Join SVMoA for an in-person talk by SAAM curator Sarah Newman as we highlight Nick Cave: Mammoth, an exhibition currently on display until January 3, 2027 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). In Mammoth, Cave remakes the museum’s galleries into an immersive environment marked by the crafted hides and bones of mammoths, a video projection of the long-dead animals come to life, and hundreds of transformed found objects—from vintage tools to his grandmother’s thimble collection—presented like paleontological specimens on a massive light table. By showcasing the ordinary and often forgotten bits and pieces of the world we live in, Cave’s work shines light on what we value and how we make meaning together. It evokes the lives and cultures we have lost, as well as the magical possibilities of a universe created through imagination and the humblest of materials.

Sarah Newman is the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art and deputy head curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her responsibilities include research, exhibitions and acquisitions related to the museum’s collection of contemporary art. Her research interests include the relationship between contemporary art and design, and the art of the 1980s. She has also taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, George Mason University and Georgetown University.  Sarah earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

This in-person lecture is presented as part of SVMoA's new series, Museum Passport, talks on artists featured in major museum exhibitions around the United States.