The Columbia Museum of Art presents a special lecture from notable South Carolina artist Winston A. Wingo, whose work is in the CMA Collection, on Thursday, July 23, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early to view his art in the galleries before heading to the theater to hear directly from Wingo about his long career as an artist and educator.
Since the 1970s, Wingo (b. 1952) has examined the relationships between technology, identity, and society through representations of Black figures. His recent work, on view in collection exhibition Winston Wingo: Who Would We Be/Who Could We Be?, engages questions around artificial intelligence (AI) and humanity’s evolving relationship to technological advancements through a dynamic series of sculptural heads. These bronze-cast cyborgs embody the contrast between industrial and organic forms. They appear rigid, rendered with mechanical precision — angular planes, geometric incisions resembling computer circuitry, and metallic patinas that recall the sleek energy of machines. At the same time, they retain human features, a sense of movement, and seemingly pliable textures reminiscent of fingers in clay.
Wingo draws inspiration for his series from art history. His chosen method of lost-wax casting is inspired by the bronzes that adorned the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. This reference to African art is both a means of affirming ancestral ties and asserting Black identity through material permanence. Twentieth-century Italian Futurism serves as a further source; where the Futurists beckoned the machine age to renounce the past, Wingo invites us to critique technology as a departure from humanity.
Though he began his series decades before the advent of AI, his work today feels more relevant than ever (and perhaps even prescient) for its rich social and political content. Seen through the lens of Afrofuturism, a cultural movement that engages Black concerns in dialogue with technology, Wingo’s heads manifest as monuments to Black futurity. They encourage the viewer to envision worlds in which Black bodies are not erased or mythologized but centered in conversations around societal advancement.
Born and educated in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Wingo earned a Bachelor of Arts in art education from Claflin University in 1977 and an MFA in sculpture from Clemson University in 1980. In 1984, he studied post-graduate at the Instituto Statute D’Arte in Lucca, Italy, the Luigi Tammasi Foundry in Pietrasanta, Italy, and the Artistica Marinani Foundry in Pietrasanta, Italy.
As a painter, sculptor, and art educator, Wingo taught at Claflin University and served as adjunct art professor at South Carolina University, the University of South Carolina Upstate, and Converse College. Wingo has taught in the South Carolina public school system at Hughes Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts in Greenville, and L.E. Gable Middle School in Roebuck, SC, and currently teaches at Carver Middle School in Spartanburg.
Wingo has had over 40 solo exhibitions and been in over 200 group competitions and invitational exhibitions and has exhibited his painting and sculptures throughout the United States, Canada, France, and Italy.
$35 / $25 for members. Doors at 6:00 p.m.