This virtual lecture is presented as part of SVMoA's Museum Passport series, talks on artists featured in major museum exhibitions around the United States. Benjamin W. Colman, Curator of American Art at Detroit Institute of Arts will be speaking about the exhibition on view there until January 3, 2027, Georgia O'Keeffe: Architecture. O’Keeffe’s paintings of architecture capture the dynamic characteristics of the built environment. The barns, skyscrapers, churches, and houses that she painted in her recognizable and abstracted style are filled with poignant personal meaning. The exhibition presents a fresh opportunity to consider O’Keeffe’s practice alongside timely notions of place making and identity. This is the first presentation of the full breadth of O’Keeffe’s architectural paintings and shows an unfamiliar side to a beloved artist who is renowned for her landscape and flower paintings.
SVMoA will stream the lecture on our big screen at the Museum, and all are welcome to join us for an in-person viewing. Mr. Colman will join us live for a Q&A following the talk.
About the Speaker
Benjamin W. Colman is the Curator of American Art at Detroit Institute of Arts. is a specialist in American art and decorative arts who joined the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2015. At the DIA, he curated the exhibit Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture (2026–2027). He previously organized the exhibit Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City 1950–2020 (2020–2022), and two traveling exhibits supported by ArtBridges: Rethinking Monuments: American Sculpture in its Time (2022–2023), and Visions of American Life: Paintings from the Manoogian Collection (2018–2019). He currently chairs the editorial board for the peer-reviewed scholarly journal, The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Prior to joining the DIA, he served as assistant curator at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut and as a curatorial fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery. Mr. Colman earned an M.A. from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, and a B.A. in the History of Art at Yale University.
This lecture is presented as part of SVMoA's series Museum Passport, featuring museum directors, curators, and art historians discussing artists and exhibitions at major museums across the country. Check our website for details about upcoming Museum Passport talks and to register.
