Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Join us on Friday, February 9 for the Russell Lecture, featuring Elliott Hundley.

This program is free for MCASD Members and UC San Diego faculty, staff, and students; $5 for other students and seniors; and $15 for non-members. UC San Diego ID is required for free entry.

Presented with support from UCSD.

***This event is currently sold out but will be available via livestream.

Join the lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/live/uaEynHUPoC8

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5:30PM: Reception in Axline Court

A cash bar and light refreshments will be provided by The Kitchen.

6:30PM: Russell Lecture with Elliott Hundley in Jacobs Hall

Elliott Hundley (b. 1975 Greensboro, North Carolina) received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence in 1997 and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005.

Known for his dense multimedia compositions that reference both art history and mythology, Hundley’s work weaves together scenes from the past with familiar imagery taken from the contemporary world. Working in a variety of media Hundley fuses painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, photography, and performance into rich, multifaceted tableaux. Through a process ranging from gradual accumulation to spontaneous mark making, he builds up the surface of his works using quotidian found materials. Individual additions of embroidery, thread, straight pins, ephemera, magazine cut-outs, photographs, and paint come together to form complex compositions that at first glance appear unified but on closer inspection reveal their intricate and dexterously crafted components.

Hundley has been included in numerous exhibitions both in the US and abroad. In October 2021 he participated in the 5th Prospect New Orleans triennial, Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions including The Bacchae, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2011); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2012); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006). Work by the artist has been included in group shows at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY (2020); 7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2017–2018); The Broad, Los Angeles (2018–2019); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016; 2017–2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2015); Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2015); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006); among others.

In addition to his artistic practice, Hundley has curated exhibitions including the inaugural edition of Open House, a group presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019) featuring works drawn from the institution’s permanent collection, and Make-Shift-Future, an exhibition featuring sculptures by eight emergent American artists, previously on view at Regen Projects (2021). He received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019. Work by the artist is held in prominent museum collections including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humleb k; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; P rez Art Museum, Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among others.

He lives and works in Los Angeles.

The Russell Foundation was established in the will of Betty Russell, one of MCASD's founding docents and a long-time supporter of UC San Diego. She specified that funds from the foundation should help "foster the appreciation and study of the modern visual arts and creativity of young artists" through support for the Museum and the University. Past Russell Lecture speakers have included have included Shizu Saldamando (2023), June Edmonds (2021), Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2020), Rodney McMillian (2019), Zackary Drucker (2018), Miguel Calderón (2017), Andrea Bowers (2016), Judith Barry (2015), Tacita Dean (2014), Byron Kim (2013), Tania Bruguera (2012), and Isaac Julien (2011).