UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s School of Visual Arts will conclude the fall programming for its annual Anderson Lecture Series by welcoming Ghanaian-born visual artist Tijay Mohammed on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 2:30 p.m. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Kern Graduate Building.
The lecture series is supported by the John Muller Anderson endowment, which was named in honor of the professor emeritus who was an Evan Pugh research professor of philosophy and the first director of Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Mohammed, through multimedia collages, site-specific installations, mixed-media paintings and public sculptures, reimagines waste as valuable material, revealing the aesthetic and conceptual beauty of discarded items and challenging the notion of their worthlessness.
“I create poetic representations of pressing issues like migration, childcare, gender, social and environmental justice by repurposing everyday objects, such as fabric scraps, metro cards, jewelry, cutlery, paper and photographs etc. Through this process, I promote recycling as a response to climate change,” Mohammed said in an artist statement.
According to Mohammed, his creative process is deeply rooted in history, as he reinterprets objects and stories to evoke nostalgia for place, time and utopian cultures, while acknowledging the complexities of African and African American experiences.
He said he is driven by a passion for exploring issues that impact his community and humanity, and his work focuses on the concept of “excess” in production and consumption, offering a solution through materials reuse and up-cycling.
Mohammed has showcased his work on both national and international stages, gracing prestigious venues like the National Museum of Ghana; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Materials for the Arts, Long Island City, New York; Art League, Houston, Texas; Green Drake Art Gallery, Millheim, Pennsylvania; Gallery 1202, Gilroy, California; and Ravel d’ Art in Côte d’Ivoire.
The lecture is the final in the Anderson Lecture Series’ fall 2026 programming. The series will resume with its spring programming in March 2027.