Intersections of Identity: Body, Race and Culture in Contemporary Art | A Conversation with Hank Willis Thomas and Dana Claxton

Join us for a conversation with renowned artists Dana Claxton and Hank Willis Thomas, moderated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director & Director of Curatorial Programs. They will discuss their work and how they each explore the commodification of culture, race and gender through the lens of art.  

This talk is being presented on the occasion of the opening of Thomas’s public sculpture installation at Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite, on view through April 27, 2025, at 1100 West Georgia Street. 

This talk will be presented at UBC Robson Square Theatre at 800 Robson Street. Doors will open at 6:15 PM. Directions »  

This event is free and open to the public. Capacity is limited. Seating is first come, first served. Registration is required.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dana Claxton is a critically acclaimed, award-winning artist and filmmaker. Known for her expansive multidisciplinary approach to art making, her practice investigates the body, the socio-political and the spiritual within realms of indigenous beauty. As a Hunkpapa Lakota (Sioux) photographer and filmmaker, Claxton examines stereotypes and representations of Indigenous peoples in popular culture, confronting issues of colonialist appropriation and commodification through a wide-ranging exploration of her family’s and community’s experiences in the Great Plains of Saskatchewan. Claxton’s work has been shown internationally and is held in major public and private collections around the world. In 2020, she won the prestigious Scotiabank Photography Award. Claxton is Professor in and Head of the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota. In 2018, the Vancouver Art Gallery presented Dana Claxton: Fringing the Cube, the first exhibition to survey the formidable career of the artist. The Gallery holds a number of significant works by Claxton in its permanent collection, including the video installation The Red Paper (1996)—acquired in 1998—and Lasso (2018), a monumental firebox.  

Hank Willis Thomas is an internationally recognized conceptual artist who works across several disciplines and mediums, including sculpture, installation and public action. Most recently, he has created large-scale sculptures and monuments for the public realm. Originally trained as a photographer, his works often reflect on mass media representations and social justice. In using familiar images featuring Black men that circulate widely in popular culture—from Nike ads to political campaigns, the artist encourages viewers to question commercial representations and cultural stereotypes and scrutinize the intersection of photography, systemic racism and the commodification of Black bodies in American consumer culture. At Offsite, three of Thomas’ polished stainless-steel sculptures will be exhibited together for the first time. Thomas’ work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, and he is collected by major museums across the globe.