FEATURED VIDEOS
In Celebration of Pride: A Conversation with Riva Lehrer and Achy Obejas
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This program was recorded on July 15, 2022 for National Portrait Gallery’s PORTAL
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Join PORTAL, the National Portrait Gallery’s Scholarly Center, for a dialogue between artist and educator Riva Lehrer and the subject of her piece in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Havana-born writer Achy Obejas. As a part of the Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia Conversation Series in LGBTQ+ Portraiture, this event will explore themes related to queer identity and disability. Moderated by the National Portrait Gallery's curator of painting, sculpture & Latinx art Taína Caragol and historian Mindy Farmer, the conversation will also examine Lehrer’s method for creating Obejas’ portrait and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riva Lehrer with David Mitchell
​Oct 30, 2020, Chicago Humanities Festival
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Lehrer is joined in conversation by David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas and Utopia Avenue), who praises Golem Girl as an “unflinching social history of disability over the last six decades; and a hymn to life, love, family, and spirit”.
Riva Lehrer: A Self-Portrait in Formaldehyde
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This program was recorded on October 25, 2014 as part of the 25th Anniversary Chicago Humanities Festival
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For her entire life, Chicago artist Riva Lehrer has been confronted with descriptions of her body as stunted, twisted, or deformed. These encounters have pushed her to question how to depict the human form, both as a portraitist and as a lecturer in anatomy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. With a combination of brutal honesty, whimsy, and acceptance of the unknown, Lehrer explores the variant body, the divide between inner and outer life, and the mystery of survival.