Maria Elena Buszek

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Maria Buszek, Ph.D. is a scholar, critic, curator, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches Modern and contemporary art.

Her recent publications include the books Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art (Duke University Press, 2011) Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture (Duke, 2006); contributions to the anthologies Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women, and Feminism (Cambridge Scholar’s Press, 2007) and Contemporary Artists, 5 ed. (St. James Press, 2001); catalogue essays for Gagosian Gallery, Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, and Grand Arts; and articles in Art Journal, Art in America, Photography Quarterly, Woman’s Art Journal, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. She has also been a regular contributor to the popular journal BUST since 1999.

Dr. Buszek’s scholarship has been recognized by the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, the College Art Association, American Society for Theater Research, and New York University Performance Studies and the MIT Press. Her book Extra/ordinary was recently awarded a Project Research Grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design.

Dr. Buszek is also a prolific curator, whose recent exhibitions include the 2006 Charlotte Street Awards show at the H & R Block Artspace, Raised in Craftivity at the Greenlease Gallery and Wignall Museum, Handymen and Girly Boys: Masculinity, Craft, and Culture at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, and Extra/ordinary: Fiber Artists Rethinking Art and Everyday Life at The Cube. With Steve Goddard she co-curated the Spencer Museum of Art exhibition Alberto Vargas: The Esquire Years, and co-edited and contributed to the show’s catalogue. She has also served as a curatorial assistant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO.