de Young Event

Voices of Contemporary Artists Lecture Featuring Kota Ezawa

© Kota Ezawa, courtesy of the artist, RYAN LEE Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Five people looking at the Golden Gate Bridge with a large ship moving beneath it — © Kota Ezawa, courtesy of the artist, RYAN LEE Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

About

de Young

Koret Auditorium

September 4, 2025

1–2 pm

Ticket info

Free event. No reservations required.

The Docent Council of the Fine Arts Museums is pleased to present the 7th Annual Voices of Contemporary Artists Lecture featuring Kota Ezawa.

Kota Ezawa visually transforms imagery he mines from the news, the history of art, photography, film, and popular culture in his acclaimed video animations, light boxes, murals, sculptures, watercolors, and other artworks. His process of translating primarily charged depictions — footage of NFL players kneeling in protest during the National Anthem, the outbreak of the Covid epidemic, artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, or iconic images from the history of photography, for example — from one visual form to another, is an inquiry, for the artist and viewer alike, into our cultural consciousness shaped by images.

This event is held in memory of Mary Beth Hagey.