UCLA/Getty Distinguished Speaker Series: Luis A. Muro Ynoñán Friday December 6th @ 11:00 am

Luis A. Muro Ynoñán will discuss the exhibition Taming the Desert: Resilience, Religion, and Ancestors in Ancient Peru, which features Moche and Nasca ceramics and textiles from the collections of LACMA and the Fowler. The lecture will be followed by a conversation between Muro Ynoñán, UCLA Professor of Art History and Conservation of Material Culture Glenn Wharton, and Fowler Senior Curator Erica P. Jones about how this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to glimpse two parallel pre-Hispanic modes of artistic expression in dialogue with each other.

Luis A. Muro Ynoñán is a Peruvian anthropological archaeologist and currently an anthropology curator at the Field Museum of Chicago. He holds a Master’s and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has worked on the north coast of Peru for more than 15 years, focusing on the Moche civilization. His research interests encompass the study of religion, death, performance, social body and space, as well as absolute dating techniques, remote sensing techniques, and archaeometry. He also explores issues of critical heritage, cultural rights, and decolonial archaeology in Peru.

Erica P. Jones is the senior curator of African arts and manager of curatorial affairs at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Since joining the Fowler, she has curated many exhibitions, including: Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power (2018); Inheritance: Recent Video Art from Africa (2019); and The House Was Too Small: Yoruba Sacred Arts from Nigeria and Beyond (2023). Jones serves on the board of African Arts journal and co-chairs the Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices for North American Museums Holding African Objects Working Group. Her publishing centers on colonial-era provenance and the arts of the CameroonGrassfields.

This program is co-sponsored by the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage and the Fowler Museum at UCLA.