Artist Talk & Opening Reception for Signal and Strata

Join us for an Artist Talk and Opening Reception to celebrate Signal and Strata. 

Artists Elena Damiani and Ishmael Randall-Weeks will be joined by moderator Dr. Madeline Murphy Turner for a conversation in the Lower Level Theater at the Carpenter Center, followed by an opening reception on Level 3.

6:00–7:00 pm, Artist Talk, Theater, Lower Level 
7:00–9:00 pm, Opening Reception, Level 3 

Free and open to the public.

About the Artists

Elena Damiani (b. 1979, Lima, Peru) lives and works in Lima, Peru. Damiani has participated in multiple international biennales, including the Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023), Cuenca Biennale (2018, 2016), Gwangju Biennale (2016), Venice Biennale, Vienna Biennale and IV Poly/Graphic San Juan Triennial (both 2015) and Bienal de la Imagen y Movimiento, Buenos Aires (2014). Solo exhibitions include Americas Society New York (permanent installation, 2022), Museo de Arte de Contemporáneo, Lima (2022), Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk (2017), Museo Amparo, Puebla (2016), Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2015). She has participated in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museo De Arte Contemporáneo De Monterrey, Mexico, The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico, and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (all 2023), Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara (2022), PIVO, São Paulo (2022), The Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, Mexico City (2020), DePaul Art Museum, Chicago (2020), Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015), Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2015), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2013), Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2007), IVAM Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (2007),Valencia and Kunstmuseum Bonn (2006) among others. 

Ishmael Randall-Weeks (b. 1976, Cusco, Peru) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Lima, Peru. He graduated from Bard College in 2000 and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2007. His work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums both in Peru and internationally, including Middlesbrough Institute of Modern of Art, England, United Kingdom; MoMA P.S.1, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lima, Peru; Spanish Culture Center of Buenos Aires (CCBBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina; The Drawing Center, New York, United States; Museum of Art of Lima (MALI), Lima, Peru; Macro Museum | Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy; National Museum, Lima, Peru; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, United States; Museum of the Bank of the Republic, Bogotá, Colombia; The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Bologna, Italy; The Drawing Room, London, United Kingdom; Museum of Fine Arts, Mexico City, Mexico; the Bronx Museum, New York, United States; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, United States. His work has also been included in the Havana Biennial, the IX and the XIV Bienials de Cuenca, the 6th edition of (S) Files Biennial in El Museo del Barrio, New York and 2010 Greater New York and MomaP.S.1, amongst others. 

About the Moderator

Dr. Madeline Murphy Turner is a curator, educator, and art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art of the Americas, with a focus on gender, ecology, and their intersections with transhistorical politics. She has held positions at the Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Grey Art Museum.

Her writing appears in exhibition catalogues, scholarly volumes, and leading journals. She is co-editor of the award-winning anthology Momentum: Art and Ecology in Contemporary Latin America (The Museum of Modern Art, 2025). Recent exhibitions include Edna Andrade: Imagination Is Never Static and Drawn to Earth: Contemporary Art and Environment in the Americas at the Harvard Art Museums, and LA ESCUELA___: Education as Resistance at MoMA PS1.

A committed advocate for arts education, Turner serves on the board of LA ESCUELA___, an artist-run platform for radical learning and collaborative making in public spaces across the Americas. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

The Artist Talk and Opening Reception for Signal and Strata is part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA).

Seating in the Carpenter Center is limited, and will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Please email: ccva@fas.harvard.edu with any questions about accessing the theater.

This event is presented in collaboration with the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.