Crystal Bridges exhibition gives Alejo Benedetti a chance to work with Annie Leibovitz

As curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, Alejo Benedetti ’15 MA had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. The exhibition, featuring new works, marked Leibovitz’s first museum commission.

During the curation process, Benedetti spotted an unexpected item on Leibovitz’s proposed list of works: the James Webb Space Telescope. He recalled saying to her, “Annie, you’re very good, but that’s pretty far away. How are you going to photograph that?”

Leibovitz refused to reveal her secret, and Benedetti didn’t see the image until he was setting up the show. At first glance, he said, the photo looks exactly like deep space, but upon further inspection, it’s revealed to be the desktop computer screen of a NASA analyst.

“When we think about Annie’s works, it’s often these very serious photos,” Benedetti said. “But in some of her newer works, my favorite moments are ones where you actually get some of her humor coming into it.”

“Annie Leibovitz at Work” debuted at Crystal Bridges in fall 2023. The show encompasses 50 years of Leibovitz’s photography, including iconic Rolling Stone and Vogue covers alongside 20 new works, and features subjects ranging from Dolly Parton to Barack Obama. After closing at Crystal Bridges in January 2024, the exhibition made stops in Wichita, Kansas; Sacramento, California; and Charlotte, North Carolina, where it’s on view through summer 2025. The show will finish its tour in early 2026 at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It was a surreal thing to get to work on a project like that,” Benedetti said. “I think, to my credit, that I played it very cool.”

The Crystal Bridges Museum’s world-class collection, housed in a building designed by Moshe Safdie, prompted Alejo Benedetti to pursue a job there.

Curating a Calling

Growing up in Flower Mound and Southlake, Texas, Benedetti initially dreamed of being an artist. He attended the University of Missouri to study studio art and advertising but changed his major to art history about three weeks into a required course on the subject. He said he enjoyed the class’s emphasis on writing and discussion.

Art history “was revelatory for me,” Benedetti said, adding that he realized, “This is the way that I’m supposed to be interfacing with the art world.”

This epiphany ultimately led Benedetti to TCU to pursue a master’s in art history; he felt drawn to the program’s strong relationships with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Kimbell Art Museum.

At TCU, Benedetti flourished under the mentorship of his adviser Frances Jean Colpitt, the late professor emeritus and former Deedie Potter Rose Chair of Art History. A renowned and prolific author and arts critic, Colpitt encouraged Benedetti to write for Glasstire, Texas’ leading arts publication.

Alejo Benedetti connects pop culture to society in sophisticated ways at Crystal Bridges, including a 2019 exhibition called “Men of Steel, Women of Wonder” that tied steelworkers to Superman.

She “embedded in me the mentality that when it comes to art, all ideas are valid,” he said, “and nothing should be taken at face value.”

Another influential figure was professor emeritus Mark Thistlethwaite, the former Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History, for whom Benedetti was a teaching assistant.

Thistlethwaite said he saw early signs of Benedetti’s success in his diligent research, easygoing attitude and ability to connect with and guide students. “You could tell he was going to go places and that he had his eye on the big picture,” Thistlethwaite said.

A curatorial internship at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth solidified Benedetti’s career path. Toward the end of his graduate studies, a road trip to Crystal Bridges with his TCU classmates marked a pivotal beginning.

The museum’s world-class collection and Moshe Safdie-designed building, constructed in a ravine in the scenic Ozarks, captured Benedetti’s heart. “When you come to the site, you go down an elevator and you’re brought down into the earth,” he said. “I was absolutely blown away.”

Benedetti applied for several jobs and was offered a curatorial assistant position at Crystal Bridges. Over the next decade, he steadily climbed the ranks to become curator of contemporary art. “I’ve been very fortunate to have great mentors and advocates,” he said, “who encouraged me to pursue different things and to lean in and grow.”

From Thesis to Metropolis

Among the early defining moments in Benedetti’s career with Crystal Bridges was an exhibition he curated in 2019 called “Men of Steel, Women of Wonder.” The show’s roots were in Benedetti’s thesis work on the late artist Mike Kelley.

While at TCU, Benedetti received a grant through the Mary Jane and Robert Sunkel Art History Endowment to travel to New York, where he saw a retrospective of Kelley’s work at the Museum of Modern Art’s affiliate contemporary art space, MoMA PS1. The selection of “Kelley’s Kandors” — a series of sculptures, videos and large-scale installations about the lore and social impact of Superman — solidified Benedetti’s decision to do his thesis on the artist.

Years later at Crystal Bridges, Benedetti came across a work in the museum’s Labor and Industry Print Collection called “Men of Steel,” a 1940 drypoint illustration by Samuel Margolies featuring two steelworkers working on a beam high above the city. Benedetti began to wonder how he might curate an exhibition connecting the Labor and Industry Print Collection to Superman.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which opened in November 2011, offers free admission. More than 780,000 people visited in 2023 alone.

Benedetti’s idea grew to encompass Superman and Wonder Woman, exploring their origins amid the Great Depression and World War II, their identity as immigrants and their endurance as iconic symbols. The “Men of Steel, Women of Wonder” exhibition featured more than 70 paintings, photographs and installations by dozens of artists, including Kelley.

“As soon as the scope of the show broadened, I put ‘Kelley’s Kandors’ onto the checklist,” Benedetti said, “and it was a really surreal, full-circle moment for me to get to install one in the exhibition.”

Mindy Besaw, curator of American art and director of fellowships and research at Crystal Bridges, has worked alongside Benedetti throughout his tenure at the museum and praised his unique approach.

“He has this way of connecting really approachable popular culture phenomena to something that is sophisticated and smart, and in ways that are surprising and delightful,” she said.

Thistlethwaite, who sat on Benedetti’s thesis committee, brought a group of TCU students to see the exhibition in 2019. “It’s always great when you write a thesis and either have it published or turn it into an exhibition,” he said, “and [Alejo] did that very, very well.”

Alejo Benedetti and Landon Perkins, a member of Crystal Bridges’ exhibition design team, review plans for a new contemporary wing at the museum. An expansion project adding 100,000 square feet to the facility by spring 2026 gives Benedetti a chance to reimagine the museum’s post-1960s collection.

Working With Leibovitz

The seeds for “Annie Leibovitz at Work” were planted when Leibovitz visited Arkansas to take a portrait of Crystal Bridges founder and philanthropist Alice Walton. The pair hit it off, and Walton asked Leibovitz if she would be interested in doing an exhibition for the museum. Though her initial response was “absolutely not,” Leibovitz eventually warmed to the idea.

According to Benedetti, Leibovitz rejected the idea of a retrospective because she didn’t want the show to feel “buttoned up.” She told Benedetti and the Crystal Bridges team, “All of my works are as alive today as they’ve ever been, and they’re in conversation with each other.” As a result, the exhibition became about showcasing Leibovitz’s works across time, including her current practice.

“Annie Leibovitz at Work” features some of the photographer’s most iconic images, including a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono that she took for Rolling Stone hours before Lennon was fatally shot. The exhibition also encompasses works created for Crystal Bridges. “The vast trove of my work intimidates even me sometimes,” Leibovitz said in an interview with Benedetti. “But then the threads line up and … the associations are there, sometimes visual and sometimes intellectual or historical.”

As curator, Benedetti focused on striking a balance between leading the way and standing aside. “My primary goal,” he said, “is always making sure the artist’s vision is realized to the best degree possible in a way that is practical and successful.”

Besaw said with an exhibition of this magnitude, Benedetti’s down-to-earth nature was crucial to the project’s success. “People like to work with Alejo because he’s approachable, and he has a way of problem-solving in the moment where he doesn’t lose his cool,” she said. “Annie was thrilled in the end.”

Annie Leibovitz’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art exhibit marked the legendary photographer’s first museum commission. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Shaping the Future

Beyond his curatorial duties, Benedetti is making his mark as a mentor, helping to cultivate the next generation of artists and curators. He developed an exercise called “An Artist a Day” for the high school, college and graduate students who intern at Crystal Bridges each summer, encouraging them to discover new artists.

Benedetti is also involved in the museum’s current expansion project, which will add 100,000 square feet to the facility by spring 2026. His primary focus is reimagining the story of the museum’s entire post-1960s collection and reinstalling it in the new contemporary wing.

As he works to facilitate new ways for visitors to experience contemporary art, Benedetti has a clear mission: to amplify and champion artists’ voices as crucial indicators of the world around us. “Artists are the great watchers of our time,” he said. “The work that we do at the museum is about finding those points of access and letting art lead the way in important conversations.”