Raymond Thompson Jr., an interdisciplinary artist, educator and visual journalist, will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 2 in Richards Hall, Room 15. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The School of Art, Art History and Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.
Thompson is assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He explores how race, memory, representation and place combine to shape the Black environmental imagination of the North American landscape. He received a Master of Fine Arts in photography at West Virginia University, a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and a degree in American studies from the University of Mary Washington. Thompson won the 1619 Aftermath Grant (2023) and the 2021 Lenscratch Student Prize.
His recent exhibitions include the Fotofest Biennial-Ten by Ten: Ten Portfolios from the Meeting Place. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. He is also the author of “Appalachian Ghost” published in 2024 by the University Press of Kentucky. His professional experience extends to freelance photography, where he has collaborated with The New York Times, The Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, The Nature Conservancy, ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell, Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine and the Associated Press.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
• 5:30 p.m., Oct. 16: Matt Belk — Alumnus Belk has increasingly become known as a contemporary wildlife painter, bridging the gap between the outdoor country lifestyle and modern contemporary. His work is in constant use of tape and cutting of shapes with an X-Actoblade and airbrushing with inventive new techniques to create a seemingly digital graphic depiction of nature.
• 5:30 p.m., Nov. 12: Holly Willis (co-sponsored by the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and The Awareness Lab) — Willis is chair of the Media Arts+Practice Division in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, where she studies reconfigurations of cinema and experimental media. She also co-directs the AI for Media & Storytelling initiative of the USC Center for Generative AI and Society.
• 5 p.m., Nov. 13: Steve Anderson (co-sponsored by the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, The Awareness Lab and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center) — The lecture will be at the Ross, followed by a sneak preview of Anderson’s new film, “Reality Friction.” Anderson is a scholar-practitioner working at the intersection of media, history, technology and culture. He is professor of digital media at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and associate dean for academic affairs in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and is the author of “Technologies of History.”
