Catie Newell, “Secret Sky”, The massive reworking of an ailing barn to reconfigure its relationship to the landscape and sky offering a new form of occupation for both humans and light. (image courtesy Newell)
Catie Newell: Fitzgibbon Charrette Kickoff Lecture
Catie Newell will deliver the Fitzgibbon Charrette Kickoff Lecture as part of the Sam Fox School’s Public Lecture Series at WashU.
About Catie Newell
Catie Newell captures light and darkness in material and optical assemblies that amplify our connection to a living and spinning earth. As the founding principal of the architecture, art, and research practice Alibi Studio and professor of architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College, Newell’s research and creative practice has been widely recognized for exploring heartfelt design construction and materiality in relationship to location and geography. The work ranges in scale from buildings to products and explores the world most deeply with material systems and optical captures. Alibi Studio deploys material explorations, illumination and darkness, and novel modes of occupation, all created through rigorous prototyping and custom fabrication tools. The process of fabrication is a vital act in the work, often amplifying material effects and situational influences, intertwining the processes of making and design across the entire project. Her work has been shown in secret venues in Detroit, in the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale, in night-sensitive museum solo shows, and in the landscape of rural Michigan. Newell is a Lucas Fellow, a Kresge Artist Fellow, a WOJR/Civitella Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
More Upcoming Lectures
Apr 15 at 5:30pm • Museum Lobby
Being and Becoming in Contemporary Chinese Art
This talk by Peggy Wang, associate professor of art history and Asian studies at Bowdoin College, addresses the conflicting pressures that artists in China confronted during the 1990s and early 2000s, including rapid urbanization and cultural globalization. Even as they navigated political constraints and deficits in resources, contemporary artists enacted productive strategies for making and exhibiting their art. This lecture foregrounds artists’ assertions of being and becoming, both as critical tactics for configuring identity and generative topics unto themselves. Wang will particularly examine how artists studied the vibrant dynamics of change through temporal, historical, and material dimensions in their art.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Looking Back Toward the Future: Contemporary Photography from China, on view at the Kemper Art Museum from February 27 to July 27, 2026.
Part of the Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series