Art Fwd: Abigail DeVille

Join artist Abigail DeVille and curator Jordan Jones for a public conversation centered on the artistic process of transmuting national myths and monuments into potent sites of public remembering, reckoning, and dreaming. Co-presented with the UW School of Art + Art History + Design, this conversation will address the role of historical research in DeVille’s object-based and performance practice, as well as her alchemical way of transforming found materials into psychically charged paintings, sculptures, and installations. The talk will explore how DeVille contends with the legacy of history, and the possibilities for telegraphing alternative worlds through the artistic imagination. A Q&A with the audience will follow the talk.

Presenter Bios

Abigail DeVille’s work is currently on view in the group exhibition MONUMENTS at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick, Los Angeles. Her most recent solo exhibitions include,, New Orleans, LA (2024); , Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME (2024); , JTT, NYC (2023); , Eric Firestone Gallery, NYC (2022-23); , Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Bronx, NY (2022-23); , organized by Madison Square Park Conservancy, NYC (2020-21), which traveled to the Momentary at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2021), Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2021-22), and Kenyon College, Gambier, OH (2023-24); , Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR (2018-19); , Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (2017); and , Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2017-2018).

DeVille has received numerous awards and honors including being named a 2025 New York City Artadia Award recipient, a 2024–25 Hodder Fellow at Princeton, a 2024 Bogliasco Fellow, a recipient of the 2018 Anonymous Was a Woman Award, a 2018 United States Artists Fellow, a 2017–18 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, a 2015 Creative Capital Grantee, a 2014–15 Fellow at The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, the 2015 Obie Award for Design for Prophetika: An Oratorio (La MaMa), a 2013–14 Artist in Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and a 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant recipient. DeVille received her MFA from Yale University and BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Jordan Jones is an arts worker living and working in Seattle. She currently serves as the Director + Curator of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery in the School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington. In her role, she provides curatorial, programming, and administrative leadership and oversight in their newly renovated exhibition space. The Jacob Lawrence Gallery is devoted to education, social justice, and experimentation that honors the legacy of one of the 20th century’s greatest artists, Jacob Lawrence. Through an ambitious program of contemporary exhibitions, the gallery seeks to carry his work forward as a place where we can come together in community to talk about art, but also the pressing concerns of our times.

About Art Fwd

Art Fwd is a new public lecture series on contemporary art and ideas featuring field-defining artists, curators, and thinkers. In addition to the public talk, invited speakers engage with University of Washington students through studio visits and critiques. Art Fwd is co-presented by the Henry and the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design.

Generous support for this lecture series is provided by the Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Fund for the Arts and the Endowed Program Support FUNd in Art.

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