The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to welcome multidisciplinary artist Yasmine Diaz to the Visiting Lecture Series at 5:30 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Feb. 17. Diaz is an artist whose practice explores the connections between personal experience and larger social and political structures.

Students and the community are invited to learn more about Diaz's work by attending this virtual lecture and viewing her work currently on display at the Fine Arts Center Gallery in the Foresight Prevents Blindness exhibition. The exhibition is currently on display through Feb. 27.

Foresight Prevents Blindness features a group of artists born in or connected to the region known as the Middle East. Each artist wrestles with fundamental challenges facing a region under the scrutiny of the world's lens. Whether addressing inequality, gender stereotypes or the concept of identity, the artists presents a unique perspective gleaned from a life splintered by cultural history and geographical bias.

"Yasmine Diaz's installation, For Your Eyes Only, is one of the most critical pieces in the Foresight Prevents Blindness show," said Maryamsadat Amirvaghefi, assistant director of exhibitions and instructor of art. "Diaz challenges the audience by creating an accessible installation, a girl's bedroom featuring autobiography elements and characteristics of Yemeni, Southwest Asian and North African women. Every component of this installation draws your attention to the power and character being built in our bedrooms."

Diaz was born in the United States to parents who immigrated from the highlands of Southern Yemen. Her life experience has been shaped by the discordant environments of her youth — the tightly collectivist Yemeni diaspora, the street culture of '90s inner-city Chicago and the Western media she heavily consumed that prized individualism and consumerism.

Using mixed media collage, immersive installation, fiber etching and video, Diaz's work often juxtaposes disparate cultural references while weaving threads between culture, class, gender, religion and family. She is especially interested in the power of nuanced and complicated narratives of third-culture identity and their precarious invisibility/hyper-visibility.

She is a recipient of the Harpo Visual Artists Grant and the California Community Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship and has works included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Arab American National Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in HyperAllergic, PBS Newshour, Artnet and Artillery Magazine.

Join the lecture today, Thursday, Feb. 17, at 5:30 p.m., and mark your calendars to attend the closing reception for Foresight Prevents Blindness at the Fine Arts Center Gallery Feb. 24 from 5-7 p.m.

Webinar link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87041440620.