despite // bất chấp: RTKL Lecture featuring Taylor Goad

The RTKL Award honors an IMDA MFA artist of creative and scholarly excellence who has demonstrated a promise to make an impact on the field. This year’s winner, Taylor Goad, presents a public lecture on April 15, 12-1pm, at CADVC.

The RTKL Award is made possible through the generosity of RTKL (Rogers Taliaferro, Kostritsky, & Lamb) Associates Incorporated. The goal of this merit-based award is to support an emerging artist of creative and scholarly excellence who has demonstrated a promise to make an impact on the field.

Taylor Goad is a multimedia artist, animator, and graphic designer whose work explores illness, care, and the experience of inhabiting a sick body. Their project My Doohd reflects on navigating cancer treatment while developing an identity as an artist in an MFA program. Through a guardian-like character called the “Doohd,” the work uses humor and colorful tufted rugs to communicate the vulnerability and absurdity of medical experiences. Drawing connections between commercial graphic design, craft traditions, and clinical or gallery spaces, Taylor’s work reflects on the lack of humanization in medical environments while inviting broader audiences to engage with experiences of illness and care.

This event is part of despite // bất chấp: The 2026 IMDA Thesis Exhibition, on view between April 1-April 18, 2026.