Artist is self-described ‘nonbinary creature maker’
A “queer metalsmith” will be one of the featured lecturers in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s upcoming Artists Now! series, paid for in part by student fees.
The artist, Sulo Bee, co-founded the group Queer Metalsmiths “to uplift queer voices in the field of metalsmithing and craft,” according to the UW Peck School of the Arts’ website. Bee’s personal website describes the artist as a “nonbinary creature maker and world builder” whose work (pictured) has received a number of awards.
Bee’s presentation is part of a year-long art lecture series to “explore and expand the boundaries of creative visual practices alongside others with an interest in contemporary visual art,” the website states.
Funding for the lecture comes, in part, from the public university’s differential tuition fund, which is “an additional fee that students are required to pay each semester,” The New Guard reports.
Bee also is a lecturer in metals and foundations at the School of Art and Design at Texas State University in San Marcos.
“Couching my subversion to contemporary society’s gendered expectations in vibrant colors and intricate constructions, binaries blur as I layer, respond, and transform elements through blind contour drawing and experimental techniques in metalworking,” Bee’s website states.
Additionally, the artist sells jewelry, stickers, and other artwork through the shop $P4RKL3_FiLTH, advertising pieces to “be used for ‘worship and chaotic order,’” according to The New Guard.
Race and gender identities are mentioned in a number of the artists’ short bios in the UW Milwaukee guest lecture series.
One, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, is a “black trans artist, game developer and mother” who works through video games “to bring to the forefront the experiences of Black trans women and, more generally, to archive the Black trans experience,” according to the website.
Another lecturer, Jenie Gao, is described as a “Taiwanese-Chinese American, woman of color, and descendant of working class immigrants” who “runs an anti-gentrification arts business, specializing in printmaking, public art, social practice, and storytelling.”
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IMAGE: UW Peck School of the Arts
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