R. H. Quaytman

The Weitzman Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Institute of Contemporary Art are pleased to present an artist lecture and presentation with Rebecca Quaytman.

R. H. Quaytman was born in Boston, Ma. and currently lives and works in Guilford, Connecticut. She is best known for her painting practice which organized into chapters dating back to 2001. Quaytman studied at Bard College and at the Institut des Hautes É tudes en Arts Plastiques in Paris.
She received the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in 2001. Her works have been featured in Documenta 14, the 54th Venice Biennale, and the 2010 Whitney Biennial. Solo shows dedicated to her work have taken place at WIELS, Brussels, Belgium; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Secession, Vienna; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Renaissance Society, Chicago, and other venues. Her most recent exhibition, Shé, Chapter 0.3, curated by Kitty Scott, was included in the 2025 Shanghai Biennial, Does the Flower Hear the Bee? in November. The Hieroglyphic, Chapter 0.4, opened at Frieze Masters, curated by Sheena Wagstaff, in London this past fall. A selection of paintings from iamb, Chapter 12 are presently being exhibited as part of the permanent collection at MoMA, NYC. Quaytman has authored two books discussing and showing every painting in every chapter. The first, Spine, was published in 2010 and covered the first twenty chapters, and the second Book, published in 2025 by the Glenstone Museum, covers Chapters 21 through 35.

R.H. Quaytman is a visual artist and occasional author. She is best known for her ongoing series of painting exhibitions which she conceives as one ongoing project, like chapters in a book. This method began in 2001 and includes a variety of historic and contemporary subjects pertaining to both the place the paintings are first shown and the history of painting. They will continue to the end. Quaytman’s work has been exhibited widely and written about in the Americas, Europe and most recently China.

This free public lecture is part of a series that gathers distinguished artists, activists, writers, and disruptors whose work engages with the social and cultural themes of our time.

Registration
Registration link coming soon. | Zoom link coming soon.

ICA is committed to creating a welcoming environment for all visitors. For more notes on accessibility including accessible parking nearby visit our Accessibility landing page. If you require any accessibility accommodations or have any questions about the program, please contact Derek Rigby (mrigby@ica.upenn.edu).

In their varied approaches and techniques, these individuals speak to ICA’s ethos of artistic experimentation and practice that engages with the social and cultural themes of our time. As artists, writers, and cultural producers, their artwork and criticism expand across themes of popular culture, queer life, kinship & community, and de/construction through the utilization of sculpture, performance, sound, collage, installation, and more.

In this lecture series, we invite you all to engage in conversation with our participants and become a part of an active dialogue that explores the stake of contemporary art in our society and culture.

Support
The Master of Fine Arts program at Penn is focused on the professional development of visual artists. Through workshops, seminar courses, international residency opportunities and interactions with curators, writers and artists, the program provides an open intellectual framework to foster independent methods of artistic research.

Programming at ICA is made possible in part by the Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Lise Spiegel Wilks and Jeffrey Wilks Family Foundation. Public and Student Engagement at ICA is supported by the Bernstein Public Engagement Fund, Suzanne Weiss Doft & Jacob W. Doft, Stacey & Robert Goergen Jr., Hilarie L. & Mitchell Morgan, the Nash Family Foundation, Joline & David Stemerman, and by Dana McDonald Strong & Mark W. Strong.