5 Chairs You Have to Sit on at Denver Art Museum’s New Exhibit

If visiting an art museum feels akin to being a bull in a china shop (or you happen to be the woman in this video who accidentally toppled over $200,000 worth of art in a Los Angeles museum like dominoes), then Denver Art Museum’s new exhibit where you’re invited to touch, move, and even sit on the art, should take the pressure off.

Have a Seat: Mexican Chair Design Today focuses on an oddly specific subject matter, but as it turns out, chair design is something artists, designers, and even architects have been drawn to for years. Since humans have always needed a place to rest their weary rumps, chairs are a unique way to showcase the culture and style popular at the time, reads a blog post from the museum.

“Why are chairs always the piece de resistance of the great designer?” said Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art museum. “Chairs have this very special role. They’re moveable and flexible, and they’re also the closest interaction you have with the human body. A chair is almost a reflection of the human body.”

That thought inspired Jorge F. Rivas Pérez, curator of Latin American art at the museum, to source significant seats representing hundreds of years of Mexican history. Those 17 contemporary chairs, accompanied by a few historical artifacts (maybe don’t sit on those) and a site-specific art installation, make up the exhibit, which is now on view through November 3. Here, we’ve rounded up five must-sit seats at the museum.

“Room in the Cave” by Camila Apaez

Camila Apaez, founder of Guadalajara-based ceramics studio Ila Ceramica, creates vases, stools, and even candleholders that serve as both sculptures and functional household items. Given that her work often focuses on fluid lines, negative spaces, and neutral colors, Apaez was the perfect artist to recreate seating inspired by the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. “Room in the Cave” features three stools on three legs made out of stone, prompting those who sit on them to feel as if they’re part of the Old Stone Age—or the Flintstones.

“Bangladeshi” by Cecilia León de la Barra

As one of the leading industrial designers in Mexico, Cecilia León de la Barra is no stranger to crafting aesthetic elements, from woven rugs to geometrical iron vases, for the home. Her latest work for the exhibit consists of brightly colored double-cone-shaped stools inspired by traditional Bangladeshi seating. Using midcentury modern materials from Mexico, including plastic polyvinyl, her resulting stool is a whimsical design that represents the often overlooked fusion of Mexican art with Asian influences.

“Maya” by Oscar Hagerman

Oscar Hagerman has always had a deep admiration for Indigenous cultures and design techniques, which is why the Mexico City–based architect created “Maya” out of ayacahuite wood, a pine native to Mexico often used in traditional Mexican furniture making. Even the legs draw inspiration from Mayan culture as their made to imitate the meander motif (a repetitive geometric pattern that often serves as a decorative border in Mayan art). Plus, Hagerman closely collaborated with local Mexican workshops on the design and creation of the chairs, meaning they showcase a traditional design and they’re sustainable.

“Palapa” by Esteban Caicedo Cortés

Colombian artist Esteban Caicedo Cortés hopes you don’t sit on “Palapa” for long. Despite being designed to help you take a load off, the chair is actually meant to represent dance and movement. Made from huayruro wood (which is popular in Peru), woven with chuspata fibers, and adorned with bleached palm leaves, “Palapa” blends together Afro-Mexican and Afro-Colombian culture. If the unruly palms don’t inspire you to bust a move, Caicedo Cortés hopes you’ll at least take a closer look at the traditional craftsmanship of the cultures that merge in this piece.

“A Family of 4” by LANZA Atelier

Nowadays when babies are born they might get a birth announcement or a post on Facebook. Not Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo’s second child. His birth sparked a whole new work of art. Working out of their Mexico City–based architecture studio, LANZA Atelier, Abascal and Arienzo designed “A Family of 4,” a collection of four chairs rising to different heights that signify different stages of childhood. The ground-level chair can be used to sit on the floor and play with a baby, while another chair might be used for a young boy to draw.