Connective Tissues: A Conversation

Connective Tissues: printed & published explores the legacies of twentieth-century artist publications, considering their significance within artistic practices and the challenges of their display in an institutional context. Exhibition curators Macaella Gray (BA candidate, Art History) and Zoe Roden (BA candidate, Art History and Humanities) are joined by Grace Sparapani (PhD candidate, Art History), Aishwarya Arumbakkam (MFA candidate, Studio Art), and Logan Larsen (BFA, Studio Art; BA, Art History) for a conversation surrounding the rich histories and legacies of the artist publication in relation to the exhibition at the VAC.

Presented in conjunction with Connective Tissues: printed & published, on view through March 12, 2022.

Bios

Aishwarya Arumbakkam is a multidisciplinary visual artist working across photography, filmmaking and drawing. Originally from Chennai, India, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at UT Austin. She is a recipient of the Graduate Continuing Fellowship (2021–2022). Arumbakkam was honored as one of the "Ones to Watch" by the British Journal of Photography in 2019. In 2020, she was awarded the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Ishara Art Foundation (UAE), the Chobimela International Festival of Photography (Bangladesh), Ffotogallery (UK), and the Visual Arts Center (US).

Macaella Gray is a fifth-year undergraduate student in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies modern and contemporary art with a focus on early queer histories, post-war print media, and film cultures. She is the recipient of the John F. Newnam Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art History and the Susan Vaughn Foundation Endowed Scholarship in Art and Art History. She has held positions at UT Austin, the Harry Ransom Center, and Ballroom Marfa. 

Logan Larsen is an Austin-based artist with degrees in both Studio Art and Art History from UT Austin. His work touches and fuses a multitude of media including drawing, painting, publishing, and printmaking. His work has been exhibited with the International Print Center New York, Co-Lab Projects, the Visual Arts Center, and the National Young Arts Foundation. Larsen previously worked as a Risograph Lab Fellow and manager at UT Austin.

Zoe Roden is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Art History and Humanities at UT Austin. She studies modern and contemporary art with a focus on twentieth-century print cultures, experimental film, and early queer aesthetics. Zoe is the recipient of the John F. Newnam Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Art History and the Rapoport-King Thesis Scholarship. She has held positions at the Harry Ransom Center, the Library of Congress, and Ballroom Marfa.

Grace Sparapani is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Art History at UT Austin. She received an MA in Art History from UT Austin and a BA in English Literature from Vassar College. Her research lies primarily within critical theory and modern and contemporary art, with a focus on performance studies, trauma studies, psychoanalysis, and experimental film.