Rhea Anastas is an art historian, critic, curator, and Associate Professor in the Art Department at the University of California, Irvine. Over the fall/winter of 2011-2012, she was the Otis Visiting Fine Arts Critic in Residence Fellow in the Fine Arts Department at the College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.
Anastas is editor of a forthcoming a book of writings that captures the artist’s voice in dialogues, essays, scripts, statements, and letters by Orchard’s co-founders and the wider community who co-created the exhibitions and public discourse of the gallery.
Additional to her curatorial work at Orchard, Anastas organized “New Cuts: K8 Hardy,” an exhibition of performative activity by artist, videomaker, and zine producer K8 Hardy (b. 1977, Fort Worth). The show featured Hardy’s live performances as seen through video, videos made during a period of intense collaboration with Wynne Greenwood, with the journal & gender-queer feminist group project LTTR, as well as with Klara Lidén and A. L. Steiner. New Cuts was presented at the University Art Galleries at the University of California, Irvine’s Clare Trevor School of the Arts.
Another project of Anastas’ with Chicago-based filmmaker Cauleen Smith featuring compositions by Alice Coltrane, films, and banners inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry will open at the Irvine galleries on January 14, 2017.
Anastas’ most recent publication, Double Bind, is a book-length long form dialogue co-written with artist Leigh Ledare. Anastas’ previous books include: Dan Graham: Works 1965-2000, coedited with Marianne Brouwer and published by Richter Verlag, and, Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne, published by Bard College, coedited with Michael Brenson.
Anastas holds a B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center at The City University of New York.
Critical Issues in Contemporary Art Practice is a free public lecture series. The series is organized by the School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington and is sponsored by The Boeing Company with support from Henry Art Gallery. The lecture series happens over seven Thursday evenings this winter in the Henry’s auditorium. The general public is invited to sit alongside degree-seeking individuals studying fine art to share ideas and raise questions on contemporary art and its place in society and our imaginations. Following the public lectures, UW graduate and undergraduate art students enrolled in ART 361/595 interface with the visiting artists in the classroom and studio.
Lectures begin at 7 pm. Attendees are encouraged to register for individual lectures in order to secure seating.
CREDITS
The Critical Issues in Contemporary Art Practice lecture series is held in conjunction with ART 361/595 and hosted by the UW School of Art + Art History + Design. It is sponsored by The Boeing Company with support from Henry Art Gallery.
