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Artists Luis Gispert and Michael Ray Charles are among the artists who will speak during the UA School of Art's lecture series.

By Jamie Reid, School of Art
September 30, 2008

Hip-hop and youth culture and the Cuban-American experience are key influences in the work of artist Luis Gispert.

Gispert is one of a number of artists who will share their work during The University of Arizona School of Art’s Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series called “Transculturations – Cultural Hybridity in American Art.” His talk will be held Oct. 2 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 211 of the UA’s Education Building, located at 1430 E. Second St.

Creating art through a wide range of media, including photographs, sculpture, film and installation, Gispert often incorporates a high-gloss aesthetic, fashionable appropriation of pop genres and sampled music to provide a rich intellectual framework for his art.

Using the concept of remixing as a critical tool, Gispert brings together disparate elements from art, history and contemporary culture.

His work includes the experimental film, Stereomongrel, which blends such genres as 1970’s and 80’s Italian horror movies, psychological/supernatural thrillers and the unattainable ideals—both physical and economic—found in hip-hop music videos and fashion magazines. His installations have been exhibited at the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Other artists that the School of Art has scheduled to present include:

• Michael Ray Charles, whose work focuses on racial stereotypes, will present Nov. 20. Charles takes his cues from media – advertisements, television, radio and other mediums – to explore the negative stereotyping of Blacks.
• Howard Fox, the senior curatorial fellow of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will present Dec. 4. Fox has curated a number of major exhibitions and has also authored numerous catalogues.
• Mary Jane Jacob, a professor and the executive director of exhibitions at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will speak Jan. 22. Jacob has been considered one of the most nonconformist curators in the United States for at least two decades.
• Daniel J. Martinez will speak Feb. 12. Martinez is a professor of theory, practice and meditation of contemporary art at the University of California Irvine and produces multimedia pieces using text, images, sculpture and video.
• Barbara McClosky, associate professor of art history at the University of Pittsburgh, will present March 26. McClosky has published books, catalogue essays, articles and other publications centered on art and politics that venture into German 19th and 20th century culture.

All events are scheduled to be held at 5:30 p.m. in Room 108 of the UA’s Center for Creative Photography. The time and location for the final artist, Emily Jacir, the 2008 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Hugo Boss Prize winner, has not yet been finalized.