LaMar Gayles

LaMar Gayles (a native son of the South Side of Chicago) is an archaeologist, independent curator, material culture scholar, and technical art historian. He is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Preservation Studies and Art Conservation at the University of Delaware. Gayles completed a MA in Museum and Exhibition Studies from University of Illinois at Chicago’s MUSE program while holding two separate positions: Archive and Collections Manager at the South Side Community Art Center and Executive Director at the Union Street Gallery. Gayles earned a Cum Laude BA with a triple major (art history, archaeology, and ethnic studies) from St. Olaf College. He has researched and curated exhibitions on Black American jewelry and its historical progressions from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first century, including the 2021 exhibition Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry and Metals at the National Museum of Ornamental Metals. Additionally, he recently co-curated an exhibition titled Emergence: At the Center, which explores the intersections between Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center and the diverse Black queer communities in the city. Gayles’s research methodology combines archaeometry, arts-based research, conservation science, scientific instrumentation, art historical analysis, art-centered ethnography, historical reproduction, technical studies, and qualitative research to explore material and visual culture.