Ralph Lemon - photo by Tara Fallaux

Lecture at Nasher Museum: November 4

Duke Performances: November 5 and 6

Ralph Lemon was born in Cincinnati in 1952, raised in Minneapolis, and currently lives and works in New York. He earned his B.A. in English literature and theatre arts from the University of Minnesota in 1975. Lemon received two New York Dance and Performance Awards ("Bessies") in 2005 and 1987, and the National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship in 1995, 1992, and 1986.

Lemon's collaborative choreography projects develop organically over a period of years, with frequent public sharings of the work-in-progress; the culminating artworks derive from the artistic, cultural, historic, and emotional material uncovered in the creative research process. Since 2004 Lemon has been engaged in The Walter Project, a series of works in various art forms developed in collaboration with Walter Carter, a 103-year-old African American who has lived his entire life in Bentonia, Mississippi. Their collaboration was the basis for the mixed-media installation, (the efflorescence of) Walter.

Lemon's solo exhibitions include (the efflorescence of) Walter, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans (2008), The Kitchen, New York (2007), and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2006); The Geography Trilogy, Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. (2001); Temples, Margaret Bodell Gallery, New York (2000); and Geography, Art Awareness, Lexington, New York (1997).

Photo of Ralph Lemon by Tara Fallaux