The BFA Fine Arts Department presents the Visiting Artist Lecture Series with Ulysses Jenkins.
Ulysses Jenkins (b. 1946 in Los Angeles, CA) received his MFA in video and performance from Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA and studied painting and drawing as an undergraduate at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. A pivotal influence on contemporary art for over 50 years, Jenkins has produced video and media work that conjures vibrant expressions of how image, sound, and cultural iconography inform representation. Using archival footage, photographs, image processing and elegiac soundtracks, Jenkins pulls together various strands of thought to interrogate questions of race and gender as they relate to ritual, history, and the power of the state.
Jenkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including individual artist fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, and was named first place in experimental video by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1990 and 1992. His work has been included in major exhibitions, including America is Hard to See (2015) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 (2012), at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and California Video (2008) at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA. Jenkins is currently Associate Professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and an affiliate professor in the African American Studies program at the University of California, Irvine.
