The ArtCenter Graduate Art MFA program is pleased to announce its Spring 2023 Graduate Art guest lecture series, organized by Jack Bankowsky.

Unless otherwise indicated, lectures are free and open to the public. Check the ArtCenter Graduate Art website to confirm dates, times and locations for the lecture series and for more information about the Graduate Art program.

Peter Eleey is curator-at-large at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China. He previously served as chief curator of MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, where he organized more than 40 exhibitions between 2010 and 2020. In addition to his many shows of emerging and established artists, Eleey has curated a number of significant group exhibitions, including the 2015 edition of PS1’s Greater New York (for which he led the curatorial team of Douglas Crimp, Thomas [T.] Jean Lax, and Mia Locks), and Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011 (with Ruba Katrib, 2019). He most recently co-organized Somewhere Downtown, a broad survey of art in 1980s New York at UCCA Beijing, Beijing, China (with Carlo McCormick); the first survey of Deana Lawson’s work at Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts and MoMA PS1 (with Eva Respini); and a Barbara Kruger commission for the atrium at MoMA, New York, New York (with Lanka Tattersall). Before joining MoMA PS1, Eleey was visual arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a curator at Creative Time in New York, New York. Eleey is currently based in New York.

Paul Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu, Hawaii) has been making work in video, photography, installation and sculpture since the late 1990s. Known for his innovative manipulation of digital media, Pfeiffer recasts the visual language of mass media spectacle to examine how images shape our awareness of ourselves and the world. Sampling footage from a range of sources, he plumbs the depths of contemporary culture, examining its racial, religious and technological dimensions. At the same time, Pfeiffer's objects and images function diachronically, establishing profound genealogies that connect contemporary culture in its many particularities to the long, seemingly remote histories of art, media, religion and human consciousness.

Pfeiffer has been honored with one-person exhibitions at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York (2001); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2003 and 2017-18); the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia (2005); and the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2009). Pfeiffer has presented work in major international exhibitions, including the Performa Biennial, New York, New York (2019); and the Honolulu Biennial, Honolulu, Hawaii in (2019); the Toronto Biennial, Toronto, Canada (2022); and the Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul, Korea (2022). His work features in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (both New York, New York); Inhotim Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Inhotim, Brazil; the Pinault Collection, Paris, France; and Kunst Werke, Berlin, Germany. Pfeiffer lives and works in New York.

Cover image of Paul Pfeiffer is credited to Rayner Ramirez, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art.

The Graduate Art Seminar is a forum for graduate students and members of the ArtCenter community to enter into dialog with internationally recognized artists, critics, and art historians. The Seminar is a core component of ArtCenter’s Graduate Art program.

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio that provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres—film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.