Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series: Kahlil Robert Irving

Please join us for our next guest artist lecture with Kahlil Robert Irving

Kahlil Robert Irving was born in San Diego in 1992 but spent most of his youth in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute, where he received his BFA, and earned his MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis. Irving’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Mass MOCA, the New Museum, and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. In February of 2024, Irving opened concurrent exhibitions at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (AnticKS & MOdels + My theater to your eyes) and Archeology of the Present at the Kemper Art Museum in Saint Louis and both will be on view until July.

Like many artists today, Irving works in many media, including sculpture, painting, and collage. His collages are largely influenced by contemporary digital culture. He gathers different pieces of digital material ranging from photographs he takes to items he sees online to assemble these works. While appearing chaotic at times, he uses this method to subtly describe a view of how to navigate being Black in the United States. Irving’s range of ideas and materials shine through his practice—as he combines contemporary memes with evolved ceramic techniques, he shows how different ceramic materials can be fashioned into looking like objects from life. Throughout his practice, Irving focuses on Black joy while also shedding a light on violent white people and their ideologies.

Image: [ STREET & Stars (Memories < > Matter) fair and FREEDOM ], Black ICE, 1 x 8 14 feet, Glazed and unglazed ceramic, decals, luster, 2019.