Lectures and Talks

Join Jill D’Alessandro, Director and Curator of the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts and Fashion, for a behind-the-scenes look at Conversation Pieces: Stories from the Fashion Archives.  Showcasing nearly 70 designs, the exhibition explores DAM’s permanent fashion collection, pairing the historic with the avant-garde to create surprising juxtapositions.  In this talk, D’Alessandro will share a few of the stories behind these garments and how they entered the museum’s holdings.

Andrea Carlson imagines in-between spaces of dislocation and belonging, destruction and reclamation, domination and liberation. Carlson (Grand Portage Ojibwe and European settler descent) considers how the land is an embodiment of a people’s histories and memories, creating intense and deeply introspective landscapes comprising prismatic layers of color, text, flora, fauna, and cultural objects.

As an Indigenous futurist, Carlson contemplates “deep time” and cycles of the natural world, using multiple sheets of paper to suggest the movement of objects, landforms, and other characters. Her dynamic compositions reference issues of ecology, challenge colonial narratives in the US, and envision a future of long-lasting Native resilience, knowledge, and survival.

Born in 1979, Carlson earned her BA in 2003 from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and MFA in 2005 from Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Her honors include fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and United States Artists Fellowship and awards from Artadia and Creative Capital. Carlson has had solo exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Her work is included in permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum; Milwaukee Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Carlson is the co-founder of the Center for Native Futures, an art space dedicated to the work of Native artists in Chicago, and lives and works in Minnesota.

Carlson joins Rory Padeken, Vicki and Kent Logan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, in a conversation about her process, inspiration, and influences.

Didier William uses vivid colors and bold patterns to evoke memories of growing up in Miami as an immigrant from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Inspired by Haitian history, language, and mythology, and personal experience, William unpacks the legacies of colonialism, social resistance, and the struggle for political agency. Incorporating traditions from painting, collage, wood carving, and printmaking, he materially visualizes the intersections of identity and culture.

Powerful, faceless figures appear in William’s otherworldly, electrified landscapes. Their bodies, covered with carved eyes conscript the viewer into a flamboyant narrative made deliberately queer by refusing explicit sex and gender signifiers. “It’s a way for the figures in my paintings to return the curios gaze,” comments Williams. “Not just with their eyes, but with every square inch of their skin.”

Rendering his figures with larger-than-life anatomies, William transforms them into supernatural beings or what he calls “Titans.” His humanoid forms touch, wrestle, and embrace as they seek out tenderness, care, and belonging. They often appear to float or at least try to overcome the forces of gravity as they aim for higher realms.

With Pissarro's Impressionism as a springboard, the Perspectives on Pissarro program series offers a fresh take on the exhibition, the artist, and his world.

Join curators, art historians, and a horticulturalist as they share insights into Pissarro's work and the natural landscapes that inspired him. Register for individual sessions or enjoy a discount for the full series.

Please note that this link is for purchasing tickets to livestream recordings of the lecture series so that you can watch from home. To purchase in-person tickets, please click here.

With Pissarro's Impressionism as a springboard, the Perspectives on Pissarro program series offers a fresh take on the exhibition, the artist, and his world.

Join curators, art historians, and a horticulturalist as they share insights into Pissarro's work and the natural landscapes that inspired him. Register for individual sessions or enjoy a discount for the full series.