Curator Chat

John P. Lukavic
Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts

Denver Art Museum
Denver, CO, (720) 865-5000
www.denverartmuseum.org

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
Honestly, after a year of no travel, quarantine and social distancing, I look forward to seeing anything in person. That said, I really do look forward to seeing the new First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. Heather Ahtone has shared a few sneak peeks of the design and plans, and it looks exciting.

What are you reading?
The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks (Pluto Press).

Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
We had the honor to host the exhibition Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection at the Denver Art Museum this past fall and winter, and it was amazing. While people came for Frida and Diego, the work of the many other Mexican modernists blew me away. Check out the work of Leonora Carrington, Gunther Gerzso and Rufino Tamayo!

What are you researching at the moment?
The Native Arts team at the Denver Art Museum is deep in the planning stage for the reinstallation of our permanent galleries of Indigenous arts of North America, so my current research is literally all over the place. Our 20,000 square feet of galleries will include over 500 works from across Turtle Island, including historical and contemporary works in every imaginable media.

What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
While technology has helped to make the world feel smaller and we have more access to information than at any point in the past, there remains a barrier to the flow of information about First Nations artists in the United States, as well as for U.S.-based Indigenous artists in Canada. In recent years that barrier has lessened, such as the inclusion of First Nations artists in the Hearts of Our People exhibition and Rebecca Belmore’s recent exhibition that traveled to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, but more exhibitions are needed to bridge this perplexing divide. Some colleagues in Canada have never heard of Fritz Scholder or T.C. Cannon, and few in the U.S. know the work of Alex Janvier or Daphne Odjig. This needs to change.