Anthony Kiendl On Unlocking MCA Denver’s Potential and Upending Art World Hierarchies

<img decoding="async" class="size-full-width wp-image-1600856" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/MCA-Denver-Anthony-Kiendl-Portraits-Nikki-A-Rae-10.04.2024-6-1-e1763395387901.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="A portrait of Anthony Kiendl shows him smiling and leaning against a wooden railing on an outdoor terrace, dressed in a dark suit and glasses, with a blurred urban skyline in the background.” width=”970″ height=”810″ data-caption=’Anthony Kiendl arrives at MCA Denver with a vision shaped by his years leading the Vancouver Art Gallery and working to de-center traditional art world hierarchies. <span class=”media-credit”>Photo: Nikki A. Rae Photography</span>’>

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver will soon have a new director in Anthony Kiendl, who comes to the institution from the Vancouver Art Gallery, where he served as chief executive and executive director. The MCA Denver boasts a unique downtown structure that was David Adjaye’s first museum commission, providing the opportunity to present the city’s passersby with avant-garde programming like Lorraine O’Grady’s Miscegenated Family Album (1980), which it showed in 2010, well before her current revival. We caught up with Kiendl to hear about his plans for the institution.

Congratulations on the new job! What’s your relationship like with Denver? Have you visited often? What’s your impression of it?

I am relatively new to Denver, having visited perhaps five times over the past seven years or so. I am drawn to the wide-open spaces, and equally to the enchantment of the mountains. There is something about this in-between (where the plains meet the mountains) that holds so much potential. It is literally and metaphorically at the center of all things in my imagination. The city feels alive with possibilities at this moment.

What are some of your first 100-day priorities at MCA Denver?

I want to prioritize encounters—with people, art and ideas. I want to have conversations, make notes, draw maps and think about the future.

What lessons would you say you learned at the Vancouver Art Gallery?

My experiences in Vancouver were wide-ranging. Being on the Pacific Rim, Vancouver reconfigured spatial relationships for me. Tokyo was only slightly further away than New York, the difference in travel time is negligible. Similarly, links with Hong Kong are innumerable. It presented new opportunities and imaginaries. Ironically, Vancouver also revealed a different perspective on what it means to be “regional.” I have spent most of my career off-center and trying, in a modest way, to de-center the art world. I gained new insights into the economies of scale, place and nodes of communication in the art world, how meaning is made, how history is written and what truly matters.

Supporting Colorado artists is part of the MCA Denver’s mission but of course it’s the international superstars that get people through the door. How do you plan to navigate those two demands?

These demands are not mutually exclusive. I want to break down binaries such as superstar vs unknown or local vs international. Rather than only scanning for the “next big thing,” I am interested in understanding what matters here and now and why? My focus is on being attuned to communities; what is the context, the need, the desire that is relevant? Then ideas and paths forward present themselves. I do want to find paths that connect Colorado to the world and vice versa. These paths will likely take unanticipated turns, revealing the overlooked and being surprised along the way. I would add that multiple voices are usually stronger than one voice.

You were known for your work with Indigenous artists in Canada. Do you have plans for similar kinds of outreach in America?

I think I would refer back to the previous response. What I will add is that I have learned that in a global environment, visitors from elsewhere often want to know what is unique to a certain place. By definition, Indigenous culture speaks to this. So, in an art museum there is an ongoing opportunity to respond to that curiosity. By responding to that interest, we can support local and Indigenous artists, engage different forms of knowledge and better understand our place in the world. This brings it back to the local, where we can create awareness, meaning and pride.

MCA Denver boasts an impressive space. What excites you about making exhibitions happen in this particular building? What are its challenges?

I love the MCA Denver building—it is a playful architecture that expresses delight and rewards curiosity. There are fabulous juxtapositions, lines of sight and other delights. It is a distinct pleasure to experience the building. I also admire its restraint and coolness. It does not dominate the art. There is a balance—memorable architecture that does not shout over the art. Challenges? Limited space is an issue. But working with constraints often fosters creative solutions.

How do you feel about programming in the same town as the Clyfford Still Museum, which is deeply beloved by art history nerds. Is it intimidating? Exciting?

I am very excited to work in an environment that is burgeoning with multiple voices, institutions and histories! I want to be in a place where the whole is greater than the individual parts. Again, I refer back to a global context. We need a critical mass to register on an international scale. I believe that is happening here in Colorado with exciting developments that encompass Aspen, Boulder, Colorado Springs and further afield but connected—for example, Santa Fe. Collectively this is a shared chorus—including major and minor chords, counterpoints and even dissonances—that taken collectively make a noise that matters not just regionally, but around the world.

More arts in Denver

• 48 Hours of Art in Denver: One Festival, Two Museums, Five Galleries and Too Much Coffee

• How Denver Art Museum Is Looping Indigenous Communities into Its Program

• From the Old West to Alien Landscapes: Where to See the Best Art in Denver