Photographer Phyllis Galembo will present an illustrated lecture, “Ritual and Religion in the African Diaspora,” Monday, Feb. 11 at 1:50 p.m. in the Fred L. Emerson Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Music and the Africana Studies Program and presented in conjunction with Prof. Tim Olsen’s “Music of Latin America” course, the lecture is free and open to the public.
Galembo has traveled throughout the world observing African-based religious and cultural practices.
Her work has been exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History, the Tang Museum at Skidmore, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It is on view through March 30 in the “FarSighted” exhibit at The Albany International Airport Gallery.
Galembo has also produced several books of photographs: “Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween/Masquerade Costume”; “Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti”; “Aso-ebi, Cloth of the Family”; and “Divine Inspiration from Benin to Bahia.”
Writing in The New York Times, Roberta Smith said, “Her images are both portraits and documents, but their combination of dignity, conviction and formal power – especially their vibrant colors and often extraordinary altars – gives them a votive aspect similar to European paintings of saints or kings.”
Galembo earned a master’s of fine arts in photography and printmaking from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has taught at the University at Albany since 1978. Samples of her work can be seen at www.galembo.com.
For more information, call 388-6563.