artspeaks 2008 Season

2008-2009 Season Announced

The University of Chicago’s Artspeaks Series Launches 5th Season
2008/2009 Fellows Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Leon Fleisher and Kara Walker

Celebrating five years of “giving voice to vision,” the University of Chicago announced its 2008/2009 Artspeaks series today with a lineup of internationally renowned artists. Adding to its impressive list of previous fellows, the fifth anniversary season will launch with performance artist and writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña on Feb. 17, followed by pianist Leon Fleisher on Mar. 31 and visual artist Kara Walker on May 13.

Dedicated to showcasing the achievements of contemporary creative minds, Artspeaks offers an intimate setting for public presentations and insightful conversations with acclaimed artists. The series artists also engage in workshops with the University of Chicago community, offering students and faculty a unique opportunity to learn from some of the world’s brightest creators. Previous seasons have included visits by photographers, painters, musicians, authors and filmmakers, including Neil Gaiman, John Zorn, Bill T. Jones, Atom Egoyan, Uri Caine and Peter Sellars.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña | Feb. 17

El Mexorcist 4: An Evening of Spoken Word Roulette

In this performance, Guillermo Gómez-Peña denounces the anti-immigration hysteria and assaults the demonized construction of the U.S.-Mexican border. Using acid Chicano humor, hybrid literary genres, multilingualism and activist theory, Gómez-Peña reflects on identity, race, sexuality, pop culture and the impact of new technologies in the post-9/11 era. His performance moves cultural borders to the center, marginalizes the alleged mainstream and redefines his audience as “foreigners” or “minorities.”
For more information: http://www.pochanostra.com/projects/

Leon Fleisher | March 31

Performing works by J.S. Bach; Post-concert Q&A session hosted by
Thomas Christensen, associate dean and master of the Collegiate Humanities Division

As the first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition in 1952 at the age of 24, Leon Fleisher went on to perform throughout the world with every major orchestra and conductor and released numerous touchstone recordings with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1965, at just 37, Fleisher was forced to “retire” from performance when two of his fingers became immobilized due to focal dystonia. For the next 40 years, he pursued a successful career as a conductor and teacher, in addition to performing left-handed works. With new developments in the medical treatment of focal dystonia, Leon Fleisher is once again able to brilliantly play the piano with two hands. He has recently released his first two-hand recording in 40 years, aptly entitled Two Hands. Its repertoire includes the works of J.S. Bach.
For more information: http://franksalomon.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=36

Kara Walker | May 13

Walker will reflect on her work in a presentation and dialogue with Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor, Department of History, who's research and teaching focus on capitalism, slavery and emancipation, and the historical experience of moral problems.

Known for exploring the raw intersection of race, gender and sexuality, Kara Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouetted figure. Her installations create a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violent acts upon one another. With one foot in the historical realism of slavery and the other in the fantastical space of the romance novel, Walker’s nightmarish fictions simultaneously seduce and implicate its audience. A 1997 recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award and a 2008 United States Artists Fellow, Kara Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Walker lives in New York where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.
For more information: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/walker/index.html

Artspeaks Archives

Read a brief history of Artspeaks and its past seasons.

About Artspeaks

Read the Artspeaks mission statement and learn about the Artspeaks staff and committee.

The 2008 Artspeaks season is presented with support from The College of the University of Chicago and The Nicholson Center for British Studies and in collaboration with University Theatre; Theater and Performance Studies; Department of Germanic Studies; Court Theatre; Department of Visual Arts (DOVA); the Open Practice Committee of DOVA; the Contemporary Art Workshop; University of Chicago Presents; the Smart Museum of Art; the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture; Department of Music; and Cinema & Media Studies at The University of Chicago.

For information on all the arts at the University of Chicago, see arts.uchicago.edu