THE CURATORIAL LENS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE GALLERY

Next date: Friday, October 17, 2025 | 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Join us for a 30-minute pre-lunchtime tour of the original exhibition JUAN WILLIAM CHÁVEZ: ART POLLINATION led by the Mennello Museum staff and special guest scholars, select Fridays 11:00am to 11:30am!

The Curatorial Lens: Conversations in the Gallery | 11:00 – 11:30 A.M. | Free with Admission
October 17 | Shannon Fitzgerald
November 21 | Dr. Ilenia Colón Mendoza
December 19 | Katherine Page

La Dra. Ilenia Colón Mendoza recibió su bachillerato en Historia del Arte y Arqueología de la Universidad de Evansville en Indiana y su maestría y doctorado son de la Universidad de Pennsylvania State. La Dra. Colón Mendoza enfoca sus estudios en el arte Español del siglo 17. Además de la artes visuales del Barroco, estudia el arte Caribeño, de Latino America y el arte y arquitectura Romana. Si usted tiene preguntas sobre la Escuela de Artes Visuales y de Diseño de la Universidad de Florida Central puede comunicarse conmigo por correo electrónico.

Dr. Ilenia Colón Mendoza received a B.A. with a double major in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Evansville in Indiana and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Colón Mendoza's major area of research is seventeenth-century Spanish art. In addition to the visual arts of the Baroque, she is also proficient in Caribbean and Latin American art, and the art and architecture of Ancient Rome.

Her book entitled The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Ashgate/Routledge, May 2015) examines the significance of the Cristo yacente sculptural type within the context of the theatrical elaborations of the Catholic Holy Week in Baroque Spain. The issues of pageantry, theater, and the connection between the creation of these images and the literature of the period are her focus. Her second book co-edited with Dr. Margaret Zaho is entitled Spanish Royal Patronage 1412-1804: Portraits as Propaganda (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, January 2018) studies such portraits in the context of their commission, production, and display. Dr. Colón Mendoza's current book project, under contract with Routledge, explores the issue of colored (polychrome) sculpture and its place in the art historical canon.

Before she joined the faculty at the University of Central Florida she taught at the University of Puerto Rico (Carolina), and as assistant professor at the Herron School of Art, Indiana University-Purdue University, and at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been supported by the New Frontiers in the Arts & Humanities Exploration Traveling Fellowship Grant (Indiana University in Bloomington), the Program of Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She was awarded a Fullbright-Hayes for Argentina.

She teaches Introduction to Art History II, Visual Arts Administration, Women in Art, Mesoamerican Art, Latin American Art, Baroque Art, and Theory and Criticism. She is affiliate faculty in Graduate Studies, Latin American Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. Dr. Colón has lectured at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, Spain, and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome while also serving as consultant to curatorial projects on polychrome sculpture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London. She organizes the Annual SVAD Art History Symposium which she inaugurated and serves as faculty advisor for the Art History Club. Additionally she is the founding mentor for the Iota chapter of the Kappa Pi International Art Society at UCF.

 

About the exhibition 

JUAN WILLIAM CHÁVEZ: ART POLLINATION exhibition is part of the City of Orlando’s 2025 Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge project, Art Pollination, which aims to use art to raise awareness about food insecurity and promote solutions. Juan William Chávez: Art Pollination presents the social practice of artist Juan William Chávez, rooted in a holistic view of aesthetics, ecology, ritual, craft, labor, activism, and his Peruvian heritage. Art Pollination is a multi-media installation featuring drawings, embroidery, zines, artifacts, and ephemera that reflect a specific archaeology of place and how that place mines creativity through the cross-pollination of art and ideas. At the museum, Chávez has created new paintings, drawings, ephemera, and sculpture over the last two years based on community collaboration that integrates aesthetics, garden cultivation, indigenous thought, and local histories to address themes related to accessing healthy food, food sovereignty, and the environment.

The concept of creative art pollination is deeply rooted in Chávez's practice and within the City of Orlando community. This collaborative public art project highlights the significant efforts being made to alleviate food insecurity. Working together over the last year, creatives learned from and highlighted key local non-profit partners Black Bee Honey, 4Roots, Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Inc., Ideas for Us-Fleet Farming, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), Orange County. The grant further supports local artists’ initiatives and art installations at various locations, including murals, garden beds, urban trail markers, community billboards in partnership with the Mennello Museum of American Art, Downtown Arts District, FusionFest, and Terrace Gallery, City Hall. The project aims to harness the transformative power of public art to spark conversations and collaborations that can lead to innovative solutions for addressing food insecurity, thereby significantly impacting the City of Orlando. To learn more, visit orlando.gov/artpollination.

When

Location

Mennello Museum of American Art, 900 E. Princeton St., 32803, View Map