In this Art & Politics Lecture, Graves will discuss his recent project, for which he photographed scenes that reference the history of racism and police brutality. His camera has captured confederate monuments, sites of police murders, social movement activity, and more. He will discuss how he has approached this work and what the camera might help to say about American reality today.

Presented by BFA Visual & Critical Studies, SVA Honors Program and MPS Digital Photography.

Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and London. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from SUNY Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, England and Aperture Gallery, New York; among others.

Humanity is living through an interlocking series of crises. It is difficult to say strongly enough how urgent the situation is. How do these conditions impact the arts? Does art have resources that might come to our aid in these serious times? What is to be done? In light of all there is to understand and to change, SVA’s Art & Politics Lecture Series, co-hosted by the BFA Visual & Critical Studies and Honors Program, invites activists, scholars, politicians, artists, critics, historians, curators and scientists, to address, discuss and debate politics, art, and the delicate filaments that tie them together.

Presented by MPS Digital Photography, Honors Program and BFA Visual & Critical Studies