Finding the Art World: The Local, the Global, and the International

This talk will focus on trends in the contemporary art world and what to look for when visiting museums and galleries. In particular it will examine how contemporary artists position themselves as, or are labeled as, local artists, global artists, or international artists, and the implications of each of those terms for artists and viewers alike. This lecture will frame the definitions in an art historical context, and will look at how the contemporary art exhibitions at the Faulconer Gallery fit into the wider art world.

Lesley Wright is the director of the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College. In addition to overseeing the gallery operations and staff, she has curated a number of exhibitions of contemporary art. These shows included works by regional, national, or international artists working in all media. She has developed educational programs and site specific installations for the campus and area communities. Before moving to Grinnell in 1999, Wright was the curator at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art for 6 years, overseeing both the permanent collection and over 20 major exhibitions. She has taught courses in American art history at Stanford University, San Francisco State, the University of Iowa, and Coe College, and teaches museum studies at Grinnell College. Her museum background includes work as the assistant to the director at the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley (now the Berkeley Art Museum) and a Luce Foundation internship at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. A native of Californi a, she has her BA from Swarthmore College, her M.A. and Ph.D. in American Art History from Stanford University, and has made her home in Iowa since 1992.