The School of Art at CalArts is delighted to welcome our Fall 2023 Rosalind Harris Visiting Critic, Hamza Walker!
A Conversation between Hamza Walker and Carrie Mae Weems
Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, 4:30, F200 and on Zoom
The School of Art is pleased to welcome Hamza Walker, Fall 2023 Rosalind Visiting Critic, who will host a conversation with the legendary Carrie Mae Weems (Art BFA 81).
All School of Art Rosalind Visiting Critics participate in an on-campus residency inclusive of public talks, pedagogical workshops, and studio visits with the CalArts community. These residencies are made possible by the support and generosity of the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation and Faculty Emeritus Charles Gaines.
Hamza Walker is the Director of LAXART, an independent nonprofit art space in Los Angeles. From 1994–2016, he was the Director of Education and Associate Curator at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, a non-collecting museum devoted to contemporary art.
Recently, Walker was a juror for the Venice Biennale's prestigious Golden Lion award. In February 2019, Walker curated the talks and programs at the first edition of Frieze Los Angeles. In 2018, he curated Sperm Cult and Sol LeWitt, Page Works 1967 - 2007, an exhibition of works LeWitt made specifically for reproduction in magazines, journals, and books.
Walker co-curated the Made in LA 2016 biennial at the Hammer Museum. In 2017, he co-curated Reconstitution at LAXART. Recent exhibitions include A Painting Is A Painting Isn't A Painting (2015) at the Kadist Foundation in San Francisco; Wadada Leo Smith, Ankhrasmation: The Language Scores 1967 - 2015, which he co-curated with John Corbett at the Renaissance Society; Teen Paranormal Romance (2014) and Suicide Narcissus (2013), two thematic group exhibitions both mounted at the Renaissance Society. He has contributed reviews and art criticism to Parkett and Artforum and numerous catalogue essays. He is the recipient of the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant and the 2004 Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement. In 2010, he was awarded the Ordway Prize for contributions to the field in the form of writing and exhibitions.
Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. Determined as ever to enter the picture — both literally and metaphorically — Weems has sustained an ongoing dialogue within contemporary discourse for over thirty years.
Weems has received numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the prestigious Prix de Roma, The National Endowment of the Arts, The Alpert, The Anonymous was a Woman, The Tiffany Awards, a MacArthur "Genius" grant, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2023 Hasselblad Award. Weems is also a recipient of the ICP Spotlights Award from the International Center of Photography, The WEB Dubois Award from Harvard University, and received Honorary Degrees from the California College of the Arts, Colgate University, Bowdoin College, MICA, the School of Visual Arts, Syracuse University, and Smith College.
Weems earned a BFA degree at the California Institute of the Arts and an MFA degree at the University of California, San Diego, and studied in the Graduate Program in Folklore at the University of California, Berkeley.
