Past Special Events

Wex Open House 2024

Several people smile and applaud as they sit on steps or stand in the background and look to the right at a performance outside the image frame.

Students, staff, faculty, and their friends and family are invited to drop in for our free, informal welcome back to campus!  

Everyone is welcome to participate in what’s happening at the Wex. Join us for music, talks with exhibiting artists, gallery experiences with educators, and a screening of the film Gabbeh—just a taste of what we offer year-round. You can also participate in hands-on art making, including a workshop on creating natural dyes that will deepen your connections to the featured exhibitions and film. 

Hang out and relax with some free snacks and beverages. Stop by the Learning & Public Practice department’s welcome table to learn about the day’s offerings, enter a giveaway for books and swag, and hear more about what else the Wex offers throughout the year.

The Wex is the place to encounter the art and issues of our time in a welcoming and inclusive environment. Stop by and see what we are all about.

IMAGE CAPTION 
Wex Open House, photo: Emma Parker.

Program schedule

Art-Making Studio: Plants and Pigments
The Oval (closest to the Wex) | 4–6 PM
Explore watercolor paints made from plants with an open studio hosted by Ohio State's Living Art and Ecology Lab. The workshop is inspired by exhibiting artist Tanya Lukin Linklater’s work, which uses pigments made from berries. Grab a kit and let your imagination run wild!

Performances from the School of Music’s Jazz Ensemble
Wex Lower Lobby | 4–4:30 PM
Get ready for the 2024–25 Jazz at the Wex series and listen to students from  Ohio State's School of Music perform.

Drop-In Gallery Experiences
Galleries | 4–7 PM
Learn more about Jonas N.T. Becker: A Hole is not a Void and Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather) from Wex educators. The galleries stay open until 7 PM.

Artist Talk: Tanya Lukin Linklater
Galleries | 4:30–5:15 PM
Join exhibiting artist Tanya Lukin Linklater for a drop-in conversation about her work with faculty collaborator Richard Finlay Fletcher. Moderated by the exhibition’s curator, Kelly Kivland.

Artist Talk: Jonas N.T. Becker
Galleries | 5:30–6:15 PM
Join exhibiting artist Jonas N.T. Becker, Laura Larson, and Sheila Restack for a drop-in conversation about Becker's work.

Poetry Reading
Wex Store | 6:30–7 PM
Students from Ohio State’s Creative Writing program share work in response to Jonas N.T. Becker: A Hole is not a Void, and Tanya Lukin Linklater: Inner blades of grass (soft) inner blades of grass (cured) inner blades of grass (bruised by the weather).

Film Screening: Gabbeh
Film/Video Theater | 7 PM
Free with ticket (visit the front desk or wexarts.org)

A modern Iranian cinema classic, Gabbeh is a brilliantly colorful, profoundly romantic ode to beauty, nature, love, and art. In Farsi with English subtitles. (75 mins., DCP)
 

About the Artists

Tanya Lukin Linklater chevron-down chevron-up

Tanya Lukin Linklater has recently participated in the Aichi Triennale, Japan; Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; New Museum Triennial, New York; and Toronto Biennial of Art. Her work has also been shown at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; among other institutions. Her first collection of poetry was Slow Scrape (published by The Centre for Expanded Poetics and Anteism Books in 2020 and by Talonbooks in 2022). A catalogue, Tanya Lukin Linklater: My mind is with the weather—copublished by the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Oakville Galleries; and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin—was released in spring 2024. Lukin Linklater’s Alutiiq/Sugpiaq homelands are in southwestern Alaska where much of her family continues to live. She is a tribally enrolled member of the Native Villages of Afognak and Port Lions in the Kodiak archipelago. 

Learn more about the artist

Jonas N.T. Becker chevron-down chevron-up

Jonas N.T. Becker has exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; FotoFocus Biennial at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati; the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago; Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles; and Lancaster Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California. Awards include the Magnum Foundation Counter Histories Fellowship (2022–23); Lucas Artist Residency Fellowship at Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, California, (2016–19); Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, Switzerland (2015); and Six Points Fellowship (2011–13). Becker is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a 2023–24 Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme External Fellow at Ohio State. They live and work between West Virginia and Chicago.

LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
American Electric Power Foundation
CoverMyMeds
Huntington
Martha Holden Jennings Foundation
 
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ingram-White Castle Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
The Ohio State University Office of Outreach & Engagement
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
 
SUPPORT FOR LEARNING & PUBLIC PRACTICE PROGRAMS RESIDENCIES PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY  
Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc


Nationwide Foundation

Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme

The Columbus Foundation 
Axium Packaging

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ohio State Energy Partners  
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection  
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang

Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle

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Past Special Events

Wex Open House 2024