From the Underground to the Foreground

On Wednesday, May 17, from 6-7:30 p.m., join Wrightwood 659 and MoCP for a thought-provoking panel discussion at 600 S. Michigan Ave. in the Ferguson Lecture Hall.

Complimentary; advance registration required by visiting: https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/events

Art historians Greg Foster-Rice and Leslie Wilson reflect on Patric McCoy’s work, situating his candid photographs within the broader historical context of Black and gay portraiture.  

Moderated by Take My Picture curator Juarez Hawkins, Foster-Rice and Wilson delve into the intersections of mass media, gender, sexuality, race, and the African diaspora, exploring their impact on McCoy’s photography in the broader canon of American portraiture. Their dialogue offers an insightful examination of the crucial role of representation and agency in photography, emphasizing the medium’s ability to capture the humanity of its subjects through a shared and intimate gaze. 

Participants

Greg Foster-Rice is an associate professor of the history of photography and Associate Provost for Student Retention Initiatives at Columbia College Chicago. Most recently, he curated The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity & Politics, which opened at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (2018) and traveled to DePauw University in fall 2022. For that exhibition, Foster-Rice edited and co-authored a scholarly catalogue of essays surveying Arnold’s extensive career. Previously he co-curated The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, 1960-1980 at the Art Institute of Chicago and Princeton University Art Museum. He co-authored that exhibition’s catalogue, which received the Philip Johnson Award from the Society of Architectural Historians in 2015. He has a BA from Rice University and a PhD in Art History from Northwestern University.

Leslie M. Wilson is Associate Director for Academic Engagement and Research at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the curator of not all realisms: photography, Africa, and the long 1960s currently on view at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, where she was a curatorial fellow from 2019 to 2021. Her research, teaching, and curatorial endeavors focus on the history of photography, the arts of Africa and the African diaspora, modern and contemporary American art, and museum studies. She has recently written for publications including Jamel Shabazz: Albums, FOAM Magazine, and Manual. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago and a BA in International Relations from Wellesley College. 

Juarez Hawkins is an artist, educator, and curator. She received a B.A. from Northwestern University, and her M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College Chicago. Hawkins has exhibited widely, hosting solo exhibitions at Concordia University, the 33 Collective Gallery, and the South Side Community Art Center. As Co-Curator of Gallery Programs at Chicago State University, she has organized exhibitions from the permanent collection, as well as student work and established artists, including Richard Hunt and Marva Jolly. Recent curatorial projects beyond Patric McCoy: Take My Picture include Black Clay and Shirley Hudson: VisionQuest at Chicago State; The Love Affair Continues at the DuSable Museum; Intersectional Touch and Bill Walker: Urban Griot at the Hyde Park Art Center. Hawkins is a member of Sapphire and Crystals, a collective of African American female artists.