The Fall 2026 Graduate Art guest lecture series, organized by Jan Tumlir and Jack Bankowsky.

Rita McBride

This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are not required.

Rita McBride (b. 1960 in Des Moines, Iowa) is an artist living and working in Southern California. With a career that has spanned the world, her practice is rooted in avant-garde education and architectural public work. She received her BA from Bard College in 1982 and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1987. In 1989, McBride was awarded the coveted Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, after which she spent several years working and exhibiting across Italy, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands. In 2000, she settled in Berlin with a DAAD residency, during which she served as a Professor of Sculpture at the Kunstakademie Munich. In 2003, she became a professor in the Integration of Art and Architecture program at the historic Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she went on to teach for two decades and served as the school’s Director from 2013 to 2017. McBride has realized ambitious, public installations, including Guide Rails (2017–2021), Brussels; Obelisk of Tutankhamen (2017), Cologne; Donkey’s Way (2016), Mönchengladbach; Artifacts (C.W.D.) (2015), New York; Bells and Whistles (2014), New York; and Mae West (2011)—a fifty-two meter-high carbon fiber structure in the city center of Munich. She has staged solo presentations at institutions across Europe and the United States, most recently at the Bauhaus Museum, Dessau; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Dia Beacon, New York.

Image: Portrait by Alex Hoerner. / Rita McBride, Toyota (1990). Rattan sculpture, Galerie Michael Wiesehofer. Courtesy of the artist. 

See the full Fall 2026 Seminar schedule here.

Support for this series is generously provided by the following: Jack Shear, Brenda R. Potter, Brendan Dugan, Lisson Gallery, Beth Rudin DeWoody, David Kordansky, Jeffrey Deitch, Gattopardo, Tara Walters, Alan Hergott, and an anonymous donor.

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio that provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres—film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.