Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers to Speak at Memorial Art Gallery

The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester will host a special program, Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers, on Saturday, May 3, from noon to 1 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium.

Multimedia artist Sanford Biggers

The free public event, which includes museum admission, features a conversation between acclaimed multimedia artist Sanford Biggers and Timothy Peterson, MAG’s Ann and Irving Norry Curator of Contemporary Art. Audiences will hear firsthand about Biggers’s creative process, which he describes as “conceptual patchworking,” and the influences behind his work.

The program is co-sponsored by the University of Rochester Black Alumni Network. More information and registration details are available online.

Biggers is known for using antique quilts, textiles, painting, sculpture, performance, and video to explore overlooked cultural, historical, and political narratives. Through a distinctive blending of forms and ideas, his work challenges traditional perspectives and invites viewers to reconsider shared myths and traditions.

One of Biggers’s major works, the nine-foot sculpture Oracle, is a highlight of MAG’s Centennial Sculpture Park. His art has been featured in exhibitions around the world, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Tate Modern, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

His pieces are also part of permanent collections at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Biggers will be honored May 3, as the 2025 MAG Gala Artist Honoree during the MAG Gala, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. The event will also recognize Arts Leader Deborah Ronnen and the MAG Council, this year’s Outstanding Volunteer Group award recipient.

A limited number of $75 tickets are still available for the evening’s Cocktail Hour, which includes drinks, museum access, and an exclusive preview of the reinstalled Wilson and Hawks Galleries. Full program tickets, which include dinner and the awards ceremony, are currently on a waitlist. Proceeds from the Gala support MAG’s mission to expand access to the arts across Rochester and beyond.

For more information or to purchase tickets for the Cocktail Hour, visit mag.rochester.edu or call 585-276-8900.