Transculturations: Cultural Hybridity in American Art

Transculturations is a two year lecture series seeking to examine the ever-expanding notion of hybridity and its manifestation in visual art, criticism and institutional curatorial practices.

In recent decades, artists have disrupted, transgressed, negotiated, and transmuted cultural codes and materials, creating artistic and cultural interventions and articulations that engaged the materials and technologies of their culture(s) in new and exciting ways. The notion of cultural hybridity, first theorized by Homi Bhaba in The Location of Culture (1994), has been central to debates in post-colonial studies over the past decade.

Our primary goal is to increase public understanding of contemporary American art, with a special focus on how contemporary art relates to our country’s evolving ethnic make-up. The speakers in this series are nationally and internationally recognized artists and scholars who examine and/or use the notion of hybridity in their various disciplines; while “culture” itself is often the topic. Enriching the dialogue on cultural hybridity, our speakers will involve the Tucson community by providing access to art, information and perspective.