For the seventh annual Lea K. Green Artist Talk, The Studio Museum in Harlem is proud to honor Sanford Biggers, who will be in conversation with friend, artist, and educator Derek Fordjour. 

A 1999–2000 Studio Museum Artist-in-Residence program alum, Sanford Biggers is a multimedia artist who works in sculpture, performance, painting, textiles, installation, and video. With a practice that is ever-evolving and expanding via new mediums, materials, and references, Biggers remixes found objects, popular culture, Buddhist iconography, and historical narratives into languages and dialogues that challenge past memory and inspire future possibilities.  

In this conversation, Biggers and Fordjour will delve into the artist’s creative inspiration, process, and practice, as well as the importance of art programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). 

The Lea K. Green Artist Talk brings together exceptional artists and cultural luminaries annually for critical dialogues on art and society. Previous honorees for the Lea K. Green Artist Talk include Carrie Mae Weems (2016), Jordan Casteel (2017), Amy Sherald (2018), Dawoud Bey (2019), Hank Willis Thomas (2020), and vanessa german (2021).  

LKG 2022 Resources

Read

“‘It Allows Them All to Freak Out’: Artist Sanford Biggers on Collaborating with Visionary Musicians to Form an ‘Afrofuturist Boy Band’” 

“The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers”  

“Cracking Codes with Sanford Biggers” 

“The Historically Black College Reconsiders the Studio Art Program” 

The Undefeated Billboard Project: Sanford Biggers 

Coded Narratives Lesson Plan by Sanford Biggers

Watch

Moon Medicin: Mosaic Performance. Live at The Phillips Collection 

Why Artist Sanford Biggers Remixes Different Forms, Styles of Art to Express Himself 

Meet the Artist: Teen Council Interviews Sanford Biggers 

Listen

LKG 2022 bios

Sanford Biggers (b. 1970, Los Angeles, CA; lives and works in New York City) has been awarded the Heinz Award for the Arts (2021), the Guggenheim Fellowship (2020), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (2018) and the Rome Prize in Visual Arts (2017). He has held solo exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2020), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2018), the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2016), the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2012), and the Brooklyn Museum (2011). Group exhibitions include The Studio Museum in Harlem (2001), Whitney Biennial (2002), The Tate Modern (2007), the Barnes Foundation (2017), Rubin Museum of Art (2021), and The Centre Pompidou-Metz (2022). His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. 

Derek Fordjour (b. 1974, Memphis, TN) was born to parents of Ghanaian heritage. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, earned a master’s degree in art education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. In 2018, he was awarded commissions for the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project and the MTA Arts & Design program. Recently, he was the inaugural artist for the Building Art Series on the facade of MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Juxtapoz, Vanity Fair, and Forbes. His work is held in the private and public collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, SFMOMA, Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum, and LACMA. 

Lea K. Green Funders

The annual Lea K. Green Artist Talk is made possible by the Lea K. Green Memorial Fund, established by Lea’s family and friends.