American Artist William Wegman is Next Guest of Creative Life Series at UAlbany

A man dressed in all black sits, arms folded, on a cushion between two gray Weimaraner dogs, also seated on cushions. One has a paw on his leg.
American artist William Wegman, best known for portraits of his Weimaraner dogs, is the next guest of The Creative Life conversation series at UAlbany. (Photo provided)

ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 27, 2024) — American artist William Wegman, best known for portraits of his Weimaraner dogs, is the next guest of The Creative Life conversation series happening tonight at 7 p.m. at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center.

The series, presented by the University Art Museum, NYS Writers Institute and PAC, features live on-stage interviews conducted by WAMC Roundtable host Joe Donahue with artists about their creative inspiration and craft. A question-and-answer period closes each program, which is free and open to the public. Wegman’s new book and calendars will be for sale at the event. A signing will follow the conversation.

Wegman, known throughout the world for photographs, videos and calendars that feature his dogs in a variety of costumes and poses, has had work appear in major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

He is the author of numerous children’s books and the creator of short segments featuring his dogs for Sesame Street. He and his work have been featured on Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon, The Tonight Show, The David Letterman Show and The Colbert Report.  

A man wearing glasses and a flannel shirt sits in a chair as two Weimaraner dogs pose on a table behind him.
William Wegman with his Weimaraner dogs. (Photo provided)

His new book, William Wegman: Writing by Artist (2022), is the first collection to focus on his relationship to language and spans the early 1970s to the present. It includes early photographic works, imagined restaurant reviews, witty annotations, a curator’s essay, musings on ancient footwear, deliberate mistranslations, reworked greeting cards, fictional advertisements for real life products and other surprising prose forms.

Creative Life guests have spanned creative disciplines such as writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theater, filmmaking and more. The series celebrates the depth and range of artistic practices, helps to demystify the creative process for the audience and explores what it means to dedicate one’s life to a creative pursuit.

Previous guests in the series have included fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, tap dancer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, author Lois Lowry, choreographer Garth Fagan, Broadway star Patti LuPone, Warhol film star Bibbe Hansen, sculptor Jean Shin, author/essayist Esmeralda Santiago, New Yorker journalist/author Susan Orlean, comedian/actor Paul Reiser, high-wire artist Philippe Petit, rapper Rakim, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, chef/food writer Ruth Reichl, designer Debbie Millman, author Roxane Gay, art critic Lucy Sante, actress/comedian Jane Curtin and singer/guitarist Susanna Hoffs.  

For more information, contact PAC at 518-442-3995 or [email protected].