Layton Lecture: Abercrombie and the World of Magical Realists

Robert Cozzolino, an independent curator, art historian, and critic based in Minneapolis curates collaboratively, in partnership with artists, colleagues, and broad communities. “Starting where you are” is critical to his practice—knowing the immediate context and deeper history of the place in which he works. Dr. Cozzolino is drawn to artists that make work about the full range of human experience, especially those who aspire to visually express the intangible. Although he has worked on topics from the 19th and 20th centuries, he regularly works with contemporary artists in examining history. He considers himself a curator of fluid time, not bound to the labels and bins imposed on the field.

Born and raised in Chicago, he completed graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2006). First trained as a musician, he has played free-improvised music as a percussionist for over 30 years. His publications include Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art (2021), World War I and American Art (2016), Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis (2014), David Lynch: The Unified Field (2014), and many others. He has curated over 40 exhibitions for the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Chazen Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Minnesota Museum of American Art, and Woodmere Art Museum. Bodies and Souls, an exhibition of the collection of Robert and Frances Colbourn Kohler will open at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in March 2026.

He has published essays on many artists, including Gertrude Abercrombie, Benny Andrews, Jim Denomie, Sylvia Fein, Christina Forrer, Dudley Huppler, Mike Kelley, Henry Koerner, Arlene Burke Morgan, George Morrison, Elizabeth Osborne, Bernard Perlin, Horace Pippin, Faith Ringgold, Peter Saul, Honoré Sharrer, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Bob Thompson, George Tooker, Dyani White Hawk, and Ray Yoshida.