Meet the Curators of Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder…

Meet Henry curator Nina Bozicnik and independent curator Risa Puleo for a tour of Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, A spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder…. In this exhibition, de Nieves presents an interplay of colored light and poetic prompts to guide visitors on a journey of continual transformation.

Using the everyday materials of acetate and tape, the Brooklyn-based artist has custom-fit his signature “stained glass” to the three immense skylights that span the museum’s largest gallery. The window panels transmute the transitional natural light, creating an ever-changing atmosphere inside the gallery, while illuminating a narrative of perpetual becoming told through images of colossal archetypes. During the tour, exhibition co-curators Bozicnik and Puleo will expand on de Nieves’s use of symbolism and personal mythology and recurring themes of self-actualization and rebirth across his work. They will share insights into the making of the exhibition and the ideas behind the artworks on view, with time for questions and conversation.

Nina Bozicnik is a curator at the Henry Art Gallery. She has organized multiple solo and group exhibitions, including most recently Thick as Mud (2023), ektor garcia: matéria prima (2022); Packaged Black: Derrick Adams and Barbara Earl Thomas (2021/22); Elaine Cameron Weir: STAR CLUB REDEMPTION BOOTH (2021); and Will Rawls: Everlasting Stranger (2021), realized in collaboration with Velocity Dance Center. Bozicnik’s curatorial work takes multiple forms and has recently included the multi-disciplinary colloquium Bugs & Beasts Before the Law, organized on the occasion of the artist duo Bambitchell’s exhibition of the same name; and programming in conjunction with the pilot year of the Henry’s artist fellowship program, designed to facilitate dynamic exchange between visiting artists and the University of Washington community. Recent publications include ektor garcia: matéria prima, Bugs & Beasts Before the Law, Appendix A-L, and Carrie Yamaoka: recto/verso.

Risa Puleo is an independent curator based in Chicago. A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder… is her second exhibition with de Nieves, and follows Raúl de Nieves: Eternal Return and the Obsidian Heart at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami in 2021. Puleo is one of a team of curators who has organized the 2023 Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis. Puleo’s other exhibitions include Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the American Justice System, which originated at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston in 2018 and traveled to Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA in 2020; and Monarchs: Brown and Native Artists in the Path of the Butterfly, which originated at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE in 2017/18 and traveled nationally. Additional venues that have hosted Puleo’s exhibitions include ArtPace, San Antonio; the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, New York City; Franklin Street Works, Stamford; Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City; and more. Puleo has written for Art in America, Art Papers, Art 21, Asia Art Pacific, Hyperallergic, Modern Painters, and other art publications.