The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to welcome art historian Nikki A. Greene associate professor of art history at Wellesley College to the fall Visiting Lecture Series. Greene examines African and African American identities, music, the body and feminism in the 20th century and contemporary art and will present a lecture titled, The (Im)Permanence of Black Femme Collaborations, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, on Zoom.

In addition to her professorship at Wellesley College, Greene serves as an advisor to the ICA Boston for the 59th Venice Biennale presenting the work of Simone Leigh for the United States Pavilion in 2022.

"We are thrilled to welcome and introduce Dr. Greene to School of Art students and the University of Arkansas community," said Ana Pulido Rull, endowed associate professor of art history. "She has highly valued knowledge and experiences to share, including one of her most recent projects, documenting performances by multidisciplinary artist Tsedaye Makonnen and performance artist Ayana Evans at the Venice Biennale."

Greene has traveled throughout the United States and internationally to deliver lectures on the arts of the African diaspora. She is the recipient of the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Art and Africana Studies at Wellesley College, the Woodrow Wilson Career Advancement Fellowship, an artist residency at the Ucross Foundation and the Richard D. Cohen Fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. 

She is the co-producer of the film, When We Gather, which premiered in January 2021, a three-minute film based on an extraordinary vision by María Magdalena Campos-Pons who was moved by the election of Kamala Harris as Vice-President-elect of the United States and directed by the talented filmmaker Codie Elaine Oliver.

Her forthcoming book, Grime, Glitter, and Glass: The Body and The Sonic in Contemporary Black Art presents a new interpretation of the work of Renée Stout, and Radcliffe Bailey and María Magdalena Campos-Pons, and considers the intersection between the body, black identity, and the sonic possibilities of the visual using key examples of painting, sculpture, photography, performance and installation. Grime, Glitter and Glass was awarded a Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant.

Join the School of Art virtually Thursday, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m. to learn more about Greene and her work.