Artist talk with Glenn Ligon

Denison’s Studio Art program welcomes Glenn Ligon presenting an artist talk. Ligon works with paint, video, photography, neon and digital photography to explore American history, literature and society across a body of work that builds critically on the legacies of modern painting and more recent conceptual art. He is best known for his landmark series of text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures including Jean Genet, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesse Jackson, and Richard Pryor. Ligon’s subject matter ranges widely from the Million Man March and the aftermath of slavery to 1970s coloring books and the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe—all treated within artworks that are both politically provocative and beautiful to behold.

The talk was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Vail Visiting Artist Fund and the Studio Art Program.