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The artist Kahlil Robert Irving will be in conversation with Andrea Achi, Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to discuss Irving’s exhibition that includes a range of ceramic sculptures inspired, in part, by the mosaic floors of Hellenistic Antioch. Topics will also include how contemporary artists engage the history and methodologies of archaeology, uncovering layer upon layer of evidence and artifacts that begin to tell a fragmented story. 

Free and open to the public. Registration is requested. 

Watch the video recording.

ASL Interpretation

American Sign Language interpretation can be arranged for public events upon request. This service is free, but we ask for two weeks' notice. Requests can be made by contacting kempereducation@wustl.edu. 

Support

This event is supported in part by the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences. Part of the Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series.  

About the Speaker 

Andrea Myers Achi, PhD, is trained as a Byzantinist, and her curatorial practice focuses on Byzantine art of the Mediterranean Basin and northeast Africa. She graduated from Barnard College in 2007 with a BA in ancient studies. She thought she would become a classics professor but fell in love with Byzantine art and archaeology her senior year during a study abroad program on an excavation in Egypt. Achi went on to receive two Masters of Arts degrees from New York University, the first in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian studies with a concentration in archaeology and the second in Byzantine art. In 2018, she earned a PhD in art history and archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Currently, Achi is the Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art in the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her role, she specializes in the art and archaeology of late antiquity and Byzantium, with a particular interest in illuminated manuscripts and ceramics. She has brought this expertise to bear on exhibitions like Art and Peoples of the Kharga Oasis (2017), Crossroads: Power and Piety (2020), The Good Life (2021), Africa & Byzantium (2023) at the Met and in numerous presentations and publications. Her next project, Afterlives, opens at the Met opens in January 2024. 

Image Credit

Installation view, Kahlil Robert Irving: Archaeology of the Present, Walker Art Center, 2023. Photo by Kameron Herndon. Courtesy of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.