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On Wednesday evening, March 5, the Neuberger Museum of Art and the Purchase College, SUNY Global Black Studies and Media Studies programs will present the 2025 Fred Wilson Lecture in Global Black Studies. The event will feature Dr. Zalika U. Ibaorimi (she/they), an Assistant Professor of Black Sexualities at The Ohio State University and an antidisciplinary artist working under the name n0humaninv0lved (N.H.I.).
About the Fred Wilson Lectures
Fred Wilson ’76 (Visual Arts), one of Purchase College’s most distinguished alumni, is a world-renowned conceptual artist who challenges assumptions about history, culture, race, and exhibition practices.
“The lecture series celebrates Wilson’s achievements and legacy, and honors Black makers and thinkers whose work shapes creative and cultural landscapes,” explained Shaka McGlotten, Purchase College Professor of Media Studies. “The lectures serve as a platform for learning, inspiration, and celebrating the rich contributions of Black artists and intellectuals to the global arts community.”
Although Wilson will not be present at this year’s event, the lectures honor his legacy by featuring distinguished speakers such as Dr. Ibaorimi and the 2024 inaugural lecturer Tavia Nyong’o, Chair and Professor of Theater & Performance Studies, Professor of American Studies, and Professor of African-American Studies at Yale University.
2025 Featured Speaker and Lecture
Dr. Zalika U. Ibaorimi’s work explores Black material and digital spaces, examining relationships between Black femme subjects and spectators through the lenses of desire and transformation. A former Carter G. Woodson Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, Dr. Ibaorimi is currently developing two books and an experimental film titled (be)cum(ing): on humanist edging, which premieres in May.
Drawing from themes in their forthcoming film, their performance lecture, (be)cum(ing), will explore representations of Black genders and sexualities. Through a dynamic combination of sonic performance and critical analysis, they will examine the aftermath of the legacy of 1960s Black nationalism and its impact on current dialogues about gender, citizenship, and belonging. The presentation builds on themes from their film’s three acts and investigates how sexual cultural narratives and social structures influence our understanding of figuration and legacies of humanism.
About Fred Wilson
In his work, Wilson explores themes tied to histories of colonization and enslavement, critiques the imbrication of art history and art institutions with these histories, and transforms these histories via site-specific installations. His interventions in museums have underscored the biases of the Western canon and the exhibition practices that derived from it. Wilson reframes the roles indigenous, Black, and other historically oppressed groups have played in producing Western art worlds through wall texts, the rearrangement and manipulation of objects and spaces. Wilson’s solo exhibition, Fred Wilson, was on view at the Neuberger in spring 2017.
During the Museum’s fiftieth anniversary celebration in April, Wilson was named the Neuberger’s 2024 Passionate Artist. In the fall, he joined the Board of the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, an organization that supports the Museum and ensures that it continues to grow and evolve.
Acknowledgments
Additional support for the 2025 Fred Wilson Lecture in Global Black Studies is generously provided in memory of Stanley Helsel, father of Amy Helsel ’85 and father-in-law of Jeremy Swerling ’83. This gift honors Stanley Helsel’s lifelong commitment to art and education.
Register to attend: This event will be in-person only.
