Arlene Dávila

The Phillips Collection is pleased to host Arlene Dávila as the first speaker in our Duncan Phillips Lecture series of 2021. Dávila will be in conversation with Vesela Sretenović, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, around her book Latinx Art: Artist, Markets, and Politics and the role Latinx artists have in the art world today.

Arlene Dávila is a Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at New York University, and a recognized public intellectual focusing on questions of cultural equity and Latinx and critical race studies. She is the author of six books focusing on Latinx cultural politics spanning the media, urban politics, museums, and contemporary art markets. Her latest book Latinx Art: Artists, Markets and Politics (Duke Press 2020) was selected as one of the best art books of 2020 by the New York Times and ARTnews, and a favorite book by Smithsonian scholars and Artnet News. She is also the founding director of The Latinx Project, an interdisciplinary space focusing on Latinx art and culture and hosting artists and curatorial projects at NYU. 

Learn more about Latinx Art and read an excerpt from Dávila’s book on the blog

The Duncan Phillips Lectures are given by distinguished artists, historians, and critics, whose presentations cover a broad range of aesthetic concerns. The lecture series was started in 1987 by Laughlin Phillips (director of the museum from 1972 to 1992) in honor of his father, Duncan Phillips, the founder of The Phillips Collection.