Visiting artist and Stratosphere juror, Michelle Grabner will be giving an artist talk titled “The Work I Do” on Friday, April 19 from 12-1 p.m. in room 165 at Kent State’s Center for the Visual Arts (325 Terrace Drive). During this talk, sponsored by Kent State University’s College of the Arts, she will be discussing her artwork as well as her curatorial practice. Many in the area may recognize her as the inaugural artistic director for the FRONT International Triennial in 2018.

Grabner is the juror for the annual Stratosphere exhibition that features a selection of undergraduate student artwork, on view at the KSU Downtown Gallery from April 18 through May 3, 2019. Grabner will present cash awards to selected students during the opening reception and award ceremony on Thursday, April 18 from 5-7 p.m. An audience choice award will also be presented.

Learn more about Stratosphere, sponsored by the College of the Arts here: https://www.kent.edu/artscollege/stratosphere

Learn more about Michelle Grabner’s artwork: https://www.michellegrabner.com/

About the artist: Wisconsin-born, Michelle Grabner works in variety of mediums including drawing, painting, video and sculpture. Incorporating writing, curating and teaching with a studio practice grounded in process and productivity she has created a multi-faceted and dynamic career. As David Norr writes in the introduction to her exhibition at MoCA, Cleveland, “All of Grabner’s activities are driven by distinctive values and ideas: working outside of dominant systems, working tirelessly, working across platforms and towards community.”Grabner holds an MA in Art History and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University. She joined the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996, and became Chair of its prestigious Painting and Drawing department in the fall of 2009. She is also a senior critic at Yale University in the Department of Painting and Printmaking.