Leslie-Lohman Speakers Series
We are proud to announce the first lecture offered in the 2016-2017 Leslie-Lohman Speakers Series. This ongoing series of lectures will focus on creating an environment and opportunity for studio based artists to interact with a public audience of diverse backgrounds, encouraging a dialogue between artist and audience. Lectures are free, and open to the public. All lectures are at 6:30 unless otherwise noted.
Performance artist, playwright, and fashion designe...
Leslie-Lohman Speakers Series
We are proud to announce the first lecture offered in the 2016-2017 Leslie-Lohman Speakers Series. This ongoing series of lectures will focus on creating an environment and opportunity for studio based artists to interact with a public audience of diverse backgrounds, encouraging a dialogue between artist and audience. Lectures are free, and open to the public. All lectures are at 6:30 unless otherwise noted.
Performance artist, playwright, and fashion designer Stephen Varble (1946–1984) was a fixture on the streets of SoHo in the 1970s, but his ephemeral practice has largely gone unrecognized in histories of art. His guerrilla practice aimed at disruption — of commerce, of gender roles, and of the institutions of art and celebrity. In elaborate sculptural garments made of street trash, Varble held unauthorized gallery tours through SoHo and protest performances in banks, Fifth Avenue stores, and in the street. A favorite of photographers such as Greg Day, Peter Hujar, and Jimmy DeSana, Varble’s art performed gender transformation and hybridity for both popular and art audiences in the 1970s. Over the past five years, David Getsy has been recovering the story of Varble’s work through interviews and private archives, and he will present this new research that, for the first time, discusses the range and complexity of Varble’s artistic practice.
Funding for this series has been received in part from the generous support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; from the New York State Cuncil of the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legistlature; from the Keith Haring Foundation, Inc., and from the Arcus Foundation.
Image: Peter Hujar, "Stephen Varble on Franklin Street," 1976. Courtesy of the Peter Hujar Archive.