Renowned Artist Alex Da Corte to Deliver Visiting Artist Lecture at U of A

The School of Art, housed in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, will welcome internationally celebrated artist Alex Da Corte for a free visiting artist lecture from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23. The event will be held in Gearhart Hall, room 0026 (GEAR0026) on the U of A campus.

The lecture is facilitated by the Studio Art program (Sculpture and Experimental Media area) within the School of Art, and coordinated in part by Anoushe Shojae-Chaghorvand, assistant professor of art. More details are available here.

Da Corte is widely recognized as one of the most inventive visual artists working today. His installations have included iconic monsters like Frankenstein, a giant inflatable characters, technicolor murals and other pop-culture-inspired pieces. He has brought a giant inflatable Kermit the Frog  to Paris during Art Basel Paris and had his fascination with the rapper Eminem detailed across a multi-exhibition book.

Born in 1980 in Camden, New Jersey, the Venezuelan-American artist creates immersive, pop-inflected installations, videos and sculptures that explore identity, desire and consumer culture. He will share insights on his process in which reviews have often described his work as playful and therapeutic works that freshly examine contemporary culture and integrate uplifting feelings into serious topics. 

Da Corte's exhibitions have spanned the globe's most prominent contemporary art institutions. Major survey exhibitions include "The Whale" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2025); "Fresh Hell" at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan (2023); and "Mr. Remember" at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark (2022-23). He also participated in the Whitney Biennial in 2022, was awarded the Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2021) and represented the U.S. at the Biennale di Venezia in 2019. He has also had solo exhibitions in the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne (2018) and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2016).  

Beyond studio practice, he is an accomplished critical writer. This year, Da Corte is the co-curator, alongside the Whitney Museum's Meg Onli, of the first Roy Lichtenstein retrospective in New York in more than 30 years. Da Corte was named the 2023 Philip Guston Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, one of the most prestigious mid-career honors available. 

This lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is encouraged in the Stadium and Harmon Parking Garages. Gearhart Hall can be located using the campus map. For more information about the School of Art, visit www.art.uark.edu.