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Visiting Artist Program

As part of the Studio Seminar on Contemporary Art Theory and Practice at Lewis & Clark College, the Department of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series brings practicing artists to campus to discuss their work. All lectures are free and open to the public. Lectures will be held at 7:00pm in Miller 105 (campus parking is free after 7pm). For information, contact the Art Department: 503-768-7390 or art@lclark.edu.

Wednesday, September 10
Mariel Capanna

Mariel Capanna

Mariel Capanna lives in Philadelphia, PA. She is an artist who works from direct observation of films, documentaries, and found filmic ephemera to index the moving images. She is interestedin how the simultaneous activity of watching and painting mimics the everyday challenge of both viewing and experiencing the world around us, specifically as it relates to memory. She regularly works with (and teaches) frescoes. Mariel’s exhibition, Commonplace, will be on view at Adams & Ollman in Portland, September 13 - October 25, 2025.

Wednesday, September 24
Anis Mojgani

Anis Mojgani

Anis Mojgani served two terms as Oregon’s 10th Poet Laureate. A two time champion of the National Poetry Slam, and winner of the international World Cup Poetry Slam, he is the author of six books of poetry, an opera libretto, and a picture book, forthcoming from Neal Porter Books/Holliday House. Anis’ most recent collection is The Tigers, They Let Me. His work has appeared on HBO, NPR, and amongst numerous literary journals. Originally from New Orleans, Anis lives in Portland Oregon where he can be found making art in his studio and occasionally reading poems from out its window at sunset to others. He will be the Fall 2025 Ear Forest artist-in-residence.

Rescheduled to Wednesday, October 8
Anthony Hudson

Anthony Hudson is a Grand Ronde / Siletz artist and writer. Anthony’s theatrical work, from Looking for Tiger Lily to Queer Horror—and performances as Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi—have earned him national fellowships, international engagements, and sainthood from the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Anthony’s writing has appeared in American Theatre, BOMB Magazine, Buckman Journal, Oregon ArtsWatch, and Arts and International Affairs. His first book, Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press in 2026. Anthony was Lewis & Clark’s 2024-25 Native Artist-Scholar in Residence. The exhibition he recently curated with fellow Grand Ronde artist Felix Furby, Transgressors, will travel to Lewis & Clark’s Hoffman Gallery in January 2026.

Wednesday, October 15
Aaron Gach & the Center for Tactical Magic

Everything Must Go Aaron Gach’s diverse artistic practice consistently addresses public concerns, social politics, and power dynamics. Inspired by studies with a private investigator, a magician, and a ninja, he established the Center for Tactical Magic in 2000. This collaborative authoring framework is dedicated to the coalescence of art, magic, and creative tactics for encouraging positive social change. Although the collaborations take many different forms, the work is largely the result of creative partnerships with a wide array of individuals and organizations, including hypnotists, biologists, witches, engineers, activists, nurses, military intelligence officers, journalists, radical ecologists, former bank robbers, security experts, street vendors, community organizers, and many others.
His work has been presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; Hayward Gallery, London; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Vigo, Spain; Deutsches Theater, Berlin; Creative Time, NY; a major public commission for the City of Toronto, and plenty of back alleys, byways, and crevices. In print, his work and writing have been featured by the New York Times, MIT Press/Whitechapel Gallery, Art Papers, Frieze, DAMN Magazine, Maximum Rocknroll and others.

Wednesday, October 22
SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY

SHAWNÉ SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY is a new media artist and poet who uses video, performance and installation to critically engage with and expose power structures through a queer and feminist-informed practice. She has spoken and exhibited work internationally at Performance Space New York, The New Museum (NYC, NY), Sorbus Galleria (Helsinki, Fi), The Kitchen (NYC, NY) Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, UK), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, IL). SHAWNÉ is currently Assistant Professor of Video/New Media in the Kinetic Imaging department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Wednesday, November 5
Sunny Smith

Sunny A. Smith is a queer, trans* nonbinary artist, educator, and institutional leader whose work investigates how history is constructed, remembered, and contested. Based in Yelamu and Huchiun (San Francisco Bay Area) on unceded Ohlone territory, Smith engages with craft, material culture, and collective storytelling to explore the power of objects in shaping historical narratives. For over two decades, Smith has challenged dominant histories and amplified alternative perspectives—whether by reinterpreting the role of craft in nation-building, reconstructing historical events through participatory projects, or reactivating material archives in new ways.

Smith’s work has been widely exhibited, including at P.S.1/MoMA, SFMOMA, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, MASS MoCA, and Palais de Tokyo, and is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, UCLA Hammer Museum, and LACMA.

Wednesday, December 3
A Discussion about Artists-Organizing-Artists- Jodie Cavalier, Mack McFarland and Ben Skiba (with support from the Bates Center)

Jodie Cavalier Jodie Cavalier is a conceptual artist living in Portland, OR. She earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her work has been exhibited widely. She has extensive experience working in a range of art organizations. In 2025, Jodie co-founded the Old Fashioned Garage Gallery, a lo-fi, DIY contemporary art gallery located in her home garage.

Mack McFarland is an artist, curator, and educator. For the last twenty+ years, it has been his privilege to collaborate with many cultural producers in the process of bringing to life the shared cultural experiences that are so vital for our lives. As an artist Mack has shared his postcards, videos, and performances at Portland Biennial- Oregon, Kaunas Biennial- Lithuania, Time Based Art Festival- Portland, OR, documenta 13- Kassel Germany, Northwest Biennial- Tacoma, WA, and many other venues and festivals. As a curator he has been fortunate to work with many artists, including commissioned projects from tactical media practitioners Critical Art Ensemble, Eva and Franco Mattes, and Disorientalism; as well as solo exhibitions with Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, Joe Feddersen, David Horvitz, Joe Sacco, Cauleen Smith, and many others. In May 2020 he co-founded Congress Yard Projects with Ariana Jacob, an outdoor exhibition space begun in the time of physical distancing. In 2023 he began PPSTMM, a gallery within a shared studio that is committed to art-as-verb.

Ben Skiba was raised in rural Wisconsin and received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Skiba lives and works out of his home studio in Portland, Oregon, working primarily with clay, paint, tape, canvas and paper.

In 2023, he started HIDE & SEEK, an open home gallery project focused on curatorial projects that share overlap with his studio materials, interests and friends. Friday lunch gatherings occur weekly at his home/studio/gallery, hope you can join sometime.

Fall 2024
Roland Dawhen
Val Britton
John Niekrasz
Jaleesa Johnston
Ketzia Schoneberg
Melanie Flood
Catherine Fairbanks
Anna Gray + Ryan Paulsen