Renowned visual artist and longtime MFA Fine Arts faculty member Marilyn Minter will give the keynote speech at the School of Visual Arts’ 46th annual—and second virtual—commencement exercises, streaming online this Sunday, May 23, at 7:00pm ET, on sva.edu/commencement and Facebook Live. During the exercises, SVA President David Rhodes will recognize some 1,000 degree candidates from the College’s 31 undergraduate and graduate programs.

Marilyn Minter’s art, which spans the mediums of photography, videography and painting, has long been celebrated and debated for its vivid, provocative and sensual qualities. Her primary subject is the female body and society’s relationship to it, and her hyper-real approach, with its emphasis on intermingled and heightened textures and emotions, compels viewers to question their ideas about beauty, sexuality and glamour. Her work is included in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2015, Minter’s retrospective “Pretty/Dirty” opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, before traveling to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, the Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, and finally the Brooklyn Museum in 2016.

Minter joins a distinguished group of leaders in the arts, humanities and public service who have delivered commencement addresses at SVA, including artist and filmmaker John Waters, musician and poet Patti Smith, activist and author Gloria Steinem, U.S. Congressman and civil-rights hero John Lewis, cultural critic Greil Marcus, artists Laurie Anderson and Carrie Mae Weems, playwrights Edward Albee and Tony Kushner, and historian Robert A. Caro. Read on for selected quotes from SVA commencement exercises of years past, and join the College this Sunday at 7:00pm ET to hear from Minter and celebrate the SVA class of 2021.

Congratulations to this year’s graduates!

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