January 7, 2005

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Peter Halley, acclaimed artist and professor of painting at Yale University, will come to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in February as the 2005 Visiting Artist. His visit will feature several events, including an artist’s reception and public lecture February 26.

Gary Chapman, chairman of the UAB Department of Art and Art History, said the department’s faculty and students are excited about Halley’s visit.

“Mr. Halley has been a cornerstone of artistic and critical life in New York since the early 1990s,” Chapman said. “Bringing Mr. Halley to campus is a fantastic way to reinstitute our visiting artist’s program.”

Halley has written for The New Yorker magazine and for the journals Artforum and Art/Text. He has published two volumes of criticism, “Collected Essays 1981-1987” and “Recent Essays 1991-1996.” Halley’s work has been featured in a number of major exhibitions including “Singular Forms Sometimes Repeated” at the Guggenheim Museum in 2004 and in the Venice Biennale in Italy the previous year.

Halley will present a public lecture on his works at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, February 26, in the Hulsey Recital Hall, 900 13th Street South. Works by Halley, which are being considered for purchase for the university’s permanent collection, will be featured in an exhibition at the Visual Arts Gallery. An artist’s reception will be held just before the lecture, 5-6 p.m. in the gallery, 950 13th Street South. Both of these events are free and open to the public.

The lecture is followed by a benefit dinner in honor of Halley and Pauline Ireland, the sponsor of the UAB Visiting Artist Program. Tickets to the dinner are $75 per person. All proceeds will benefit the Visual Arts Gallery Purchase Fund. Seating is limited; early reservations are encouraged. For tickets contact the UAB Department of Art and Art History at (205) 934-4941