MIRANDA LASH
ALONG WITH ARTIST Ebony G. Patterson, Miranda Lash is co-artistic director of the Prospect.6 triennial, which opens in New Orleans on November 2 and will be on view through February 2 next year. Lash is also the Ellen Bruss Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, where her recent exhibitions have included the survey “Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe.” Previously, Lash was the founding curator of modern and contemporary art at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
—the Editors
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE CURATING?
I define curating as “telling a story (with care) through artworks.” To me, showing care is the richest and most complex part of the job. I was taught how to care for objects and perceive their stories through extended looking sessions and deep research. Over the years, I’ve translated this idea of care into creating a conducive environment for the birthing of new artworks. Working on Prospect, where the constellation of venues is reconceptualized and renegotiated with each cycle, my co-artistic director Ebony and I talked extensively about stretching ourselves to care for not only our artists and our staff but also these places, which means being mindful of the communities’ histories, hopes, and needs. It requires meeting situations and people on their own terms and listening for nuances.
WHAT WAS THE LAST SHOW YOU TRAVELED TO SEE?
I love traveling within Colorado to see what is happening at our neighboring institutions. “Hương Ngô: Ungrafting” at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center of Colorado College, curated by Katja Rivera, was a skillful example of an artist responding to place while integrating the issues motivating her practice—in this case, histories of resistance to French colonial rule in Vietnam. I loved the grand moments (a wall painted with red Colorado clay) and Ngô’s intimate gestures with living plants.
WHAT UPCOMING EXHIBITION (BESIDES YOURS) ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
I am looking forward to seeing what Raphael Fonseca and his team will do with the Fourteenth Bienal do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, Brazil (rescheduled for March 2025). I love Raphael’s expansive eye for innovative work happening across South America and Asia. Russell Lord is organizing a much-needed in-depth retrospective on the great New Orleans–based artist Willie Birch, which will debut in 2026 at the California African American Museum. Andrea Alvarez is organizing an ambitious survey of contemporary Latinx painting at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum scheduled for 2026. I’m looking forward to her take on what is happening in the field.
WHAT IS ONE SHOW THAT HAD A BIG INFLUENCE ON YOU?
The retrospective “Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010”at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2014. Witnessing the diversity of Polke’s artistic practice over five decades blew apart for me the notion that an artist must adhere to a recognizable style or approach. The art market rewards consistency, but the best artists are always pushing themselves to evolve. The Polke show reinforced for me the importance of looking for the throughlines in artists’ motivations over time, even if they manifest in diverging ways aesthetically.
WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF CRITICISM YOU’VE READ RECENTLY?
I’ve long admired the work of Jongwoo Jeremy Kim and recommend his latest book, Male Bodies Unmade (Unviersity of California Press, 2023). Kim puts forward a radical and fresh take on the work of Francis Bacon, Aubrey Beardsley, Robert Gober, and David Hockney, among others, at the same time being fully transparent about his own “outsider-insider” perspective as a queer, immigrant, “polyglot queen.” His approach, which deftly leverages the benefit of temporal and biographical distance from his subjects, gives me hope that the best criticism about twentieth-century art is yet to come.
IS THERE A PARTICULAR IDEA THAT IS INSPIRING YOUR WORK NOW?
A recurring theme in the Prospect.6 triennial is the question of how we maintain intimacy during times of distance. We often crave a sense of connection and rootedness to people or places. How do we accomplish this at a time when an increasing percentage of our lives are lived virtually, and when more and more of us globally are moving to different cities and countries in search of opportunity, safety, or survival?
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONVERSATION HAPPENING NOW WITHIN THE CURATORIAL FIELD OR IN THE ARTS MORE BROADLY?
Diminished and uncertain funding is having a chilling effect on the range of ideas curators can put forward. Museums tend to be averse to controversy, but I am now seeing an enhanced level of terror over inciting a social media backlash or displeasing donors. If we believe in supporting artists, we must accept that they may promote ideas we disagree with. Donors withdrawing support over ideas is terrible for the long-term vibrancy of the field, as is the speed of online vitriol. We need to reward risk-taking and standing by artistic freedom.
WHAT DO YOU WISH PEOPLE BETTER UNDERSTOOD ABOUT CURATING?
I suspect people think the artist selection process is largely grounded either in simply “liking” something or capitulating to the tastes of a moneyed stakeholder. It’s true that I love my artists’ work, but if I’m doing my job well, I’m surfacing an inflection point in an artist’s career, or a moment of experimentation that manifests in a way I have not seen elsewhere. Once the selection happens, effective curating involves building trust with the artist, so that you are aligned when it is necessary to make difficult decisions. Selection is just the beginning. It’s editing that makes a show sing.
WHAT PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO AN ASPIRING CURATOR?
In many ways, maintaining a fulfilling curatorial practice over time is a game of stamina. Because our work often involves periods of high intensity, we tend to bear down from sprint to sprint. But I encourage you to think of curating as an extended marathon, with replenishing rewards from maintaining relationships over time, and seeing others grow as you yourself are growing.
I was on a call recently with all the past artistic directors for Prospect, and we discussed how to survive curating a triennial. Over a laugh we agreed that the best and simplest advice came from Franklin Sirmans: Hydrate. Remember to have fun.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING A CURATOR CAN DO FOR AN ARTIST?
My goal as a curator is to create a context that results in an artist feeling respected, inspired, and, whenever possible, transformed by the experience of working together. This is accomplished through advocacy during two key phases. First, it is important that curators take an active role in shepherding the artists’ interface with an institution, organization, or community. Over the long term, our advocacy manifests through producing meaningful scholarship. This is where curators flex as art historians, and where our proximity to artists’ practices can produce lasting fruit in the larger discourse.
