Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers in Conversation at MAG
Rochester, NY, April 16, 2025—The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester is pleased to present the program Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers on Saturday, May 3, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in the auditorium. This free public program includes museum admission and features an engaging conversation with acclaimed multimedia artist Sanford Biggers, the 2025 MAG Gala Artist Honoree. Timothy Peterson, MAG’s Ann and Irving Norry Curator of Contemporary Art, will lead the dialogue, offering audiences a unique opportunity to hear directly from Biggers about his influences and creative process—what he describes as “conceptual patchworking.”
This program is co-sponsored by the University of Rochester Black Alumni Network. More information and registration can be found here.
About the Artist
Sanford Biggers has earned acclaim for his powerful use of antique quilts, textiles, painting, sculpture, performance, and video to explore often-overlooked aesthetic, cultural, historical, and political narratives. He combines and reimagines ideas, forms, and genres through a distinctive process that challenges conventional perspectives and invites new understandings of shared mythologies and traditions.
Biggers’s monumental nine-foot sculpture, Oracle, is a centerpiece of MAG’s Centennial Sculpture Park. His work has been exhibited at prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Studio Museum in Harlem, Tate Modern, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His pieces are also held in major public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
MAG Gala Artist Honoree
Later in the evening on Saturday, May 3, Sanford Biggers will be formally honored as the 2025 MAG Gala Artist Honoree during the MAG Gala from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The Gala also celebrates Arts Leader Deborah Ronnen and the MAG Council, recipient of the Outstanding Volunteer Group award. A limited number of tickets remain for the evening’s Cocktail Hour ($75 per person), which includes drinks, museum viewing, and an exclusive preview of the reinstalled Wilson and Hawks Galleries. Full program tickets, including dinner and awards, are currently on a waitlist. Proceeds from the Gala support MAG’s efforts to expand access to the arts throughout the Rochester community and beyond.
Click here to learn more and purchase Cocktail Hour tickets.
About the Memorial Art Gallery
The Memorial Art Gallery showcases art from antiquity to the present day, including the outdoor public Centennial Sculpture Park. In addition to its permanent collection, MAG offers a year-round schedule of special exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, after-hours social events, and family activities. Learn more about the Memorial Art Gallery here.
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 11:00 am–5:00 pm, Thursdays & Second Fridays, 11:00 am–8:00 pm. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission: $20; senior citizens, $18; college students with ID and children 6–18, $9. Always free to members, University of Rochester faculty, staff, students, and children five and under. Half-price general admission on Thursdays 5–8 pm is made possible by Monroe County. Discounted admission tickets are available when purchasing online. For more information, call 585.276.8900 or visit mag.rochester.edu
Press contact: Paige Engard, Marketing & PR Specialist: 585.474.7695 / pengard@mag.rochester.edu
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Photo 1: The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester is pleased to present the program Meet the Artist: Sanford Biggers on Saturday, May 3.