Three faculty appointments and one new search

The University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design is pleased to announce the hiring of three new tenure-track faculty members. Victor Yañez-Lazcano (Photo/Media) and Henry Jackson-Spieker (3D4M Glass) join the Division of Art, and Chad P. Hall (Visual Communication Design) joins the Division of Design. The three were appointed as assistant professors and begin teaching in September 2023.

Victor Yañez-Lazcano: Photo/Media
Since 2009, Victor Yañez-Lazcano has shaped an interdisciplinary body of work that chronicles his family’s history in the US as it transitions from immigrants to first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican Americans. His artworks explore his family’s collective identity at the intersection of race, language, class, and labor to further grapple with notions of assimilation. Yañez-Lazcano received his MFA from Stanford University and his BFA from Columbia College Chicago. He has been a visiting art lecturer at various institutions including Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited at numerous spaces including Royal Nonesuch Gallery (Oakland), Natalie & James Thompson Art Gallery (San Jose), Perspective Gallery (Milwaukee), and The Chicago Design Museum. His published works are included in various collections including Yale University’s Haas Arts Special Collections, Indiana University’s Wells Library Fine Arts Collection, and Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library Special Collection. Yañez-Lazcano arrives to the UW community after a year-long artist residency via the RAiR Foundation in Roswell, New Mexico.

Henry Jackson-Spieker: 3D4M Glass, Dale Chihuly Endowed Chair of Glass
Henry Jackson-Spieker is a multidisciplinary artist based in Seattle, focusing on sculpture and site-specific installations. His work combines glass, bronze, steel, wood, fiber, and light. His sculptures explore tension, balance, and reflection through the merging of contrasting materials. Jackson-Spieker’s installations examine and question how social and cultural norms shape the way we perceive and utilize space. By disrupting his viewers’ perceptions of depth and volume, Jackson-Spieker’s work challenges ingrained assumptions about our physical environments and the cultural codes they contain. Jackson-Spieker received his BFA from Western Washington University and his MFA in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies from Alfred University. He is the recipient of the MAC Fellowship and the Chihuly Garden and Glass Award, and currently has public artwork at Seattle’s Midtown Commons and the Bellevue Art Museum. Jackson-Spieker has exhibited at Wa Na Wari, Method Gallery, the San Juan Museum of Art and others, and teaches glass blowing and bronze casting at Pratt Fine Arts Center, where he first started working with glass. 

Chad P. Hall: Visual Communication Design
Chad P. Hall (he/him) practices as a Design Director at Artefact, which uses research, strategy, and design to envision better futures. With over ten years of consulting experience, Hall has collaborated with clients in global health, biotechnology, and technology, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Exemplars in Global Health, Google, Meta, and Samsung, among others. Hall specializes in transforming abstract ideas into tangible, accessible, and actionable insights through visualizing datasets, mapping systems, designing frameworks, and envisioning futures. Prior to joining the Division of Design, Hall served as an Affiliate Instructor in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. He holds a Master of Design from the University of Washington’s School of Art + Art History + Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Pacific Lutheran University.

New faculty search
The School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington welcomes applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Interdisciplinary Visual Art to start in September 2024. As per the University of Washington’s Diversity Blueprint, the institution prioritizes attracting and retaining a diverse faculty that reflects our diverse student population. We are the center for creative innovation and study at the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public research institutions. The school invites applications from those who value original research, cutting edge technology, unique modes of artistic inquiry, and fresh approaches to pedagogy. Our focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of new practices enhances both studio and classroom learning as well as fostering dynamic engagement and critical discourse.

Priority deadline is November 1, 2023. Learn more about this faculty opening here.