Painter Meleko Mokgosi to join School of Art as associate professor

The Yale School of Art will welcome Mokgosi as associate professor in painting/printmaking in July. He comes to Yale from New York University.
Meleko Mokgosi

The Yale School of Art will welcome Meleko Mokgosi as associate professor in painting/printmaking in July.

Mokgosi is engaged in a project-based practice positioned between cinema studies, psychoanalysis, critical theory, and post-colonial studies. As both a teacher and an artist, Mokgosi contributes to the rich dialogue between pedagogy and practice, says Anoka Faruqee, professor and director of graduate studies in painting/printmaking.

It’s clear that Mokgosi’s considered painting practice, his deep commitment to critical inquiry and research, and his good will in building community, will strengthen our department’s collective mission of fostering rigorous curiosity, attention and generosity,” adds Faruqee.

The artist is currently working on a monograph tentatively titled “Flesh Tones: The Politics of Painting Skin.” This writing project is built on numerous interviews with artists to explore the complexities of rendering skin tone in developing the idea of the black subject within painting, including perspectives offered by Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Laylah Ali, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye among other noted painters both within and outside Mokgosi’s generation.

Currently Mokgosi is assistant professor of practice at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, where he joined the faculty in 2012. He holds a B.A. in Studio Art from Williams College, an M.F.A. from the University of California-Los Angeles, where he studied under Mary Kelly in the interdisciplinary studio program, and attended the Whitney Independent Study program.

Mokgosi will have upcoming solo exhibitions at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg, the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and the Perez Art Museum in Miami.

Share this with Facebook Share this with X Share this with LinkedIn Share this with Email Print this