VALS Visiting Artist Lecture Series with Brigitta Váradi

Join us for an exciting evening as we welcome Visiting Artist Fellow Brigitta Váradi to the VALS Visiting Artist Lecture Series at Dock 72 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

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!

Brigitta Varádi is a multimedia artist who delves into tradition, craft, and the everyday rituals of working life. She investigates themes of sustainability and cultural heritage through a combination of research, material experimentation and community engagement. Interweaving notions of fine art and craft, labor and heritage, Brigitta focuses the attention on the importance of traditions in an age of mass production and the global economy.

Brigitta examines the disappearing traditions and daily activities of small, secluded communities around the world: her grandmother mopping up her kitchen floor several times a day, the “liberty” tea made by inhabitants of New York State, the marking system of the dwindling community of shepherds in Ireland and the breuccio, a piece of red silk sewn into a sachet to hold coarse salt, shared between women to protect from evil spirits, in rural Italy.

One of Brigitta's latest project MARKINGS gathers together and explores the different marks used by farmers to identify their sheep in the North West region. With the use of traditional techniques and a system of marks used by shepherds, her works examine the mechanics of remembering and reminding. Creating a dialogue with farmers and place the project also opens on to a broader reflection concerning the signs and forms of identification humans use to identify animals, plants and territories.

Previous VALS artists include: Diana Al-Hadid, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Judith Bernstein, Michael Berryhill, Wafaa Bilal, The Black School, Flaviu Cacoveanu, Pradeep Dalal, Abigail D. Deville, Nicole Eisenman, Florencia Escudero, Rochelle Feinstein, Keltie Ferris, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Scherezade García, Rico Gatson, Jeffrey Gibson, Mark Thomas Gibson, Nancy Grossman, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Edgar Heap of Birds, James Hyde, Laura Kalman, Lotus Kang, Nina Katchadourian, Elektra KB, eri king, 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, Nyugen E. Smith, Wendy Red Star, Dan Walsh, Hu Xiangqian, and Frank Wang Yefen.

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

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

Please register each person attending the event with their individual email, so that they receive their own unique QR pass. Limit one pass per visitor.

You will receive a digital QR pass via email that will appear in your inbox as: DOCK 72 Visitor Check-in Saturday, November 8 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.

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.

Additionally, Dock 72 is situated next to the NYC Ferry and Citibike, and there are shuttles available on-site to and from MTA subway stops. For more info, please visit:

NOTE: If you are taking a taxi or rideshare to the Navy Yard, enter, as your drop-off and pick-up location. Enter the Navy Yard via Building 77, using your access QR code at the gates at the end of the hall in Building 77, past the food places. Rideshares and taxis are not allowed to enter the Navy Yard for passenger pick-up.

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