Wang Qingsong, Clarissa Tossin, and Richard Mosse among the guest speakers
St. Louis Missouri 63130
United States
Artists Wang Qingsong, Clarissa Tossin, and Richard Mosse are among the guest speakers this spring at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Now marking its 20th anniversary year, the Sam Fox School unites WashU’s academic units in art, architecture and design with its acclaimed Kemper Art Museum. This interdisciplinary structure reflects the school’s collaborative approach to contemporary issues and challenges, from climate change and sustainable design to the importance of local communities.
For its spring Public Lecture Series, the Sam Fox School will highlight themes relating to placemaking, social and environmental resilience, and women’s contributions to architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.
Events begin with architect Germane Barnes and architectural historian Mary McLeod. Barnes' Miami-based practice pushes the boundaries of contemporary architecture through research, design and cultural critique. McLeod, a professor of architecture at Columbia University and a widely published author and essayist, explores connections between architecture, theory and ideology.
Tossin, the 2025-26 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow, will speak Feb. 5. The fellowship is a joint appointment that includes teaching in the Sam Fox School’s College of Art and producing work for a solo exhibition as part of the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Currents series.
Catie Newell, founding principal of the architecture, art and research practice Alibi Studio, and Aleksander Tamm-Seitz, associate principal at Morphosis and a Sam Fox School alumnus, also speak in February. Kate Watson-Cole and Stephen Baker, of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Local Projects, will discuss their exhibition and media design firm’s synthesis of physical design and creative technology Feb. 26.
On Feb. 27, the Kemper Art Museum will open the spring exhibition “Looking Back Toward the Future: Contemporary Photography from China” with a panel discussion featuring Wang in conversation with Larry Warsh, a celebrated publisher, editor and art collector, and Sabine Eckmann, the museum’s William T. Kemper Director and chief curator. An opening reception will immediately follow.
Doug Powell, the 2025-26 Wallace Herndon Smith Visiting Lecturer, will speak March 3. A former vice president of design for IBM and Expedia, Powell earned a bachelor’s in fine arts from the Sam Fox School in 1988 and is a 2014 recipient of its Distinguished Alumni Award. He teaches in the school’s new Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology.
Mosse, whose immersive photographs and videos capture the environmental devastation of conflict and resource extraction, will speak March 5. Artist Carolina Caycedo, whose practice explores environmental justice and cultural biodiversity, and who is the 2026 Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist, will speak March 16. Architect Angela Pang will discuss her work March 18.
Landscape designer and bestselling author Julia Watson, who explores indigenous ecological practices, will speak March 23. Nigerian-born sound and installation artist Emeka Ogboh, who centers issues of immigration and national identity, will speak March 26. Art historian Peggy Wang, author of “The Future History of Contemporary Chinese Art” (2020), will speak April 15.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call T +1 314 935 9300 or visit samfoxschool.washu.edu.
