Kris Grey (they/she/he), a New York City-based transgender artist, writer and educator whose practice spans performance, installation and social practice, will give a lecture, "Archival Impulse for Cultural Agitation," at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, via Zoom. The lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Visual Arts in the College of Arts and Architecture and the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts.
The lecture will offer a glimpse into Grey's performance and installation practice, which moves fluidly between hidden histories and the body as a living record. From salvaged wood pulled from the Stonewall monument to blood scrolls written in real time, these works illuminate how art can both retrieve lost histories and generate new ones. Across various roles, Grey cultivates spaces where art becomes a tool for connection, radical imagination and social transformation. The lecture was coordinated by the faculty member and students in "ART 411 Contemporary Art Seminar: Cultivating Connections - Self, Ritual and Collective Action."
Grey has exhibited and performed internationally, including at the Bronx Museum, Queens Museum and the ANTI Festival for Contemporary Art in Finland. Their writing, including "Transfeminism: fragmenting and re-reading the history of art through a trans perspective" (Manchester University Press), situates trans experience within broader queer feminist art histories. Grey is part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and a Certified Trainer with Visual Thinking Strategies. They have held former academic positions at Penn State and Ohio University and served in leadership roles at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and Queer|Art|Mentorship. Grey earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art, master of fine arts degree at Ohio University and a Certificate in Social Impact Management & Leadership at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.
