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Transdisciplinary artist Cosmo Whyte to continue CVA lecture series

Cosmo Whyte
Whyte

Artist Cosmo Whyte is scheduled to continue the Chautauqua Visual Arts Lecture Series at 6 p.m. July 29 in Hultquist Center.

The Atlanta- and Montego Bay, Jamaica-based artist will talk about the evolutions of both his work and his artistic process. He will outline his past and current work and will provide insight into his making process throughout the conversation.

Whyte’s lecture is the latest in a robust series programmed by CVA in the 2024 season. He is preceded by an array of exhibiting artists, visiting faculty members and other figures in the art industry. As the 2024 summer lecture series nears a close, Whyte’s lecture will be followed later in the season by talks from Sydelle Sonkin and Herb Siegel Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts Erika b Hess, and textile artist and executive director of Praxis Fiber Workshop Jessica Pinsky.

Whyte’s transdisciplinary work employs many methods and mediums including painting, drawing, performance and sculpture, according to his artistic statement, and includes interactive installations, sculptural works, works on paper and performance pieces.

His conceptual work “explores how notions of identity are disrupted by migration — particularly migration as an unfinished arc of motion whose final resting point remains an open-ended question,” he wrote in his artistic statement.

Whyte’s work begins as a personal interrogation into the perception of himself at an individual level — “racialized as black, gendered as man,” Whyte explained in his artistic statement. He then uses these personal interrogations as a way to fuel collective political interrogations through artistic exploration.

Whyte received his B.F.A. in painting at Bennington College and continued his studies at Maryland Institute College of Art. He went on to receive his M.F.A. at University of Michigan and has exhibited his work in countries, including the United States, Jamaica, Norway, England, France and South Africa.

According to his biography, he has recently exhibited work at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, The Summerset House, The High Museum and Atlanta Contemporary. Whyte is the recipient of many awards including the Art Matters award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award, the Avalon Humanities Endowed Professorship at Morehouse College, the Working Artist Program Award, the Arbes Award, and he was a Hudgens Prize finalist.

Tags : AtlantaChautauqua Visual Arts Lecture SeriesCosmo WhyteCVAJamaicalectureMontego Baytransdisciplinaryvisual arts
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The author Julia Weber

Julia Weber is a rising senior in Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College where she is majoring in journalism and minoring in art history. Originally from Athens, Ohio, this is her second summer in Chautauqua and she is excited to cover the visual arts and dance communities at the Institution. She serves as the features editor for Ohio University’s All-Campus Radio Network, a student-run radio station and media hub, and she is a former intern for Pittsburgh Magazine. Outside of her professional life, Julia enjoys attending concerts, making ceramics and spending time with her cat, Griffin.