Suzanne Lacy: Zabar Visiting Artist

Los Angeles-based artist Suzanne Lacy is internationally renowned as a pioneer in the field of socially engaged and public art. Her installations, videos, and performances have dealt with issues of sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, gender identity, labor, and aging. Working collaboratively within traditions of fine art performance and community organizing, Lacy has realized large-scale projects in London, Brooklyn, Medellin, Los Angeles, Quito, Northwest England, Madrid and, most recently, along the Irish Border, exploring local reactions to Brexit. In 2019 she had a career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at Yerba Buena Art Center.

Her work has been reviewed in The Village Voice, Frieze Magazine, Artforum, L.A. Times, New York Times, Art in America, and The Guardian, and in numerous books and periodicals. She has exhibited at Tate Modern in London, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum, the New Museum and PS1 in New York, and the Bilbao Museum in Spain.  She has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Bellagio residency program, the Guggenheim Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and most recently the James H. Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation Fund from the University of Southern California.

Also known for her writing and academic career, Lacy edited Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Artand is author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007. She holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a PhD from Robert Gordon University in Scotland. She is currently a professor at the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California and is a resident artist at 18th Street Arts Center. 

About the Judith Zabar Visiting Artists Program
In November 2007, Hunter College received a generous commitment to establish the Judith Zabar Visiting Artist Program Fund. The Fund has allowed Hunter to bring a series of internationally recognized artists to campus to work directly with students in the MFA program, in master classes, critical seminars, and private tutorials, providing students with the unique opportunity to interact with top practitioners in the field. Zabar Visiting Artists also present public lectures where they discuss their work, engage in conversation with members of Hunter’s faculty, and with Hunter’s broader student community and the general public. Past Zabar artists have included: Vito Acconci, Janine Antoni, Polly Apfelbaum, Julie Ault, Robert Barry, Dawoud Bey, Tania Bruguera, Mel Chin, Peter Doig, Nicole Eisenman, Rochelle Feinstein, Charles Gaines, Alfredo Jaar, Joan Jonas, Martin Kersels, Jeff Koons, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Robert Longo, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Tracey Moffatt, Matt Mullican, Wangechi Mutu, Gabriel Orozco, Laura Owens, Trevor Paglen, Elizabeth Peyton, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope L., Walid Ra’ad, Yvonne Rainer, Allen Ruppersberg, Doris Salcedo, Shahzia Sikander, Michael Smith, Frances Stark, Fred Tomaselli, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, and Stanley Whitney.