VALS Visiting Artist Lecture Series

The Pratt Fine Arts Visiting Artist Lecture Series (VALS) is back! Join us at in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for an inspiring evening. Hosted by our Fine Arts MFA program, VALS is one of several free and open-to-the-public events we offer each year. Follow us on Instagram @prattfineart to see what’s coming up, and we look forward to welcoming you soon!

Our first VALS of the season features, whose artistic discourse simultaneously embraces – from a performative perspective – language, photography, installation, ready-made objects, or sculptures, and it mainly occurs at a point where these media intertwine. His profoundly intuitive process is sensitive to the interplay between the elements and materials he carefully selects.

The artworks are born within his cell phone – which has in the meantime become not only a living space or an extension of reality but outright the artist’s studio – in the shape of sketches or short story-type videos, advancing slices of reality which, taken out of the context, are endowed with new meanings. Therefore, his works are brought to the attention of the public as “notifications” inviting viewers to do a double take and look more closely at the details, which reveal the poetry inherent in the everyday.

Through seemingly nonchalant, yet sharp and humorous observations he highlights traces left by unnoticed inhabitants of the city, often insects, discarded items of consumption and various random acts which all compile a portrait of the artist as a reflection of his environment.

Flaviu Cacoveanu, born 1989 in Cluj, Romania, lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His works have been exhibited amongst others at Parliament Gallery in Paris (FR), Lutnita Gallery in Chisinau (MD), Liste Art Fair 2024 in Basel (CH), Baronian Gallery in Brussels (BE), NADA Villa Warsaw in Warsaw (PL), Art Brussels 2023 in Brussels (BE), Art Au Centre 2023 in Liege (BE), ART-O-RAMA 2022 in Marseille (FR), The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest (RO) and at the Art Encounters Biennial 2021 in Timisoara (RO).

Previous VALS artists include Diana Al-Hadid, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Judith Bernstein, Michael Berryhill, Wafaa Bilal, The Black School, Pradeep Dalal, Abigail D. Deville, Nicole Eisenman, Rochelle Feinstein, Keltie Ferris, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Schezerade Garcia, Rico Gatson, Jeffrey Gibson, Mark Thomas Gibson, Nancy Grossman, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Edgar Heap of Birds, James Hyde, Laura Kalman, Nina Katchadourian, Elektra KB, Baseera Khan, Savannah Knoop, Leigh Ledare, Jennie Jieun Lee, Ann Lewis, Tau Lewis, Kalup Linzey, Ibrahim Mahama, Park McArthur, Alicia Mersy, Wardell Milan, Ayanah Moor, Lavar Munroe, Narcissister, Rashaad Newsome, Catherine Opie, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, Alexis Rockman, Aura Satz, Shazia Sikander, Lorna Simpson, Wendy Red Star, Dan Walsh, Hu Xiangqian, and Frank Wang Yefen.

We are grateful to the Robert Lehman Foundation for supporting this series.

IMPORTANT ACCESS INFORMATION
Access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Dock 72 is restricted ONLY to those with an ID card or a visitor pass. All who RSVP here will receive an email with information on how to get their Visitor QR Code Pass, which will be issued the morning of the event.

You will need to save your email to access the building and the event.

You will receive a digital QR pass via email that will appear in your inbox as: DOCK 72 Visitor Check-in Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024 from [email protected]. Please check your SPAM folder if you cannot locate it. NO PASS = NO ACCESS. This pass will be good for the date of the event only.

FINDING DOCK 72-

Dock72 is here: 1 Dock 72 Wy, Brooklyn, NY 11205

You will first use your pass to enter the Brooklyn Navy Yard at whichever gate is convenient. You can come by taxi (showing your pass to the guard to enter) but if you drive, you will need to park OUTSIDE the Navy Yard and walk in. There is NO parking at Dock 72.

NOTE: While there is no on-site parking; taxi/ride share drop-off is permitted. Additionally, the building is situated next to the NYC Ferry, Citibike, and there are shuttles available on-site to and from MTA subways stops. For more info, please visit

- When you arrive at Dock 72, enter the Lobby and then use your pass at ELEVATOR BANK C, which is the last elevator bank right at the end of the lobby (past the lobby cafe, near the exit door at the very end)- At the elevator bank, select Floor 3 on the digital pad which will then indicate which elevator to take.

Host or Publisher Pratt Institute