Combining previously unpublished images with scrupulous archival research, this lecture illuminates the ideological nature of the genre and the centrality of race and cultural identity in understanding modern and contemporary portraiture. Powell forcefully supports this argument with evidence drawn from a survey of nineteenth-century portraits, in-depth case studies of the postwar fashion model Donyale Luna and the contemporary portraitist Barkley L. Hendricks, and insightful analyses of images created since the late 1970s.

John Arndt discusses images by photographer Robert Adams, whose severe landscapes inform Arndt's own sculpture and works on paper.  Arndt, who teaches at College of DuPage, was awarded a residency at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Utah in 2007 and an Artadia Individual Art Grant in 2002.

Michael Dinges, inspired by the scrimshaw tradition, inscribes pithy commentary and figured imagery on pure white surfaces. Dead laptops, PVC, plastic buckets, and lawn chairs take on new meaning through his social commentary and satirical critique. In this lecture, Dinges discusses the impact of Cornell's assemblages on his own work.

Lou Mallozzi has been at the forefront of the experimental sound scene in Chicago for decades. For this Artists Connect talk, Mallozzi took van der Spelt and van Mieris's Trompe l'Oeil Still Life with Flower Garland and Curtain as a point of departure in a discussion of his own audio installations.

Edra Soto is a Chicago-based artist who has exhibited internationally and locally. Her paintings, photographs, objects, and installations reflect an interest in pop culture, private mythologies, and draw on her childhood fixation on Puerto Rican superstar Iris Chacón.  In this Artists Connect talk, Soto discusses her own work and works by William Blake inspired by Dante Alighieri.

Dan Devening is an artist, a gallery director, and a teacher at the School of the Art Institute. In this Artists Connect talk, he delves deeply into Matisse's work in the productive years in Nice from 1920-1930, and discusses how these paintings and sculptures have influenced his own artwork.

Martina Nehrling makes colorful paintings that pulse with an interior rhythm. She says, "When I paint I am sounding out elements of my everyday life, and I am captivated by the richly textured cacophony of disparate events, information, things." Nehrling discusses her own work and the inspiration of Édouard Vuillard, a chronicler of the everyday.

Hungarian-born Sari Dienes (1898-1992) had an extensive career, producing some of her most significant work between 1950 and 1954. Recent School of the Art Institute Chicago graduate Kate Zeller discusses these powerful images composed from large contact rubbings on paper.

Artists Connect is a lecture series in which area artists discuss their own work and works in the collection of the Art Institute. Here, Laura Kina discussed the productive conflict that results from her encounters with Gauguin.

Artist Rhonda Wheatley looks at the inspiration taken from paintings and sculpture by Cy Twombly, whose recent works will inaugurate the Modern Wing in May 2009. 

Mario Ybarra, Jr. is a visual and performance artist, educator, and activist. Hear him discuss his Focus exhibition Take Me Out...No Man Is an Island.

Paola Cabal is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute and a recent recipient of the prestigious Richard H. Driehaus Award for emerging artists. For Artists Connect, Paola discusses the inspiration she finds for her own work in paintings by Latvian-born artist Vija Celmins

Pate Conaway is a graduate of both Columbia College Chicago and the Second City Training Program. Collaborations with the Rachel Germond Dance Ensemble and The Seldoms demonstrate the importance of performance in his work. Here, Pate discusses the influence of surrealism and René Magritte.

Dawoud Bey presents photographs from his recent book Class Pictures: Portraits of American Teenagers and discusses his work with David Travis, chair of the Department of Photography.

Artist David Schutter has intently studied an Art Institute work by Jean Antoine Watteau, and is making a new painting from memory, evoking, rather than copying, the 18th century image.  He is, as noted by curator Anthony Elms, "painting the action of looking."  Learn more from the artist here.

Artists Connect is a regularly scheduled series of lectures given by Chicago-area artists.  In these illustrated talks, artists describe their own work in relation to one or several works in the permanent collection of the Art Institute.

Deb Sokolow works on a large scale with a precise attention to detail, using "low-tech" materials such as number two pencils, ballpoint pens, and correction fluid.  Her talk describes the personal and philosophical connections she finds between her work and that of Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca.

Artists Connect is a regularly scheduled series of lectures given by Chicago-area artists.  In these illustrated talks, artists describe their own work in relation to one or several works in the permanent collection of the Art Institute.

Kota Ezawa knows which aspects of an iconic image--whether from film, television, or the history of photography--sear themselves into our collective memory. Hear the artist discuss his work, which was part of the photography exhibition On the Scene.

Sarah Hobbs's carefully staged and photographed scenarios reflect a profound--even empathetic--understanding of phobias, neuroses, and obsessions. Hear the artist discuss her work, which was part of the photography exhibition On the Scene.

An esteemed artist and teacher, Theaster Gates is coordinator of arts programming at the University of Chicago.  Recent exhibitions include Speaking of Passage, Life After Qualls at the South Side Community Art Center, and the performance Dave: Neo-Slave Narratives and Contemporary Black Identity-I Made This Pot, in Paris. In this lecture, hear Gates speak about how his artwork connects to Japanese ceramics.

Carl Blechen's Interior of the Palm House at Pfaueninsel near Potsdam (1834) serves as a point of departure for Adelheid Mers's presentation, in which the artist explains the evolution of her ambitious and often interactive diagrams that derive from a personal engagement with text and image.

Artists Connect is a regularly scheduled series of lectures given by Chicago-area artists.  In these illustrated talks, artists describe their own work in relation to one or several works in the collection of the Art Institute.

In her talk from April 7, 2007, artist Sumakshi Singh discusses the impact of minimalist works by Richard Tuttle on her own intricately detailed installations and experimental performances.

Artists Connect is a regularly scheduled series of lectures given by Chicago-area artists.  In these illustrated talks, artists describe their own work in relation to one or several works in the collection of the Art Institute.

For more than 30 years, Richard Misrach has produced beautiful photographs of terrible subjects, focusing on man's often disastrous effect on the earth. Hear the artist discuss On the Beach, his exhibition of over 20 photographs, which made its debut at the Art Institute on September 15.

Check out Chicago Amplified to listen to other Art Institute programs.

Artist Jana Gunstheimer's semi-fictional organization Nova Porta proposes to offer "People without Social Function" an opportunity to find purpose through group cohesion and rigid hierarchy. Listen as she explains the inner workings of this alternative society along with the specific events that occurred in Chicago surrounding her focus exhibition Status L Phenomenon.

The photography of Angela Strassheim reveals how the experience of growing up in a religious family or being female in America can profoundly influence experience.  This lecture was presented in conjunction with the exhibtion On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim, in Gallery 1 through September 3.

A conversation between artist Mel Bochner and scholar James Meyer recorded on opening night of Mel Bochner: Language 1966-2006. This Focus series exhibition brought together more than 50 works on paper, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and installations to present an overview of his language-based investigations over the past four decades

Artist Bibiana Suarez spoke at the Art Institute on December 2, 2006, as part of the series Artists Connect. Her revealing observations illuminate the presentation of 18th-century identities in portraiture, allowing us to compare Carriera's work with Suarez's images, which address dislocation, memory, and games.

Tune in as contemporary photographer Mann answers questions from an audience of nearly 400 on opening day of the Art Institute exhibition So the Story Goes. Mann responds to questions ranging from printing techniques to subject matter, from disbelief in photographic "truth" to a Southern weakness for the romantic.

On opening day of the Art Institute exhibition So the Story Goes, our audiences were treated to a lecture by photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Click on the link below to hear diCorcia discuss his many and varied projects over the course of his career.

Listen to photographers Barney and Sultan talk about their photographs on view in the Art Institute exhibition So the Story Goes. Recorded on opening day, this conversation reveals their shared practice photographing family members from the 1980s to 1990s and their very different approaches to their projects since that time.