CRITICAL COMMONS: THE STATE OF ART CRITICISM IN THE SOUTHWEST

Southwest Contemporary magazine and RedLine Contemporary Art Center join forces to present a lively panel discussion and open Q+A exploring the current state of art criticism and art writing in Colorado and the greater Southwest region.

We’ll discuss the role criticism plays within the arts ecosystem, what is at stake within the region, and the challenges and opportunities for arts writing to advance the arts in the future.

The discussion will be moderated by Natalie Hegert, arts editor at Southwest Contemporary, and the panelists include writer and art critic Kealey Boyd, Southwest Contemporary publisher and editor Lauren Tresp, artist and organizer Derrick Velasquez, and artist, writer, and researcher Denise "The Vamp DeVille" Zubizarreta.

Following the panel and Q+A, join us for a casual reception to continue the conversation over drinks and snacks!

Critical Commons is free with registration.

doors open at 6 pm | program begins at 6:30 pm

 Meet the Speakers 

Kealey Boyd is a writer and art critic. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic, and her writing is featured in Art Papers, The Belladonna Comedy, College Art Association, Artillery magazine, and several art catalogues and books. Boyd is the art consultant to the national literary journal Copper Nickel, a lecturer in journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder, and previously in art history and theory at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. She co-edited the book Broken Time Machines (Minerva Press, 2020) and is currently editing a book on the history of Denver's Redline Contemporary Art Center. She serves on the board of directors of Redline Contemporary and is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art. @kealeyboyd | kealeyboyd.com.

Natalie Hegert is a writer, curator, and arts editor at Southwest Contemporary. She is currently based in Lubbock, Texas, where she is a member of the artist-run exhibition space CO-OPt Research + Projects. Her writing has appeared in Southwest Contemporary, Glasstire, Elephant, Artsy, ArtSlant, THE SEEN, Huffington Post, Mutual Art, and ArtCritical, and she has written essays, reviews and op-eds for Number, Papersafe Magazine, Dazed, Brooklyn Rail, Rhizomes, Photography and Culture, various exhibition catalogues, artist books, and other publications. She holds an MA in art history and theory from Hunter College, New York.

Lauren Tresp is the publisher and editor of Southwest Contemporary, an independent contemporary art publication dedicated to the American Southwest she has helmed since 2016. She is passionate about fostering empathy and critical thinking through arts journalism and cultural criticism, connecting national and international audiences to contemporary art of the Southwest, and creating opportunities and resources that advance creative work. Lauren also offers consulting services to artists and arts organizations, and has prior experience in arts administration. She has a master of arts in humanities from the University of Chicago, where she studied Medieval and Renaissance art history, and a bachelor of arts in art history and history from UCLA. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Derrick Velasquez is an artist and exhibition organizer who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. He was a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors and a 2019 MacDowell Fellow. Derrick has served on the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs and the boards of Denver nonprofits Tilt West, Union Hall, and Minerva Projects. His most recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Herron School of Art and Design, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Robischon Gallery (Denver), Pentimenti (Philadelphia), Carvalho Park (Brooklyn), Galerie Robertson Ares (Montreal), and The Black Cube Nomadic Museum. Derrick also runs Yes Ma’am Projects, an artist-run gallery in the basement of his Athmar Park home, and Friend of a Friend, a new project space in the Evans School, a mostly vacant schoolhouse in downtown Denver. He has organized exhibitions at the MCA in Denver, Trestle Gallery in New York, and has an upcoming curatorial project at Galerie Robertson Arés in Montreal and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in 2024.

Denise "The Vamp DeVille" Zubizarreta is a Puerto Rican and Cuban American mixed-media interdisciplinary artist, writer, and independent researcher. She was raised between Union City, New Jersey, and Hialeah, Florida, and currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Zubizarreta explores post-colonial theory through mixed-media artworks and installations by investigating the 20th-century cultural effects of colonialism within Latiné communities. @thevampdeville | thevampdeville.com.

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