McKnight Discussion Series: Tia-Simone Gardner, Sieng Lee, and Lindsay Rhyner
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the McKnight Discussion Series featuring Katie Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Detroit Art Institute, in conversation with 2023 McKnight fellows Tia-Simone Gardner, Sieng Lee, and Lindsay Rhyner. This event is free, but ticketed. All are invited to attend; tickets available February 27.
This program pairs a visiting critic with three McKnight Visual Artist Fellows and offers attendees an opportunity to learn more about the fellowship recipients as well as how their work intersects with broader contemporary art ideas and concerns. This event is generously supported by the McKnight Foundation.
The discussion series is co-presented with the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Fellowships are generously funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Katie A. Pfohl is Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. At DIA, she is working on a reinstallation of the museum’s contemporary galleries, collaborating with curatorial colleagues as well as local and national advisors to reimagine the space and collection. From 2015–2022, she was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. At NOMA, she curated almost 30 exhibitions, acquired or commissioned over 100 works of art by local, national and international artists, worked collaboratively on innovative educational programming and community engagement, and reinstalled the museum’s 20th century and contemporary galleries. Pfohl’s projects have received funding and awards from The Warhol Foundation, The National Endowment of the Humanities, The Terra Foundation, The Louisiana Endowment of the Humanities, and The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, among others. Her exhibitions have been recognized by many publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Art in America, Artforum, Hyperallergic, and Burnaway. In 2014, Pfohl completed her PhD in art history at Harvard University, and in 2006 she participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Pfohl has held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the LSU Museum of Art.
Tia-Simone Gardner is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and undisciplined Black feminist geographer, committed to understanding relationships between Blackness and landscape. Gardner grew up in Fairfield, Alabama, across the street from Birmingham and learned to see landscape, capitalist extraction, and containment through this place.
She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Practices and Time-Based Media from the University of Pennsylvania followed by her participation as a Studio Fellow Whitney Independent Study Program and her doctorate in Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her work has shown both nationally and internationally, and her writing has appeared in Georgia, an independently published arts writing journal, and New Suns, a journal published by USA Artists. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Sieng Lee is a visual artist who exists in between being Hmong and American. He seeks to expand beyond the traditions of his community and find a place in contemporary art. Lee believes that the artist can do and be more than a maker of objects and artifacts. The role of the artist is more than just to create, but to disrupt. His work has been supported by the Jerome Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Graphic Design and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Currently, he works as an artist-in-residence at White Bear Center for the Arts, where he mentors, teaches, and supports other artists.
Lindsay Rhyner is a textile and mixed-media artist living and working in Minneapolis. Through experimentation and exploring different mediums, Rhyner discovered an interest in manipulating and collaging textiles, combining skills such as sewing, beading, collage, and painting. Rhyner is self taught in the textile arts and has been working in fiber for most of her career. She creates large-scale wall hangings from a variety of materials, mostly second-hand or recycled goods. She is inspired by the world and materials around her. Rhyner has attended residencies in Daegu, South Korea, and Clichy, France. In 2016, she received a MCAD–Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Artists and had a solo show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. More recently, she’s participated in exhibitions at the University of Minnesota and Parlour and Ramp Gallery in Chicago.