Roshii Montaño
Assistant Registrar
Heard Museum Phoenix, AZ, (602) 252-8840, www.heard.org
What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
I’m excited for the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson’s site-specific exhibition Cecilia Vicuña: Sonoran Quipu opening in January 2023. Cecilia Vicuña invited members from the Tucson community to collect plant material for the installation and provided tips for responsible collecting in the process. I look forward to visiting one of her incredible installations in person.
What are you reading?
I’m currently reading Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism by Lauren Fournier. I’ve been inspired by thinkers like bell hooks and Maggie Nelson to utilize theory and research with personal narrative. As a Navajo woman in academic spaces,
I inherently engage in “autotheory” within my practice.
Visitors view objects on display at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
I think one of the best resources for finding new work and checking out what artists are working on is social media. I’ve recently come across the work of Tlingit artist Rachel Martin, and I’m always excited to see her in-process drawings and recent projects.
What are you researching at the moment?
The Heard Museum is scheduled to open an exhibition in 2024 featuring works by San Ildefonso artist Maria Martinez. I’ve currently been thinking about sites of Indigenous modernism across the Southwest that existed outside of American modernism. I’ve also been considering how her image has been reproduced. Barbara Babcock published an essay that discusses Martinez in the “age of mechanical reproduction” and poses important arguments that I’ve been considering during the development of this exhibition.
What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
I would love to curate an exhibition exploring Indigenous queer subjectivities. I think it would be really beautiful to see a variety of mediums and presentations of Indigenous queerness together in a space. Themes of healing and resurgence would be highlighted in my dream exhibition.
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