Presented by Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard

Peter Christian Johnson's work explores transformation using the kiln as a vehicle for deconstruction. The porcelain grid systems become an architecture over which to stretch a fluid skin that warps or collapses the structures under the strain of the firing. They expose the relationship between soft and hard, the fluidity of a membrane, and the moment of intersection between these contrasting elements. They pair labored construction with unpredictability, and capture the entropy embodied in the process.

This lecture is free and open to the public. To RSVP, email kking@fas.harvard.edu.

... Read more about Visiting Artist Lecture with Peter Christian Johnson

Presented by: Harvard Art Museums and Harvard’s Department of History of Art and Architecture
Admission: free; see website
Museum Hours: Open daily 10am–5pm. The museums’ regular hours will be extended to 5:30pm so that visitors may see Mel Bochner’s work (in Gallery 1100, on Level 1) before the lecture.

Mel Bochner (born 1940) is recognized as one of the leading figures in the development of conceptual art in New York in the 1960s and ’70s. Emerging at a time when painting was increasingly discussed as outmoded, Bochner became part of a new generation of artists, which also included Eva Hesse, Donald Judd, and Robert Smithson, who were looking at ways of breaking with abstract expressionism and traditional compositional devices. His pioneering introduction of the use of language in the visual led Benjamin Buchloh to describe Bochner’s 1966 Working Drawings as “probably the first truly conceptual exhibition.”... Read more about Tangled Up in Words

An Exhibition by the Association of Revolutionary Turners (ART), Central New England Woodturners, and Massachusetts South Shore Woodturners
Exhibition runs October 21-23, 10 AM-5 PM, with turning demonstrations at 11am, 1pm and 3pm
Opening Reception: Friday, October 21, 5-7 pm
Select work will also be on display in the Hunnewell Visitor Center, Sept 29-Nov 20

Woodturning: the art or process of fashioning wood into various forms and shapes by means of a lathe.... Read more about Opening Reception for "Turning Wood: The Art of the Woodturner II"

Presented by: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Admission: Free
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Talk + Performance: A panel discussion on the rise and development of Chilean conceptual art will be followed with a performance-lecture by poet and conceptual artist Raúl Zurita and visual artist Cristóbal Lehyt. 

... Read more about Raúl Zurita and Cristóbal Lehyt: Conceptual Stumblings

Presented by: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Admission: Free
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Los Angeles-based artist Julian Hoeber will discuss his work which includes multi-media representations of thought structures that examine vectors, rotation, cores, shells, knots, wounds, caves, and concepts of nowhere.... Read more about Julian Hoeber: Open Seminar

Presented by: Institute of Contemporary Art
Tickets: Free; for undergraduates of these participating University Member colleges; limited capacity.
More information: College night event page

Boston’s universities and colleges will take over the ICA on October 4 from 6–9 PM for the ICA’s annual College Night! Located in the city’s hottest neighborhood, the ICA is your entry point to the best of contemporary culture. Join us for this contemporary take on all Boston has to offer: art, food, music, and fun.... Read more about College Night at the ICA: The Young and the Curious

Presented by: Cultural Agents, DRCLAS & CCVA
Admission: Free and open to all

Speaker: Liz Munsell, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Liz Munsell will present an in-depth lecture Urban Art Interventions,1970s Chile at 3:30 pm as part of the Cultural Agents course at Harvard University in the Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall (Room 110). She will then introduce the hands-on workshop which will take place at the CCVA at 5:30pm.... Read more about Lecture: Urban Art Interventions, 1970s Chile

Presented by: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Admission: Free and open to all. RSVP here. 
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Talk + Workshop

Luz Donoso, born in Santiago, Chile in 1921 and died 2008, was a graphic artist, muralist, political activist, and teacher. Beginning in the mid-1960s, she was one of the most prominent participants in the widespread muralist movement in support of Salvador Allende’s presidential campaign.... Read more about Luz Donoso: Urban Art Interventions

Presented by: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Admission: Free
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Part autobiography and part cultural history, Before Pictures is a courageous account of an exceptional period in both art historian Douglas Crimp’s life and the life of New York City. Crimp will read from his book, followed by a conversation with Harvard professor Carrie Lambert-Beatty.... Read more about Talk: Douglas Crimp: Before Pictures

Presented by: Harvard Art Museums
Admission: see website
Museum Hours: Open daily 10am–5pm
Exhibition: ...

Presented by: Harvard Art Museums
Admission: see website
Museum Hours: Open daily 10am–5pm
Exhibition: November 4, 2016–April 9, 2017
Opening Celebration: November 2, 2016 at 6 PM features panel discussion with artist Doris Salcedo, author and Harvard professor Elaine Scarry, and curator Mary Schneider Enriquez. Open galleries 5–9 PM, and reception. more info>

A new exhibition featuring recent works by Salcedo, an internationally acclaimed artist whose sculpture and installations transform familiar, everyday objects into moving and powerful testimonies of loss and remembrance. Curated by Mary Schneider Enriquez, the Houghton Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museums.... Read more about Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning