Keithley Symposium: Thinking Through “Martin Puryear: Nexus”

One of the most celebrated and influential artists of our time, Martin Puryear (American, born 1941) has created for more than half a century work with captivating presence that is at once technically precise and conceptually expansive. Working primarily in sculpture, his art is abstract. Puryear relies on material, shape, composition, and scale to invite reflection on the world that we inhabit and the times in which we live.

Puryear’s art has a remarkable capacity to open up questions across media and disciplines. On the occasion of the artist’s career survey Martin Puryear: Nexus, this symposium treats his work as a portal to think through a range of practices, materials, and traditions that are central to global art of our time. The panels’ topics are rooted in key concepts that stem from the forms and themes, materials and processes, on view in Martin Puryear: Nexus. In this sense, the symposium offers a variety of entry points into the exhibition, to speak to a range of audiences. The panels are composed of scholars, curators, and artists from Cleveland and beyond. 

Note that this is an in-person event and will not be recorded.

Schedule

11:00–11:25 a.m.: Welcome and Introductory Remarks

11:25 a.m.–12:10 p.m.: Panel I: Moving

• The places artists go—and their movements between these places—impact how they see and what they make. This panel explores the ways artists integrate the aesthetic, material, and cultural influences they encounter through their movements and migrations around the world.
  • Smooth Nzewi, The Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art
  • Heidi Lau, Artist
  • Ibrahim Mahama, Artist
  • Siddhartha Mitter

12:10–12:15 p.m.: Short Video Screening

• Theaster Gates, Artist

12:15–1:00 p.m.: Panel II: Making 

• This panel considers what it means to be a “maker,” a term historically associated with craft and a moniker that embraces ideas of tradition, lineage, and fabrication, as well as embodied knowledge and material intelligence. This discussion focuses on artists’ selection of materials, the techniques and processes that they inherit or develop over time, and the particular conceptual and communal worlds that the term maker offers them.
  • Michelle Millar Fisher, Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Alison Croney Moses, Artist
  • Beth Edelstein, Senior Conservator of Objects and Head of the Objects Conservation Lab, Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Lenka Clayton, Artist

1:00–2:00 p.m.: Break

2:00–2:10 p.m.: Welcome Back 

• Erin Benay, Associate Professor of Art History and Distinguished Scholar in Public Humanities, Case Western Reserve University

2:10–2:15 p.m.: Martin Puryear: “Big Bling” Film Screening

• From the PBS television series Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century, 2016

2:15–3:00 p.m.: Panel III: Working Outside

• This panel considers the life of art beyond museum walls. The panelists examine topics ranging from the technical to the interpretive demands of art in public space to the audiences that are engaged at these sites and the civic opportunities public art offers.
  • Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Curator and Writer
  • Rhonda Brown, Senior Advisor, Art and Culture, City of Cleveland, Mayors Office
  • Hugh Hayden, Artist
  • Cristina Iglesias, Artist

3:00–3:20 p.m.: Making a Place

• Billie Tsien, Founding Partner, Studio Tsien and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

3:20–4:00 p.m.: Panel IV: Speculative Closing

• This panel reflects on themes that arose from the day’s convening, and proposes ways we can take what learned together—through and with Puryear—beyond this day into the world that we inhabit.
  • Emily Liebert, Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary Art and Chair of Art of the Americas and Modern and Contemporary Art
  • Jessica Bell Brown, Executive Director, Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Benjamin Murphy, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University