Illinois State University Wonsook Kim School of Art presents the fall 2024 Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Lectures are open to the public and feature the following artists.
Ruby Que
In residence: September 3-October 16
Ruby Que is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on site-specific intervention and expanded cinema performance. In their work, they open portals and create hauntings. Many projects grapple with absence: the missing person, the deserted homeland, the obsolete media, the traumatic memory. With video, sculpture, and writing, they attempt to give shape to what lies within and beyond the perceived emptiness. Drawing on their lived experience as a queer, itinerant immigrant, they meditate on yearning and find home in transit. They believe in the power of collective myth-making, and engage collaborators and/or viewers as co-conspirators toward liberation.
They have exhibited and performed at Kavi Gupta, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Elastic Arts, Roman Susan, Comfort Station (Chicago), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, New York), and SOLOS (Karlsruhe, Germany) among other spaces nationally and internationally. They have been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, and are currently a HATCH resident at Chicago Artists Coalition. Their work has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Performance Review Journal, Sixty Inches from Center, and Newcity Magazine named them a 2023 Breakout Artist. Que holds an M.F.A. in film, video, and new media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. in comparative literature from Cornell University.
Lecture: Noon, Wednesday, September 25 at University Galleries, Uptown Normal.
Alberto Rigau
In residence: October 28-November 1
With over 21 years in practice, Alberto Rigau crafts and conceptualizes brands, exhibits, wayfinding systems, publications, photographic projects, and environmental graphics. Today he serves on the core team of the People’s Graphic Design Archive as education liaison. As a former co-chair of AIGA’s Design Educators Steering Committee, he collaborates with nationwide design educators in developing content and programming to further academic research, teaching practices, and conversations within the field. Rigau has a master’s degree from North Carolina State University College of Design and currently engages the field from his home studio in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Lecture: “I confess, I don’t know what I’m doing, butt I’m doing it anyway”; noon, Wednesday, October 30, at University Galleries, Uptown Normal
In a world where uncertainty often feels like a personal failure, the talk “I confess, I don’t know what I’m doing, butt I’m doing it anyway” embraces the unknown as a vital part of the creative and professional journey. This presentation explores the power of taking risks, making mistakes, and moving forward without all the answers. It is a candid reflection on how the fear of not knowing can be transformed into a driving force for innovation and growth. A session that celebrates courage, resilience, and the surprising benefits of embracing uncertainty.
Founded in 1996, Illinois State’s visiting artist program brings diverse artistic practices and voices to the Wonsook Kim School of Art. Each artist gives a public lecture on their practice and conducts private studio visits with undergraduate and graduate students. The visiting artist committee seeks artists of all ethnic backgrounds, gender expressions, geographic locations, viewpoints, and practices. Applicants who work in any medium are welcome to apply.
