Gediminas Gasparavicius

Title: Associate Professor
Dept/Program: Art History
Office: Folk Hall 173
Phone: 330-972-5963
Email: ggasparavicius@uakron.edu

Biography

Dr. Gasparavičius began working at the Myers School of Art in Fall 2012.  He holds the rank of tenure-track assistant professor.  Before his appointment at Myers, he was visiting assistant professor at College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA).

Dr. Gasparavičius specializes in late modern and contemporary art.  His research focuses on collective and participatory art in Eastern Europe in late socialism and early postsocialism.  His doctoral dissertation examined the work of the Slovenian multidisciplinary collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (or NSK), which in 1992 established NSK State in Time.  NSK State is a conceptual entity that issues passports, opens “embassies,” and subversively mimics other functions of the state.  Together with his colleagues from NSK-NY Organizing Committee, he co-organized and presented at IRWIN-NSK Passport Office – New York (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2012).  He curated the exhibitions IRWIN: NSK State in Time (Fall 2014) and Conor McGrady: Fragments from an Enclosure (Fall 2015) at Emily Davis Gallery at Myers School of Art.

In Fall 2013 he published the article "How the East Saw the East in 1992: NSK Embassy Moscow and Relationality in Eastern Europe" in the peer-reviewed journal Public Art Dialogue. His article "Promises and Premises of Art as a State: NSK Embassy Moscow and its Contexts" appeared in NSK From Kapital to Capital: An Event of the Final Decade of Yugoslavia (MIT Press and Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, 2015). His research and publications on Eastern European art collectives in early postsocialism will became the basis of his book project.

Dr. Gasparavičius earned his Ph.D. in Art History and Criticism at State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2011.  He received an M.A. in Art History from Ohio State University in 1999, a Master-Studies Diploma with Distinction in History and Philosophy of Art from Central European University (Prague, Czech Republic) in 1995, and a B.A. in Art History from Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania) in 1994.

Education

Ph.D. – State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2011
M.A. – Ohio State University, 1999
Master-Studies Diploma with Distinction – Central European University, Prague, Czech Republic, 1995
B.A. – Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1994