ZEB: Ukhamba, Miami, FL. Credit: Photo by Zachary Balber. © Museum of Art and Design at MDC.
Germane Barnes: Laskey Charrette Kickoff Lecture
Germane Barnes will deliver the Laskey Charrette Kickoff Lecture as part of the Sam Fox School’s Public Lecture Series at WashU.
About Germane Barnes
Germane Barnes is a Chicago-born, Miami-based licensed architect, designer, and founding principal of Studio Barnes, a research-driven design practice that interrogates the intersections of architecture and identity. Barnes serves as an associate professor and director of the Master of Architecture graduate programs at the University of Miami School of Architecture, where he mentors emerging designers and fosters critical discourse around architecture’s cultural and societal impact.
Barnes’ projects have been exhibited at leading institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art’s “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America,” and the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. His work frequently addresses themes of diaspora, Black identity, and historical memory, translating these concerns into compelling architectural experiences that challenge conventional narratives of space and design. Barnes has received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships such as the Architectural League Prize, he was a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and he was selected for the inaugural cohort of The Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab.
Studio Barnes’ work has been widely published and acquired by major institutions, signaling both critical acclaim and cultural significance. Notably, projects by Barnes have entered the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. His architectural interventions and conceptual projects have been featured in The New York Times, Architectural Record, Domus, and other influential publications, with coverage highlighting both the conceptual rigor and social relevance of his work. One of his most widely recognized projects, “Griot,” was presented as part of the 2023 Venice Biennale’s “Laboratory of the Future,” earning international attention for its innovative integration of narrative, history, and community in architectural form.
Through his dual role as educator and practitioner, Barnes continues to push the boundaries of contemporary architecture, blending research, design, and cultural critique. Studio Barnes stands as a testament to his commitment to exploring architecture’s potential to foster inclusivity, address historical inequities, and imagine new spatial futures. With a career distinguished by prizes, fellowships, and institutional recognition, Barnes remains a leading voice in architecture today, advancing conversations at the nexus of design, identity, and social impact.
More Upcoming Lectures
Nov 11 at 5:30pm • Kemper Art Museum
Roots and Rhizomes: Relational Networks in the Art of Carolina Caycedo
In 2022, Carolina Caycedo stewarded the planting of an indigenous shadbush tree in a community garden in New York City’s East Harlem (El Barrio). This living organism, whose metaphorical seeds grew from Caycedo’s ongoing “Genealogy of Struggle” series, inspires Susanna V. Temkin’s exploration of the artist’s work within larger relational networks. Expanding ecological and symbolic concepts associated with roots, seeds, and branches, Temkin considers connections within Caycedo’s practice and across broader art histories of the Americas. In particular, Temkin will address connections to other artists in Caycedo’s work, along with broader histories of protest, ecofeminism, solidarity, and resistance.
This talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Carolina Caycedo: Growing Deep Roots”, as well as the forthcoming presentation of Confluencias at El Museo del Barrio, New York (originated at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo).
About the Speaker
Susanna V. Temkin is an art historian and the interim chief curator at El Museo del Barrio, where she has worked since 2018. Temkin earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where her research focused on modern art in the Americas, with a concentration on Cuba. At El Museo, her curatorial credits include the museum’s fiftieth anniversary exhibition, "Culture and the People" (2019), “La Trienal” (2020, 2024, and forthcoming 2027 edition), and the recent monograph of photographer Sophie Rivera (2026), among others. Prior to El Museo, she served as assistant curator at Americas Society in New York, as well as the research and archive specialist at the Cecilia de Torres Ltd., where she assisted in co-authoring the digital catalogue raisonné of artist Joaquín Torres-García. Temkin contributed essays to several exhibition catalogues and publications and is currently serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture.