Conversations with Contemporary Artists: Kahlil Robert Irving,
Price: Free for Members, $20 for Not Yet Members
Event DescriptionDon't miss this conversation between artist Kahlil Robert Irving and Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The two will discuss Irving's work and his piece My Grandmother's Cupboard (Artifact), on view in What Is Left Unspoken, Love.In Kahlil Robert Irving's My Grandmother's Cupboard (Artifact), love is nourished in the heart of the home, the kitchen. His installation contains hundreds of handmade ceramic objects, huddled together or arranged in stacks and rows in a traditional cabinet. Each is unique and associated with ordinary serving ware. Irving's collection of black-glazed ceramics signifies Black togetherness, which provided love and strength to Irving's grandmother and her generation as they endured racial injustice during the era of segregation. More generally, Irving's groupings represent Black bodies in space, suggesting social gatherings that can be confrontational or celebratory. About Kahlil Robert IrvingKahlil Robert Irving is an artist born in San Diego, California, in 1992, currently living and working in the United States. He attended the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art, Washington University, in St. Louis (MFA Fellow, 2017) and the Kansas City Art Institute (BFA, Art History and Ceramics, 2015). He has participated in Social Works II at Gagosian Gallery in London (2021), Soft Water, Hard Stone in the New Museum Triennial (2021), the Singapore Biennale (2019), and Making Knowing at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2019). He was an Artist in Residence at Art Omi in summer 2018 and a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2020) and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award (2019).Irving's works have been included in group exhibitions at Abrons Art Center in New York; the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, San Francisco; and Mass MoCA, North Adams. His work is also in the collections of the Ken Ferguson Teaching Collection at the Kansas City Art Institute; JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; Carnegie Museum of Art; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Riga Porcelain Museum, Latvia; Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Art, Kecskemet, Hungary; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.In 2018, Irving had his first institutional solo exhibition at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, Connecticut, which was accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essays and an interview. He opened his first museum solo exhibition, Projects: Kahlil Robert Irving, in 2021 at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2023, he will present a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center. Support for Conversations with Contemporary Artists is provided by the Jane F. and Clayton F. Jackson Conversations with Contemporary Artists EndowmentTAGSModern ArtTalks
