Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Presented in collaboration with the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, join us for the 2026 Russell Lecture, which features artist Meleko Mokgosi.

Ticket link coming soon...

UCSD students and faculty: Contact nlesley@ucsd.edu from your @ucsd.edu email to get the code for free tickets. UC San Diego ID is required for free entry.

5PM: Doors Open.

5:30PM: Introductory Remarks, followed by Russell Lecture with Meleko Mokgosi

6:45PM: Lecture concludes

7PM: Galleries close

Meleko Mokgosi (born in Francistown, Botswana) is an artist, Professor, and Director of Graduate Studies in Painting and Printmaking at the Yale School of Art. He is also the co-founder and director of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program. Mokgosi received his BA from Williams College in 2007 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program that same year. He then received his MFA from the Interdisciplinary Studio Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2011, and was an Artist in Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem from 2011 to 2012. Other residencies and fellowships include the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Anderson Ranch, the Arthur and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist (Washington University in St. Louis); and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor in the MIT Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2024-2025.

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 Joey Terrill (2026), Math Bass (2025), Elliott Hundley (2024) 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).