Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy
Russell Lee, Work of Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona, May 1940. Black and white negative. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information.
Opening Reception:
Fri. Sep. 4, 5–8 p.m.
Following his 1965 retrospective exhibition at the University of Texas Art Museum (now the Blanton Museum of Art), photographer Russell Lee was tasked with a radical mandate: to build the first photography program in the College of Fine Arts. Eschewing technical language, Lee described his innovative curriculum not as a series of photography classes, but as “experimental courses in seeing.”
This exhibition marks the 60th anniversary of the Department of Art and Art History’s photography program, surveying work by twenty-five exceptional MFA graduates who have benefited from Lee’s pedagogical legacy. While their practices remain rooted in photographic methods and materials, the included artists blur the boundaries of the medium, forming expansive visual languages that encompass print, sculpture, installation, video, and more. Spanning nine US states and four countries, the artists respond to Lee’s proposition by treating photography not as a destination, but a starting point through which to see the world.
Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy features works by Aishwarya Arumbakkam (MFA 2021), Adam Michael Boley (MFA 2016), Lily P. Brooks (MFA 2013), Rosie Clements (MFA 2024), Matthew Cronin (MFA 2019), Leah Dyjak (MFA 2015), Santiago Forero (MFA 2009), Edward Gia (MFA 2026), Ariana Gomez (MFA 2024), Mathieu Grenier (MFA 2020), Helen E. Jones (MFA 2022), Tova Katzman (MFA 2025), Bryan Martello (MFA 2016), Bucky Miller (MFA 2017), Mike Osborne (MFA 2005), Stephanie Concepción Ramirez (MFA 2017), Adam P. Schreiber (MFA 2007), Phoebe Shuman-Goodier (MFA 2025), Anika Steppe (MFA 2018), riel Sturchio (MFA 2018), Laura B. Turner (MFA 2008), Jennifer Teresa Villanueva (MFA 2023), Dave Woody (MFA 2007), Ricky Yanas (MFA 2011), and Nolan Zunk (MFA 2026).
Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy is co-curated by Teresa Hubbard and Jana La Brasca.
Support for Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy is provided by Debbie Dupré, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Kathleen Irvin Loughlin, Colin Doyle and Lora Reynolds, Gail and Rodney Sussholtz, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
The curators gratefully acknowledge Alexander Birchler for initiating the idea of this exhibition; Bucky Miller for his introduction to Lee’s images of Homer Tate; and VAC staff and interns Melanie Mota and Diar Enayatpour for their assistance.