The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

How can someone as supernaturally talented as midcentury American artist Gray Foy go unnoticed for so long? Critics, curators, and fellow artists adored his imaginative, meticulous meditations on nature. His eye and hand rival virtuoso artists of any period. Only recently has he received renewed attention and respect. In this talk, Robert Cozzolino, Curator of Paintings, Minneapolis Institute of Art, will explore the many ways Foy observed and changed the world around him.

Visitors interested in viewing Foy’s drawings on display in the exhibition Hyperreal: Gray Foy are encouraged to arrive early.

This program takes place in the Menil Drawing Institute, located at 1412 West Main Street. Additional information regarding accessibility and parking can be found here.

As always, Menil programs are free and open to all.

Robert Cozzolino, the Patrick and Aimee Butler Curator of Paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, curates collaboratively, in partnership with artists, colleagues, and broad communities. “Starting where you are” is critical to his practice—knowing the immediate context and deeper history of the place in which he works. It also means working with humility and accepting that there is much yet to learn from others. Dr. Cozzolino is drawn to artists that make work about the full range of human experience, especially those who aspire to visually express the intangible, states of consciousness, and a full range of emotions. Although he has worked on topics from the 19th and 20th centuries, he regularly works with contemporary artists in examining history. Born and raised in Chicago, he studied at UIC before completing graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His publications include Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art (2021), World War I and American Art (2016), Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis (2014), and David Lynch: The Unified Field (2014). First trained as a musician, he has played free-improvised music as a percussionist since 1993.