Dr. Bernida Webb-Binder will present East Central University’s 2017 Lockmiller Lecture in Art History on Thursday, Nov. 2, at 4 p.m. in the Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center.
Her topic will be “Jewell Castro’s Representations of Family and Identity in Samoan American Art.”
The lecture is free and open to the public.
In her “Assimilation Series,” greatly influenced by Samoan barkcloth (siapo), Castro shares the story of her family’s migration from America Samoa, a United States territory since 1899, to southern California after World War II.
In each painting, she visually weaves an iconic tribute to a member of her extended family. For example, on Tales of Fisherman I, she revisits the family’s bittersweet pride of sending her uncle off to the Vietnam War.
Webb-Binder’s talk examines how Castro is influenced by Samoan barkcloth and tattooing as well as modernist collage and Byzantine icons.
Webb-Binder received her Ph.D. and master’s degrees in the history of art and visual studies from Cornell University. She also received a master of letters (with distinction, English) from the University of Auckland.
Webb-Binder currently serves as gallery educator for the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. and has been visiting assistant professor of Art and Art History at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where she teaches “Introduction to Western Art History” and “Oceania Art and Culture: From Disney to Down Under.”
The Lockmiller Lecture was established, through an endowment, in honor of David Lockmiller and his interest in art history. Lockmiller is the father of former ECU professor Dr. Carlotta Lockmiller.
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