Join College of Arts and Sciences for a series of conversations that trace the careers and highlight the groundbreaking accomplishments of our dynamic OSU alumni in the arts and design. This event is presented by the Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise.

Kumasi J. Barnett received his MFA from The Ohio State University in 2008, and now lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Influenced by the aesthetics and narratives of comic books, his work subverts and imbues the often-timeless genre with a present-day social consciousness. Barnett frequently paints directly over old copies of comic books, changing their narratives into critiques of police brutality, racial profiling, and more broadly, systemic racism.

Barnett’s works have been exhibited widely both in the United States and abroad, including exhibitions at Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY; City Lore, New York, NY; Con-Artist Collective, New York, NY; The Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY; Sulphur Bath Studio, Brooklyn, NY; and The Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY. Museum exhibitions include the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa; The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; and most recently the Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA. Barnett presented a solo booth with Lowell Ryan Projects at The Armory Show 2020, in the Focus section curated by Jamillah James. Barnett’s work has been featured in Artforum, Ammo, Vibe, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, Autre, Artnet News, and The Guardian, among others.

Professional Website: http://www.kumasijbarnett.com/

Interviewers: Courtney Hunt, Art & Design Librarian and Assistant Professor, Fine Arts Library and Caitlin Mcgurk, Associate Curator and Assistant Professor, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

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If you require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this webinar, please contact Clara Davison at davison.102@osu.edu or 614-688-1214. Requests made two weeks before an event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet all requests.