Local Lens Speakers Series: Taking Creative Risks with Zola Lamothe

Zola Lamothe speaks at Aurora PhotoCenter on Tuesday, October 20, from 7 PM to 9 PM. It's part of the Local Lens Speakers Series, which brings Indiana-based visual artists into the center's Main Gallery for a slide-based presentation followed by a Q&A. Lamothe will talk about her series Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy and her work with large format film photography.

Lamothe works at the intersection of art and activism, using set photography to resurrect shared history and educate communities. She describes her practice through the Ghanaian principle of Sankofa, which calls for retrieving what has been forgotten to inform the future. One of her projects, Underst(h)ood, places a figure in a KKK mask at institutions that have been sites of white-supremacist oppression. She's been called out for taking significant personal, financial, and political risk by critiquing the civic institutions on which artists often depend.

That risk has been recognized. Lamothe was a 2025 recipient of the Creative Risk Fund from the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and a 2023 recipient of the Power Plant Grant, run by Big Car Collaborative and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation. Unveiling a Forgotten Legacy has been shown at 1000 Words Gallery, the Madam Walker Legacy Center, and Aurora PhotoCenter, and was the subject of a self-published book in 2025.

Since the talk is part of the Local Lens series, you'll see the work on screen first and then get a chance to ask questions. It runs from 7 PM to 9 PM on Tuesday, October 20, at the Aurora PhotoCenter Main Gallery in Indianapolis.