EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 25, 2010) - Contemporary artist Dan Graham, whose influential work has ranged from photography to the architecture of glass and mirrored pavilions, will speak next month at the University of Oregon.
"I'm thrilled about Graham's visit," said Kate Mondloch, a UO art history professor. "He's an extraordinary talent - one of those artists whose oeuvre has been remarkably consistent and yet radically experimental at the same time."
Graham's free lecture, "Works Between Art and Architecture," will be at 7 p.m. April 15 in Room 177, Lawrence Hall, at 1190 Franklin Boulevard in Eugene. A question-and-answer session will follow. The event will be shown via live videoconference in Room 451 at the UO in Portland, 70 NW Couch St.
Graham's first American retrospective, "Dan Graham: Beyond," was featured last year in Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the show traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He has had solo exhibitions around the world.
The self-taught artist began his career in 1964, at age 22, when he founded the John Daniels Gallery in New York. His early minimalist photography led to later forays into sculpture, video, performance art, architectural models and glass and mirror structure. Graham has been at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, which has more to do with the idea behind the work and the process of creating it than with the finished product. He also has published numerous critical and speculative writings.
Graham's glass and mirror pavilions, his focus in recent years, are said to blur the line between sculpture and architecture. The pavilions are constructed of steel and glass.
"His work is embedded in multiple movements within contemporary art and he has been influential through a practice that philosophically engages the effects of contemporary culture," said UO art professor Tannaz Farsi, who invited Graham to lecture at the university.
Graham's lecture is funded by the Department of Art's George and Matilda Fowler Endowment Fund and is part of the Visiting Artists Lecture Series. The lecture series brings about a dozen artists and critics to UO each year to speak about their work.
The George and Matilda Fowler Lecture is one of two annually endowed lectures bringing respected and cutting-edge artists and critics to the university. The other is the Davis Family Lecture, which brought art critic Jan Tumlir to Eugene on March 2.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Karen Johnson, AAA Communications, 541-346-3603, karenjj@uoregon.edu
Source: Tannaz Farsi, assistant professor, Department of Art, 541-346-4375, tfarsi@uoregon.edu
Kate Mondloch, assistant professor, Department of Art History, 541-346-2068, mondloch@uoregon.edu
Beth Roy, executive administrative assistant, Department of Art, 541-346-3609, beth@uoregon.edu
Media Contact: Joe Mosley, media relations associate, jmosley@uoregon.edu, 541-346-3606
Links: http://calendar.uoregon.edu/showanitem.php?refid=9530
http://art-uo.uoregon.edu/index.cfm?mode=visitingartists
http://www.moca.org/media/gal_guides/Guide_Graham.pdf
http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?id=413
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