Join artist Charles Ray and museum educator Sam Ramos for an informal gallery tour and conversation about Ray’s creative practice and its intersections with art across the collection.
about the speakers
Charles Ray (b. 1953) grew up in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in 1981, where he currently lives and works. His art has been featured in Documenta, three Venice Biennales, and six Whitney Biennials, and his sculptures have been the subject of five retrospectives. The first was organized in 1998 by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The second was from 2014 to 2015 at the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2022, a solo presentation opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as well as simultaneous solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou and Bourse de Commerce in Paris.
Sam Ramos is the director of Gallery Activation at the Art Institute of Chicago. He teaches across the galleries on a variety of topics including nature, history, medicine, law, race, colonialism, and, of course, art. He is a practicing writer who has published fiction, art criticism, and essays in a number of places, though his first loves are short stories and novels. Most recently, his novel, Ghost Box, was longlisted for the 2023 Dzanc Fiction Prize. He received his BFA in art history and studio art, as well as his MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
What to Expect
This program will begin in Gallery 135 and move around the museum from there. Staff will be on hand to assist with elevators. Seating will be limited.
ASL interpretation and/or assisted listening devices are available upon request at museum_interpretation@artic.edu. Assisted listening devices are limited and available on a first come, first served basis. Requests must be made at least two weeks in advance.
