Visiting artists 2022–23

Stanford’s visiting artist programs encourage experimentation, exploration, and education in interdisciplinary arts research and practice. Through these programs, the university provides the opportunity for mutually-beneficial exchanges between artists and Stanford’s community of scholars, practitioners, and students. The goal is to create new ecosystems of interdisciplinary thinking, research, and community-building, and demonstrate the criticality of art in imagining and building new and better futures. During the 2022–23 academic year, Stanford welcomes the following acclaimed artists for deep campus engagements:

Anicka Yi’s practice questions the increasingly hazy taxonomic distinctions between what is human, animal, plant, and machine. At Stanford, she is working with scientists, technologists, and students to incubate a project called Metaspore that aims to generate interdisciplinary “spores” of connection, research, and action for 21st-century planetary paradigm shifts. This yearlong residency is hosted by the Office of the Vice President for the Arts in collaboration with the Stanford Arts Institute and the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Daniel Gray-Kontar is a poet, teacher, youth mentor, rapper, journalist, and education activist. He has worked as an advocate for social transformation in Cleveland, Ohio, for more than 25 years. Gray-Kontar taught the winter course Spoken Word Poetry and Resistance: 1990’s-Present and was hosted by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Ellen Sebastian Chang is a theater-maker, writer, and arts educator who advocates for human rights through her art practices. During winter quarter, she taught the course Theater and Social Justice: Skills for Rethinking Everything, mentored student fellows, and hosted a public conversation with Nnedi Okorafor. This residency was hosted by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Jean Shin transforms accumulations of discarded objects into powerful monuments that interrogate our complex relationship between material consumption, collective identity, and community engagement. With Stanford infectious disease specialist Dr. Desiree LaBeaud, Shin will highlight the global plastic waste problem and challenge us to build a more sustainable planetary future by creating spring quarter art installations that are imagined, designed, and constructed with students and faculty. This yearlong residency is hosted by the LaBeaud Lab with support from the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in Honor of Roberta Bowman Denning.  

Kim Anno is a painter, photographer, and film/video artist currently focused on the intersection of art and science, particularly in aesthetic issues surrounding climate change, water, and adaptation. Anno taught an undergraduate interdisciplinary painting course in the fall quarter and, with students, developed an exhibition in the Coulter Art Gallery on campus. This residency was hosted by the Department of Art and Art History as part of the Holt Visiting Artist program.

Laleh Khadivi is an Iranian American writer and filmmaker. She is the author of a trilogy of novels tracing three generations of a Kurdish family as they make their way to the United States and undergo the profound transformations of the immigrant experience. Khadivi will teach a spring writing seminar and present her work in a public reading and colloquium. This residency is hosted by the Creative Writing Program as part of the Stein Visiting Writer program.

Lauren Lee McCarthy is an artist examining social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. At Stanford, McCarthy is developing two projects relating to genetics and AI as she meets with faculty, conducts student talks and workshops, and showcases her work in a performative lecture in the spring. This yearlong residency is a partnership between the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and the Office of the Vice President for the Arts.

Michael Collier is a poet, editor, translator and arts administrator. The author of eight collections of poetry, his most recent book, The Missing Mountain: New and Selected Poems, was published in 2021. Collier will be teaching The Occasions of Poetry and give a public reading and colloquium. This residency is hosted by the Creative Writing Program as part of the Mohr Visiting Poet program. 

Contact: T (650) 736 4087 / stanfordarts [​at​] stanford.edu

*Image above: Clockwise from top left: Daniel Gray-Kontar courtesy of Jef Janis; Lauren Lee McCarthy courtesy of Cam McLeod; Laleh Khadivi courtesy of Ed Ntiri; Kim Anno courtesy of the artist; Ellen Sebastian Chang courtesy of Joan Osato; Jean Shin courtesy of Joseph Hu; Michael Collier courtesy of Bergin O’Malley.