Within DEN’s renowned art program, the rotating exhibitions aim to connect passengers to the environment and culture of Denver and of Colorado. In Lines of Continuance, the airport’s latest exhibition, Colorado-based artists reflect on the contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples today.
The exhibition is located on the A Bridge and in Ansbacher Hall and on view through January 17, 2027.
As a major transportation hub, DEN’s constant movement offers a meaningful lens through which to encounter Indigenous art. Too often, Indigenous peoples and cultures are portrayed as belonging to the past, tethered to fixed places or preserved in static images, textbooks and museum dioramas. Lines of Continuance, curated by Steven J. Yazzie, challenges that perception by highlighting movement as a defining feature of Indigenous life. For millennia, Indigenous peoples have traveled with the seasons, followed ceremonial cycles, and carried knowledge, language and culture across generations and great distances. Long before airports and highways existed, movement shaped Indigenous communities, and it continues to do so today.
The works in Lines of Continuance incorporate painting, performance, sculpture, textiles and mixed media, each reflecting a distinct relationship to land, memory and community. Featured artists include Crisosto Apache (Mescalero, Chiricahua Apache, & Diné), JayCee Beyale (Diné), Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe), Chelsea Kaiah (White Mountain Apache, White River Ute), Skye Little Cloud (Yankton, Sāmoan, Kickapú), Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand (Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee), Sarah Ortegon Highwalking (Eastern Shoshone/Northern Arapaho), Eugene Rooks (Oglala Lakȟota), Danielle SeeWalker (Hunkpapa Lakota citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), Sid Whiting (Sicangu Lakota) and Steven J. Yazzie (Diné / Pueblo of Laguna). Together, their work resists any single narrative about what it means to be Indigenous today.
About DEN’s Art Program: The mission of DEN Arts is to engage, educate and entertain the public audience. Both the public artworks and rotating exhibitions aim to connect a local and global audience to the environment and culture of the vibrant City of Denver and the unique State of Colorado. For more information, visit www.flydenver.com/art.