KaleidoLA Guest Art Speaker Series: Dr. Bryan Keene

Friday, March 28^th, 2025; 12:15pm-1:15pm PST

Burns 211

Free to all

“Spiritual and Sensual Connections with Christ's Body in a Painting from Renaissance Venice”

Michele Giambono’s 1430 panel of the Man of Sorrows intertwines themes of suffering, sensuality, and spiritual meditation through Christ’s bloodied body and its parallels with Saint Francis. Their shared stigmata invite viewers to engage physically and emotionally with divine compassion. This talk will examine multisensorial responses to the panel and the themes of pain, redemption, and the complexities of gender, sexuality, and desire in sacred imagery.

About the Speaker

Dr. Bryan C. Keene is professor of art history, museums studies, and theatre at Riverside City College. He is also an award-winning curator who developed fifteen exhibitions at the Getty Museum from 2010-2020 and has published widely. His publications include the edited volume Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World through Illuminated Manuscripts (2019), New Horizons in Italian Trecento Art (2021, edited with Karl Whittington), the textbook Connecting the Medieval World, 500-1500: Comparisons, Contrasts, and New Approaches (2021 with Kimberly Klimek, Pamela Troyer, and Sarah Davis-Secord), The Fantasy of the Middle Ages: An Epic Journey through Imaginary Medieval Worlds (2022 with Larisa Grollemond), and Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art (2023 with eleven contributors). His current project foregrounds queer and trans contemporary artists who have drawn inspiration from medieval and Renaissance art. He holds a PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art with a dissertation on Italian choir book illumination in the early 1300s Florence. 

About KaleidoLA

KaleidoLA is the Department of Art and Art History’s annual guest speaker series. For the past twelve years, KaleidoLA has been a vital connection between Loyola Marymount University and the Los Angeles arts community. For more information about the event, contact Dr. Melody Rod-ari, Associate Professor and Chair of Art History, arthistorychair@lmu.edu.