Art, Intersectionality, and Activism: A Conversation Commemorating Rotimi Fani-Kayode

During his brief career, photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–89) produced a visionary body of work that pushed the boundaries of race, nation, and cultural identity. As a queer artist working in the early years of the AIDS crisis, his pictures drew on Yoruban tradition and meditated on the ephemerality of our lives even as he used them as a means to resist erasure in the art world and society at large. In conjunction with the first solo exhibition of his oeuvre in Chicago at Iceberg Projects and the 30th anniversary of his death, a panel discussion will be held at the DePaul Art Museum to consider the legacy of Fani-Kayode's work and to reflect on how key themes that animated his life apply today — from intersectionality and antiracism to collectivity and creative practice.

Panelists include Greg Foster-Rice, Associate Professor of Art History, Theory & Criticism, Columbia College; Deana Haggag, President & CEO, United States Artists; Solveig Nelson, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Art Institute of Chicago; and Derrick Woods-Morrow, Multimedia Artist.

Presented in partnership with Iceberg Projects and the DePaul Center for Black Diaspora.