The Denver Art Museum (DAM) has announced "A Constant Sky," the first museum survey of artist Andrea Carlson. The exhibition, which marks the museum's centennial of collecting Indigenous arts, features Carlson's bold paintings that challenge colonial narratives and cultural consumption. The show is curated with input from Dakota Hoska, former Associate Curator of Native Arts at DAM, now at the National Gallery of Art, and John Lukavic, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts at DAM.
This survey matters because it positions an Indigenous artist's voice at the forefront of DAM's future programming, centering themes of reclamation and subverting Eurocentric standards. As DAM celebrates 100 years of collecting Indigenous arts, the exhibition signals a continued commitment to showcasing living Indigenous cultures and contemporary expressions, rather than treating them as historical artifacts.