Artist Jesse Bransford will discuss the role of belief and visual systems in his work, exploring how this practice relates to artists included in the Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic exhibition.

A Critical Walk-Through is a 40-minute guided tour that is meant to offer an alternative perspective to the works on view. It includes conversations with artists, scholars, and curators, providing an intimate opportunity to engage with the central themes and histories found in the artwork. The program is limited to 25 individuals.

Jesse Bransford is a New York-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally at venues including The Carnegie Museum of Art, the UCLA Hammer Museum, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, and the CCA Wattis Museum, among others. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA), and Columbia University (MFA). An associate professor of art at New York University and currently the chair of the Department of Art and Art Professions, Bransford’s work has been involved with belief and the visual systems that it creates since the 1990s. Early research into color meaning and cultural syncretism led to the occult traditions in general and the work of John Dee and Henry Cornelius Agrippa specifically. He lectures widely on his work and the topics surrounding his work. He is the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference.

Event photo by Matthew Sherman.

Image credit: Jesse Bransford, The Self: Life’s Vision of Continuity in Nature’s Power of Creation, 2016, 50 x 34 in., watercolor, acrylic, ink, and graphite on paper. Collection of the artist.