History of Art and Architecture

The Spear Endowed Architecture Lecture

A co-sponsored, annual architectural lecture presented by the History of Art and Architecture and Visual Arts departments.

Spear Lecture 2024, Olalekan Jeyifous Artist Talk

Green field with futuristic building
Olalekan Jeyifous, Barotse Aerial, 2023.

November 13th, 6 pm, List 120

Olalekan Jeyifous received a BArch from Cornell University and is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work re-imagines social spaces that examine the relationships between architecture, community, and the environment. He has exhibited at esteemed venues including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Vitra Design Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, where his artwork is featured in the permanent collection of the Department of Architecture and Design.

Olalekan was co-commissioned to design a monument for congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as part of the City of New York’s “She Built NYC” initiative and has garnered numerous awards, including the notable Silver Lion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Additionally, he is a recipient of the 2021 Fellowship by the United States Artists and has been a Wilder Green Fellow at the MacDowell Colony and completed artist residencies at the Bellagio Center, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Drawing Center’s Open Sessions program.

Register here.

 

Spear Lecture 2025, Thomas Phifer

Man in glasses wearing black shirt sits at a table in an all-white room

April 24th, 6 pm, location TBD

Thomas Phifer (b.1953) is an American architect based in New York City, and he will present the 2025 Spear Lecture.

 Phifer is perhaps best known for his design of the Glenstone      Museum expansion in Potomac, Maryland, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Corning Museum of Glass Contemporary Art + Design expansion, and the Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Register here.