operation, where he has established a visual laboratory program with the LUAG work/study collection and a nationally recognized collection of Latin American photography and video.  Professor Viera teaches courses in museum and curatorial studies, independent topics in the history of photography, public art, visual thinking strategies and multimedia/new media workshops.

 

October 22 at 5pm, LUAG Main Gallery
Gallery Talk: Object as Subject 

Object as Subject Gallery Talk with Nicholas Sawicki, Assistant Professor of Art History, and LUAG Director/Chief Curator Ricardo Viera. Reception to follow.

Nicholas Sawicki is Assistant Professor of art history and currently holds Lehigh’s Frank Hook Assistant Professorship. His area of specialization is European modernism, and he teaches a range of courses on the subject, in addition to more general introductory courses in art history.  He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from New York University.

Ricardo Viera is professor of art and Director/Chief Curator of the Lehigh University Art Galleries/Museum Operation, where he has established a visual laboratory program with the LUAG work/study collection and a nationally recognized collection of Latin American photography and video.  Professor Viera teaches courses in museum and curatorial studies, independent topics in the history of photography, public art, visual thinking strategies and multimedia/new media workshops.

 

Featured Image: Katz, Alex , Portrait of a Poet: Kenneth Koch, 1970, Lithograph on paper, 7/200