AppointmentApril 8, 2022
Denver Art Museum announces three curatorial appointments
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) announced three new curatorial appointments. Associate Curator JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman has been promoted to Curator of Western American Art and Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art (PIWAA). Rory Padeken will join the DAM as the Kent and Vicki Logan Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Raphael Fonseca has already assumed his role as Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art, a new placement created in 2021.
Since joining the DAM in 2016, Henneman has contributed to PIWAA's program, dedicated to presenting Western American art's complex and inherently diverse history. During the recent renovation of the DAM's Lanny and Sharon Martin Building, she played an integral role in the reinstallation of the Western American art galleries, helping to develop a presentation that addresses notions of American identity and incorporates narratives from diverse time periods, regions, and ethnic backgrounds.
Henneman graduated with a Ph.D. in 19th century British and American Art and Visual Culture from the University of Washington and an M.A. in Art History from Richmond, the American International University in London. During her Ph.D., she completed research fellowships at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the British Library in London. Her curatorial and collections experience includes positions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Morris Graves Foundation, the Henry Art Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Rory Padeken, Kent and Vicki Logan, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, will join the DAM in June 2022. He previously worked at the San Jose Museum of Art, where he currently serves as the curator. For more than a decade, he worked to develop interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs that foster creative and critical thinking. His curatorial work focuses on artist advocacy and critical examination of current social issues. Recent exhibitions and projects include an exploration of Vietnamese histories of war and migration through Dinh Q. Lê's; a workshop on racial justice with artist Glenn Kaino; the exhibition Border Cantos: Richard Misrach | Guillermo Galindo, which addressed the humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border; Break + Bleed, an exploration of post-pictorial abstraction; and the upcoming Brett Weston.
Padeken was selected in 2017 for the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 list and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones. She received her M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and her B.A. in Art History with a minor in Anthropology from the University of California.
Raphael Fonseca, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art, a newly created curatorial position that supports the research, exhibition, and collection of modern and contemporary Latin American art at the DAM through a contract with John Fox and the Fox Family Foundation.
Fonseca will collaborate with Jorge Rivas Pérez, Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Latin American Art, and the DAM's department of modern and contemporary art to present new scholarship and further develop one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Latin American art in the U.S. He was part of the curatorial team for the reinstallation of the Latin American Art galleries introduced in October 2021 with the opening of the DAM's Lanny and Sharon Martin Building.
"The DAM is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of Latin American art in the U.S., and I look forward to using my position to highlight the region's modern and contemporary artistic creativity and achievements," said Fonseca.
Fonseca arrived at the DAM from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he most recently served as curator at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC Niterói) and was a professor of Visual Arts at Colégio Pedro II. Throughout his extensive curatorial career, he has continuously emphasized revealing new creative histories of Latin American artists.
Raphael Fonseca recently curated the exhibitions Sweat at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany (2021, with Anna Schneider), and To-and-fro at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil (2019). He received the Marcoantonio Vilaça curatorial award (2015) and has contributed writing for publications such as ArtNexus, Terremoto, and ArtReview. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Criticism from the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
Since joining the DAM in 2016, Henneman has contributed to PIWAA's program, dedicated to presenting Western American art's complex and inherently diverse history. During the recent renovation of the DAM's Lanny and Sharon Martin Building, she played an integral role in the reinstallation of the Western American art galleries, helping to develop a presentation that addresses notions of American identity and incorporates narratives from diverse time periods, regions, and ethnic backgrounds.
Henneman graduated with a Ph.D. in 19th century British and American Art and Visual Culture from the University of Washington and an M.A. in Art History from Richmond, the American International University in London. During her Ph.D., she completed research fellowships at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the British Library in London. Her curatorial and collections experience includes positions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Morris Graves Foundation, the Henry Art Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Rory Padeken, Kent and Vicki Logan, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, will join the DAM in June 2022. He previously worked at the San Jose Museum of Art, where he currently serves as the curator. For more than a decade, he worked to develop interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs that foster creative and critical thinking. His curatorial work focuses on artist advocacy and critical examination of current social issues. Recent exhibitions and projects include an exploration of Vietnamese histories of war and migration through Dinh Q. Lê's; a workshop on racial justice with artist Glenn Kaino; the exhibition Border Cantos: Richard Misrach | Guillermo Galindo, which addressed the humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border; Break + Bleed, an exploration of post-pictorial abstraction; and the upcoming Brett Weston.
Padeken was selected in 2017 for the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 list and is a member of the Association of Art Museum Curators and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones. She received her M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and her B.A. in Art History with a minor in Anthropology from the University of California.
Raphael Fonseca, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art, a newly created curatorial position that supports the research, exhibition, and collection of modern and contemporary Latin American art at the DAM through a contract with John Fox and the Fox Family Foundation.
Fonseca will collaborate with Jorge Rivas Pérez, Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of Latin American Art, and the DAM's department of modern and contemporary art to present new scholarship and further develop one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Latin American art in the U.S. He was part of the curatorial team for the reinstallation of the Latin American Art galleries introduced in October 2021 with the opening of the DAM's Lanny and Sharon Martin Building.
"The DAM is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of Latin American art in the U.S., and I look forward to using my position to highlight the region's modern and contemporary artistic creativity and achievements," said Fonseca.
Fonseca arrived at the DAM from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he most recently served as curator at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC Niterói) and was a professor of Visual Arts at Colégio Pedro II. Throughout his extensive curatorial career, he has continuously emphasized revealing new creative histories of Latin American artists.
Raphael Fonseca recently curated the exhibitions Sweat at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany (2021, with Anna Schneider), and To-and-fro at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil (2019). He received the Marcoantonio Vilaça curatorial award (2015) and has contributed writing for publications such as ArtNexus, Terremoto, and ArtReview. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Criticism from the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
