SCAD deFINE ART 2024 honoree Cao Fei is internationally regarded as one of the most influential and innovative Chinese artists of her generation. Known for her compelling storytelling, Cao Fei works across a variety of mediums, from live-action films to the Metaverse, and genres, from documentary to science fiction. Her groundbreaking work explores the impact of social and cultural change on people, particularly citizens of China, and their lived realities and dreams.

In connection with the artist’s solo exhibition At the Edge of Superhumanity at the SCAD Museum of Art — an immersive mixed-reality installation that blurs distinctions between the terrestrial and the cyber, the familiar and the futuristic — Cao Fei joins New York-based art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg for the SCAD deFINE ART 2024 keynote conversation. Looking back at highlights of Cao Fei’s career, they will contextualize the works on view, discussing the artist’s approach to unearthing the past, engaging with the present, and imagining the future.

On the occasion of the university’s 45th anniversary, SCAD will also present alum Lavar Munroe (B.F.A., illustration, 2007) with the SCAD45 award, honoring his prolific interdisciplinary practice and rising acclaim.

About the guests
Cao Fei (b. 1978, Guangzhou, China; lives and works in Beijing) has presented solo exhibitions at venues including MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Serpentine Galleries, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; K21 Düsseldorf, Germany; MoMA PS1, New York; Secession, Vienna; Bonnefanten, Maastricht, the Netherlands; and Tate Modern, London. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions and major biennials and triennials worldwide. In 2021, she was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

A world-renowned art historian, critic, and curator, RoseLee Goldberg is the founding director and chief curator of Performa. Launched in 2004 to create a highly visible public platform for contemporary art and performance, Performa has changed public and academic perceptions of performance art with its exciting citywide biennial, groundbreaking commissions, publications, and original arts broadcasting platform. Performa has inspired the establishment of performance departments in cultural institutions around the world. Goldberg’s many publications include her pioneering book Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, first published in 1979 and now translated in 14 languages; Laurie Anderson (2000); and Performance Now: Live Art for the 21st Century (2018). Formerly the director of the Royal College of Art Gallery in London and curator at The Kitchen in New York, Goldberg has organized performance series at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow. Her many awards include a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government, Yoko Ono’s Courage Award for the Arts, the Agnes Gund Curatorial Award, and the title of honorary adviser to the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.

Interdisciplinary artist Lavar Munroe (b. 1982, Nassau, Bahamas; lives and works in Baltimore and the Bahamas) has presented recent solo exhibitions at venues including Jack Bell Gallery, London; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Md.; NOMAD gallery, Brussels, Belgium; Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, La.; the SCAD Museum of Art and Gutstein Gallery, Savannah; and The Central Bank, Nassau, in addition to numerous group shows and international biennials. Munroe’s work is held in prestigious collections around the world. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.