DENVER—August 10, 2023—The Denver Art Museum (DAM) today announced the appointment of Clarisse Fava-Piz as Assistant Curator of European and American Art before 1900. Fava-Piz took up her position on the museum staff in July 2023.
Prior to joining the DAM’s curatorial team, Fava-Piz was the Mellon Curatorial Postdoctoral Fellow of the Meadows Museum at Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. During her tenure at Meadows Museum, she curated the exhibition In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in partnership with the Fundación Juan March in Madrid, Spain. In addition to being the primary editor of the exhibition catalogue, she provided crucial programming support for the show, including developing a film series program with Dallas Films, initiating artists led gallery talks with the local arts incubator The Cedars Union and organizing a roundtable event with the Dallas – Fort Worth’s community on the topic of democratic promises in the arts.
Clarisse Fava-Piz. Photo by Eric Stephenson, DAM Photography.
"The Denver Art Museum is delighted to welcome Clarisse to its team of curatorial leaders," said Angelica Daneo, Chief Curator and curator of European Art before 1900 at the DAM. "Clarisse stood out among a group of competitive candidates for her strong knowledge of both European and American art, her collaborative approach and the engaging projects she plans to bring to our audiences."
In this new role at the museum, Fava-Piz will organize exhibitions, conduct research on the museum’s extensive European and American Art Before 1900 collection and collaborate with museum staff on installation and interpretation, as well as provenance research.
In addition to her curatorial background with both American and European art, Fava-Piz brings experience in engaging with the community, teaching in classrooms and museum galleries, and performing editorial work. Prior to her work at Meadows Museum, Fava-Piz designed a prospectus for the reinstallation of the nineteenth-century art galleries of The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum while serving as a curatorial fellow. Additionally, as a graduate intern at the Getty Research Institute, she worked extensively on expanding the provenance records of the Knoedler Gallery archives and the eighteenth-century French sales catalogues for the Getty Provenance Index.
Fava-Piz holds a doctorate in the History of Art and Architecture department from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a Master of Arts in Art History from the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre-La Défense in Paris, France. Her undergraduate work includes a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Université Sorbonne-Paris IV. Fava-Piz is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Fava-Piz's further museum and teaching experience includes interning at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art and the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and lecturing roles at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, and the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
Her research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Casa de Velázquez, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Terra Foundation in American Art. Key publication credits in Fava-Piz’s name include: In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art. Dallas: Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, February 26-July 30, 2023.
“From Commodore John Barry to Le Débarquement: Embodying Mobility in Andrew O’Connor’s Oeuvre” In Marjan Sterckx, Tom Verschaffel (eds.) Sculpting Abroad: Nationality and Mobility of Sculptors in the Nineteenth Century, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2020, p. 85-97.
“Spanish Sculptors and the Paris ‘Salon Culture,’ 1880-1914: The Case of Miguel Blay y Fábrega”, Sculpture Journal, Vol. 27, Issue 1, 2018, p. 47-60.
About the Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is an educational, nonprofit resource that sparks creative thinking and expression through transformative experiences with art. Its mission is to enrich lives by sparking creative thinking and expression. Its holdings reflect the city and region—and provide invaluable ways for the community to learn about cultures from around the world. Metro residents support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), a unique funding source serving hundreds of metro Denver arts, culture and scientific organizations.
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