Rick Lowe is a pioneer of socially engaged art whose recent work – including the series of paintings on view at the Neubauer Collegium Oct 25, 2022 – Feb 10, 2023 – has taken on a more reflexive pictorial cast. In this conversation, the Houston-based artist discussed his recent experiments in painting and the enduring influence of his “social sculptures” in the context of broader historical, economic, and sociological concerns. The overarching question powering Lowe’s practice has always been what art can do – more specifically, how (not if) art can effect social change. This question was once again asked of his new paintings’ relationship to the complex issues of economic betterment and urban renewal on Chicago’s South Side.

Panelists

Kate Cagney (Director, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research)

Adam Green (Associate Professor of American History and the College, University of Chicago)

Rick Lowe (Artist)

Derek A. Neal (William C. Norby Professor in Economics, the Committee on Education and the College, University of Chicago)

Dieter Roelstraete (Curator, Neubauer Collegium)

Tara Zahra, moderator (Roman Family Director, Neubauer Collegium)