John Currin (b. 1962, Denver, Colorado) uses classical painterly techniques to portray social and sexual taboos. Inspired by Old Master portraits, pinups, pornography, and B movies, he paints challengingly perverse images of women, from lusty nymphs to dour matrons. Balancing the beautiful and the grotesque, he reanimates historical styles and engages with contemporary views of sexuality and the human body through a complex entanglement of personal, societal, and historical narratives.

Currin has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Solo exhibitions of his work include: My Life as a Man, Dallas Contemporary (2019); DHC/Art Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal (2011); John Currin meets Cornelis van Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands (2011–12); and a survey co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Serpentine, London, that traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2003-04). He exhibits regularly at Gagosian and Sadie Coles HQ. Currin lives and works in New York.

Logan Criley (b. 1993) is an artist from Los Angeles. He received his BFA from New York University in 2015 and his MFA from Art Center in 2022. His paintings cite popular culture and personal experience within a formal framework informed by Baroque allegorical painting and contemporary fashion photography, often with meta textual allusions to art-historical conventions.

While studying at New York University, Criley was awarded the NYU Martin Wong Painting Scholarship and nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artists Grant. His solo exhibitions include Cruel Arithmetic, Harkawik (Los Angeles, CA, 2023), Pure Beauty, Harkawik (New York, NY, 2022), If the future isn’t bright, at least it’s ours, Harkawik (New York, NY, 2021), One Thousand American Nights, As It Stands (Los Angeles, CA, 2018), and For Your Pleasure, New Release (New York, NY, 2017). Criley’s works are held in the collections of the Rubell Museum, Miami, FL, and The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, FL.

This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are not required.

Image credits: Logan Criley by Nik Massey and John Currin by Roe Ethridge

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. The Seminar is also free and open to the public.

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.