ArtistTalks

Event

Teju Cole in Conversation with John Gossage
2026 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Teju Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine from 2015 until 2019. He is currently the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. His photography and writing have received numerous awards. His most recent novel, Tremor (2023), was named a book of the year by Time, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among others.

Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA
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Event

Raven Chacon
The California Studio

Ann E. Pitzer Center

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, and installation artist born at Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on over eighty releases on national and international labels. He has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Whitney Biennial, Borealis Festival, SITE Santa Fe, Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, and more. As an educator, Chacon is the senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP).

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
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Event

Stephanie Syjuco
Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Cruess Hall, Room 1002

Stephanie Syjuco works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Lecture

Art History and Climate Change
March 6, 2026

The intersection between climate change and art history opens new pathways for understanding how visual and material culture mediates human relationships to the natural world. Historical and contemporary depictions of nature illuminate how aesthetic practices register environmental knowledge and respond to ecological stress. Far from being a luxury of elite culture, art history is an essential tool for imagining alternative ecological futures.

Speakers

Event

Andre Keichian
The California Studio

Main Theatre, Wright Hall

Andre Keichian is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working across photography, video and sculptural installation. His work houses conversations around exile, trans identities, and diaspora and questions how these connections might speak to geopolitical and subjective understandings of migration. 

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Event

Mimi Plumb
Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Cruess Hall, Room 1002

Mimi Plumb is part of a long tradition of socially engaged photographers whose work explores the landscapes and communities of California and the American West. In 2022, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support her ongoing project, The Reservoir.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Event

Dyani White Hawk
The California Studio

Manetti Shrem Museum

Dyani White Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Her practice, strongly rooted in painting and beadwork, extends into sculpture, installation, video, and performance, reflecting upon cross-cultural experiences through the amalgamation of influences from Lakota and Euro/Americanabstraction.

Manetti Shrem Museum, Davis, CA
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Melody Chiang

Art
History

Melody Chiang

Maria
Manetti
Shrem
Art Studio Program

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Cinema and
Digital Media

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Design

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Music

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Theatre
and Dance

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Performance Studies

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Maria
Manetti
Shrem
Art & Art History Visual Resources Library

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Museums

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