Lowrider and skateboard culture in Denver and the American southwest is coming to the Denver Art Museum in July.
The “Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion” exhibition will focus on the diverse ways that artists who identify as Indigenous and Latino express identity pride and community by transforming vehicles associated with the American West, the museum said in a release announcing the exhibit. On Sunday July 9, the Denver Art Museum will launch the exhibit by offering an all-day free admission event.
On the July 9 free admission event, the Denver Art Museum will also host “Lowrider Show and Shine,” a family-friendly event that will feature lowriders, local vendors, food, music and more. Tickets can be reserved in advance at www.denverartmuseum.org/en/calendar/community–free-day-july-2023 or at the front desk upon entry.
The “Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion” exhibit was originally organized by the Phoenix Art Museum and created and curated by Gilbert Vicario — the former curator of contemporary art at the Phoenix Art Museum. The exhibit at the Denver Art Museum was curated by Victoria I. Lyall and Jan and Frederick Mayer Curator of Arts of the Ancient Americas. For the Denver exhibit, art from Colorado artists representing their communities in Colorado and the American Southwest was added to “Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion.”
“We are grateful for this fruitful collaboration with our colleagues at Phoenix Art Museum, highlighting the inventive and energetic Southwest. We hope visitors will feel joy and inspiration as they experience this powerful presentation, which has been expanded to engage Colorado artists and showcase their work,” said Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum Christoph Heinrich.
The exhibit features large-scale installations, prints, and sculptures from artists like Margarita Cabrera, Nanibah Chacon, Liz Cohen, and many others. Colorado artists like Juan Fuentes, Tony Ortega, Carlos Santistevan, Daniel Salazar, and Carlos Frésquez are also featured artists.
The “Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion” exhibit starts by centering the lowrider section on Denver artists, according to the museum. One of the pieces in the exhibit includes a commission by photographer Juan Fuentes that celebrates Denver’s history of cruising. Other pieces include a large-scale car sculpture, created by Justin Favela, that celebrates its owner’s identity as queer Chicanx artists. The sculpture is made of materials associated with a piñata and celebrates queer icons while honoring victims from the recent shooting at Colorado Springs’ Club Q.
Outside of the installations, the museum will offer hands-on activities to all ages including “skating” with miniature finger skateboards in a scaled-down skatepark. Visitors will also have the opportunity to create miniature paper lowriders that can be posed and “driven” around a model of significant lowrider spots in Denver.
The “Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion” exhibit will be available from July 9 to Sept. 24 in the Hamilton Building’s Anschutz Gallery.
“The themes and ideas explored in Desert Rider are universal, but uniquely presented through the viewpoints and experiences of Latinx and Indigenous artists, communities deeply connected to and impacted by the region’s complicated past and their experiences,” said Victoria I.
