Ruminations
Ruminations
Tracing the Past, Shaping the Future
September 25–November 23, 2025
Memory, with its fragmented and fluid nature, shapes how American artists interpret cycles of change, revolution, and return. Ruminations considers how artists working since around 1980 have looked to the past to make sense of the present and anticipate the future. In exploring shifting ideas of selfhood, cultural inheritance, and artistic innovation, the exhibition also reflects on the complexities of American identity – how personal histories intertwine with national narratives, and how the tension between individual and collective experience shapes artistic expression. Through material experimentation and conceptual inquiry, these artists prompt us to reconsider the past’s enduring presence in contemporary experience and imagine what comes next.
Ruminations is the result of a collaborative effort by 21 students in the University of Denver’s Winter 2025 Curatorial Practicum course. Through a fast-paced, immersive process of research and discussion, these emerging curators explored key ideas in postwar and contemporary American art, ultimately selecting objects from the University Art Collections that resonate with the exhibition’s themes. Many of these artworks come from the generous donations of John Madden and Dean Ambrose, whose patronage has enriched the collection and made exhibitions like this possible. Their contributions not only provide a foundation for scholarly engagement but also allow students to experience firsthand the impact of curatorial decisions on shaping artistic discourse.
Artists featured in the exhibition:
- John Baldessari
- Jonathan Borofsky
- Carroll Dunham
- Sam Francis
- Viola Frey
- David Hockney
- Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Ana Mendieta
- Duane Michals
- Harland Miller
- Robert Rauschenberg
- James Rosenquist
- Fritz Scholder
- Jennifer Steinkamp
- Donald Sultan
- Fred Tomaselli
- Kara Walker
- Andy Warhol
- Fred Wilson
- Terry Winters
- Lisa Yuskavage
Student Curators:
- Jackie Canfield
- Jeffrey Chibwana
- Artemis D’Addario
- Ken Daughtee
- Annie Drysdale
- Maddi Eicher
- Savannah Irelan
- Hanna LaFever
- Chloe LeRoy
- Gretta Lemke
- Isabelle Monyak
- Aidan Plummer
- Sheridan Posschelle
- Chloe Richardson
- Chloe Schwartz
- Alexandra Simm
- Magdalena Sterling
- Quint Stovall
- Sierra Thompson
- Kathryn Woodward
- Lela Zerman
Photos by Wes Magyar
Explore the sections
Rauschenberg’s Ruminations
Memory is fluid, taking forms both vivid and fragmented, joyful and traumatic. It shapes who we are, even as it shifts, fades, or is reshaped by experience and emotion. Unreliable yet powerful, memory defines identity, influences relationships, and colors our perception of the past.
Robert Rauschenberg’s Ruminations series (1999), created late in his career, reflects this paradox. Working in photogravure, Rauschenberg combined photographs drawn from his childhood and personal archive, layering them into images that feel at once intimate and elusive. These prints capture memory’s bittersweet character–the longing that comes from revisiting the past while knowing it cannot be reclaimed. By embedding formative scenes in this reflective medium, Rauschenberg prompts us to consider not only how we remember, but also how memory itself shapes the way we see and inhabit the world.
Savannah Irelan, Jeffrey Chibwana, Maddi Eicher, Jackie Canfield
Searching for the American Identity
This section–representing diverse perspectives from Black, queer, Native, and immigrant artists–asks viewers to contemplate the role of art and artists in constructing American identity. The artists included here examine the economic origins of slavery in America, the manipulation and commodification of identity, and the impacts of immigration. Their works challenge our perceptions and raise questions about the intent behind America’s globalization of consumer culture, disrupting what it means to achieve the American Dream.
Annie Drysdale, Sheridan Posschelle, Magdalena Sterling, Quint Stoval
Figuration and Portraiture
During a period shaped by changing American values concerning identity, these artists used the portrait as a tool to visually center aspects of their own identity or that of others to have new conversations about who we are as individuals and collectively. Queer and feminine bodies are moved from the margin to the center, and the artists ask questions about how American society can be more welcoming to identities outside of the “norm.” These works serve to remind us that the same conversations taking place today have their roots in our shared and collective memory.
Aidan Plummer, Chloe Schwartz, Artemis D’Addario, Sierra Thompson
Memory and Icons
What memories do these objects call forth? Memory is always personal, yet it is also shaped by the sensory environments in which we live. In today’s age of mass media, celebrity culture, and relentless commodification, we are flooded with images and sounds that saturate our consciousness. From this, we build associations–sometimes vivid, sometimes faint–rooted in our own experiences but grounded in a shared visual and cultural archive. By drawing on familiar brands, found photographs, and potent symbols, these artworks expose the friction between nostalgia and critique, between the brightly colored allure of consumer culture and the darker realities it conceals.
Ken Daughetee, Hanna LaFever, Isabelle Monyak, Chloe Richardson, Alexandra Simm
Moments of Movement
This section explores how artists reinterpret the visual traditions of various abstract art movements within and after the rise of Pop Art. These works demonstrate different ways movement can be created through line, color, and subject. Move through the space to look closely and from a distance at the large works–ranging from traditional printmaking techniques to recent digital art–to experience the differences between gestural and mechanical movement.
Chloe LeRoy, Gretta Lemke, Kathryn Woodward, Lela Zerman
