Dr. Christianna Bonin, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

“The Loudest Void: Landscapes at Karlag" 

We welcome Art Historian Christiana Bonin for a presentation and discussion of a work-in-progress from her current book project. Using landscape drawings made by artists who were political prisoners at Kazakhstan’s Karlag Gulag Camp in the 1940s–50s, Bonin considers how to theorize landscape from the perspective of the unfree. Bonin’s larger research revolves around art's relationship to empire and land, particularly in the Soviet and post-Soviet contexts, with a focus on interactions between Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Before landing in Tennessee this year, Prof. Bonin was on faculty at the American University of Sharjah and curator of Art Dubai Modern 2024. She was also founding curator of Lkham Gallery, the first international contemporary art gallery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2022–2024 and is co-founder of the Working Group on Contemporary Art in Central Asia. 

We hope you can join us to welcome Dr. Bonin to the Southeast and to the extended Modsquad!