Artist Talk: Gary Red Oak O’Neil with J. Kēhaulani Kauanui

Friday, October 24, 2025 at 4:30pm
Ring Family Performing Arts Hall

Free and open to the public.

Artist Gary Red Oak O’Neil will discuss his exhibition Excavations with curator J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, reflecting on his practice in relation to the history of the Wangunk (the Indigenous people of central Connecticut) and the power of art in cultivating belonging.

Prior to the talk, there will be a screening of the senior thesis short film Piece by Piece by Eiley Doyle ’25, a work centered on O’Neil.

A reception will follow in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery’s South Gallery Reading Room.

This event is part of Wesleyan University’s Homecoming + Family Weekend.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition, a Wangunk History Symposium, “Emerging from Erasure: Indigenous and Settler Colonial Histories of the Wangunk People,” will take place on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, 2025. Please contact Wesleyan’s Center for the Humanities for more information.