Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Ann Lewis

Ann Lewis is a multidisciplinary activist artist using painting, installation, social practice, and participatory performance in our public spaces to explore themes related to American identity, power structures, and justice. Her work speculates on a future bereft  of sexual violence through communal creative healing sessions, the embodied  contemplation of definitive autonomy, and non-violent modes of creation. Her most recent work Our Monument is an ongoing exploration of preventative means to eliminate sexual trauma through restoration, empathy, and monumental public sculpture.

After receiving her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, her career  began in the street art world of New York City and has evolved into large-scale public works. Her mural See Her received an Americans for the Arts 2018 Public Art Network  (PAN) Award. Ann’s art has been acquired by the New York Historical Society Museum and the US Library of Congress. It has been discussed in Hyperallergic, Artnet, The LA  Times, and The Guardian. She has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the  US and abroad, including shows at Petzel Gallery in New York, Seyhoun Gallery in  Tehran, Iran, and the Obama White House. She is expected to receive her MFA in  Digital + Media from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the spring of 2023.

This lecture will involve a discussion on sexual violence.

ABOUT VALS

Each year Pratt Fine Arts invites contemporary artists for a public lecture and to conduct studio visits with fine arts graduate students. This Visiting Artists Lecture Series (VALS) is coordinated by graduate student leaders. The aim is to provide our students with exposure to a wide array of artists working in a variety of fields at various stages in their career. Recent and past visiting artists include: Abigail D. Deville, Edgar Heap of Birds, Jennie Jieun Lee, Shazia Sikander, Elektra KB, Nina Katchadourian, Wardell Milan, Wendy Red Star, Narcissister, Pradeep Dalal, James Hyde, Jill Magid, Schezerade Garcia, Rochelle Feinstein, Lavar Munroe, Lorna Simpson, Rico Gatson, Nicole Eisenman, Tom Sachs, Aura Satz, Leigh Ledare, Judith Bernstein, Dan Walsh, Kalup Linzey, Keltie Ferris, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Diana Al-Hadid, Rashaad Newsome, Dora + Maja, Bryan Zanisnik, Nancy Grossman, Peter Saul, Michael Berryhill, Wafaa Bilal, and Catherine Opie.

Pratt’s Fine Arts Department Visiting Artists Lecture Series was made possible by a generous grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation.

Image Credit: Ann Lewis, A Kind Word (Monument for Survivors of Sexual Violence, In Progress), Courtesy of the Artist.