You may not know the artist, but you know the art: The Memorial Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin was a 21-year-old Yale undergrad when her design was selected for the memorial in 1981. In the decades since, the artist and architect has gone on to create other monumental works such as the 11-acre installation “Wave Field,” composed of grassy manmade hills that undulate like waves and, closer to home, The Confluence Project, “six public art installations at significant points along the Columbia River system,” for which Lin is working with regional tribes as well as Oregon and Washington civil groups. One of the Oregon installations, Sandy River Delta in Troutdale, is complete and a second, Celilo Park near The Dalles, is in progress.

Hear Lin give the 2014–15 O’Fallon Lecture in Art and American Culture about the project and her other ongoing work “What Is Missing?” — a multi-platform interactive piece about environmental threats — at 7:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 20, at the EMU Ballroom; free. 

Another renowned artist and Yale alum is coming to the UO campus Nov. 20 for a free talk — Rico Gatson, who specializes in sculpture, painting and video drawing inspiration from the history of racial injustice in the U.S. While The New York Times has called his work “didactic,” EW is going to have to disagree with The Grey Lady. Gatson’s portfolio is filled with bold graphic imagery continuing the much-needed visual dialogue that Black Panther Party Minister of Culture Emory Douglas started in the late ’60s. Gatson will speak 6 pm Thursday, Nov. 20, in Lawrence Hall, room 115.