Critical Dialogue
Collective Individuality: Culture as Celebration

Aug 4, 2026 7PM-8PM

Schermer Meeting Hall

This program takes place in Schermer Meeting Hall and includes a lecture and discussion. Free and open to the public, registration is required.

Join three Anderson Ranch faculty members for a lively conversation exploring how diverse cultural perspectives shape artistic practice and community. Artists Jean Shin (Seoul, South Korea), Juana Estrada Hernandez (Mexico), and Yana Payusova (Leningrad, USSR) bring their experiences as instructors in higher education in the US to a discussion centered on identity, materiality, heritage, and belonging.

Their work is rooted in community, collective identity, and culturally resonant materials, showing the connection between how their reflections on personal histories, social and ecological issues, and hands-on processes inform their practices. Together, they consider how these perspectives contribute to a more inclusive and dynamic environment for art-making and learning.

Panel:

Yana Payusova, born in Leningrad, USSR, holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her studio practice — grounded in painting, sculpture, and installation –examines the tension between interior life and collective identity, often through the lenses of power, gender, and cultural displacement. She has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. In 2023, she was commissioned to create an installation for the Real Unreal, Meow Wolf’s fourth permanent exhibition in Grapevine, Texas. She is currently Assistant Profesoor of Practice and FYE Program Chair at the University of Arizona School of Art.

Jean Shin is known for her public sculptures, transforming accumulations of discarded objects into powerful monuments that interrogate our complex relationship between material consumption, collective identity, and community engagement. Her work has been widely exhibited and collected in over 150 major museums and cultural institutions, including solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Juana Estrada Hernández uses her experiences growing up in the US to create work that addresses social and political problems surrounding her migrant communities. Her creative practice stems from her love of drawing, Mexican folklore, culture, and her family’s intergenerational migration stories. She is currently an assistant professor of Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. Estrada Hernández has exhibited her work across the United States, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland

Panel

Yana Payusova

Yana Payusova ,born in Leningrad, USSR, holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her studio practice — grounded in painting, sculpture, and installation –examines the tension between interior life and collective identity, often through the lenses of power, gender, and cultural displacement. She has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally, with recent shows at the Museu de Ceràmica de L’Alcora (Spain), Ceramic Avenue Art Gallery (Jingdezhen, China), Santa Joana Museum (Aveiro, Portugal), Conduit Gallery (Dallas, USA), New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum (Taiwan), and the 63rd Premio Faenza (Italy). Her work is held in the permanent collections of the DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA), Boston Public Library (Boston, MA), Museu de Ceràmica de L’Alcora (L’Alcora, Spain), and the Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA). Payusova has been an Artist-in Residence at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (Colorado). In 2023, she was commissioned to create an installation for the Real Unreal, Meow Wolf’s fourth permanent exhibition in Grapevine, Texas. She is currently Assistant Profesoor of Practice and FYE Program Chair at the University of Arizona School of Art.

Learn More

Jean Shin

Jean Shin is known for her public sculptures, transforming accumulations of discarded objects into powerful monuments that interrogate our complex relationship between material consumption, collective identity, and community engagement. Her work has been widely exhibited and collected in over 150 major museums and cultural institutions, including solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Learn More

Juana Estrada Hernández

Juana Estrada Hernández uses her experiences growing up in the US to create work that addresses social and political problems surrounding her migrant communities. Her creative practice stems from her love of drawing, Mexican folklore, culture, and her family’s intergenerational migration stories. She is currently an assistant professor of Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. Estrada Hernández has exhibited her work across the United States, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland.

Learn More