Alexander Brier Marr, associate curator of Native American art, joined the Saint Louis Art Museum in 2016.
Marr started as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Native American Art at the museum before receiving his current post in June 2023. Previously, Marr was the Mellon Predoctoral Fellow in Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, where contributed major research to a forthcoming traveling exhibition of the Axel Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast art. He coedited an extensively revised 2016 edition of “Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum.”
Marr received a doctorate from the University of Rochester. He received his master’s degree in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester and an undergraduate degree in art history with honors from Beloit College.
Notable media appearances and mentions
- On the Art with SLAM: State Names Map: Cahokia (Classic 107.3, Aug. 1, 2025)
- On the Art with SLAM: Shaman Figure (Classic 107.3, Dec. 6, 2024)
- This Week in Art: Black figuration, Surrealism is 100, Tonita Peña’s Eagle Dance mural (The Art Newspaper, Feb. 22, 2024)
- A deep collection of Native American abstract art opens at St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis Public Radio, July 27, 2023)
- “Woodlands” at the St. Louis Art Museum offers a rare look at Eastern Native American art (St. Louis Magazine, Nov. 5, 2021)
- Artist combines history, tradition and current events in new piece on exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune, April 24, 2019)
- How the West Was Wove (Ladue News, Jan. 10, 2019)
Television and video
- Art Speaks: Tonita Peña and Modern Pueblo Painting (Saint Louis Art Museum, Nov. 2, 2021)
- SLAM Examines 800 Years of Cultural Exchange with Southwestern Native Textiles (HEC TV, Dec. 17, 2018)
- Bearers of Culture: Women & Quillwork in the Donald Danforth Jr. Collection (Saint Louis Art Museum, July 26, 2017)
Recent and upcoming SLAM exhibitions
- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (2024)
- Native American Art of the 20th Century: The William P. Healey Collection (2024)
- Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s–1970s (2023)
- Woodlands: Native American Art from St. Louis Collections (2021)
- Southwestern Native American Art (2021)
- Southwest Weavings: 800 Years of Artistic Exchange (2018)
Alexander Brier Marr, associate curator of Native American art