It is with great sadness that we remember Devon Dikeou, an artist, publisher, and collector. She died on October 6, 2026, in Denver, Colorado. She was 63.
Dikeou was the 2025 Jules Guérin Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Arts. While at the Academy, she worked on a project called The Inconspicouses, which drew on the work of Annibale Carracci, landscape as metaphor and sign, and the role of the "in-between" in her artistic practice. Dikeou treated institutions as her medium, using galleries, magazines, collections, and even the Academy itself as spaces to be reshaped and opened up.
In June 2025, Dikeou co-curated an installation of Lizzi Bougatsos’ Self Portrait with Julia Rose Katz (2025 Fellow). The work, an ice cast of the artist’s leg, was shattered as part of the performance in the atrium of the American Academy in Rome.
During her time in Rome, Dikeou also presented a solo exhibition, From Fulfilment to Adaption, at a space called Second Vue. The exhibition explored "the power of care over conquest."
Dikeou was interested in how art contexts serve as interfaces for viewers and art institutions at large. Her work was exhibited at galleries including Postmasters and James Fuentes Gallery in New York City. She also participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado; Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria; and the New Museum in New York City.
"Devon Dikeou believed in the power of interventions," said Ilaria Puri Purini, Executive Director, Galileo Week 2027; Chief Curator; and Acting Heiskell Arts Director. "In Rome, she turned that power on the institution itself: she installed a donation box and led tours of the building for anyone who came asking for a studio visit. She refused fixed assumptions about what a studio artist should be and remained a conceptualist at heart. In a time saturated with images, the force of her actions will be deeply missed."
In 1998, Dikeou founded the Dikeou Collection with her brother, Pany Dikeou. A free and publicly accessible contemporary art collection in downtown Denver, it featured the work of forty-five artists. The collection grew out of another of Dikeou’s projects, zingmagazine, which she first published in 1995. The magazine was conceived as a platform for curatorial projects organized by artists and arts professionals.
"Whether it was asking the kitchen for help slicing prosciutto as part of her performance, inviting a prima ballerina to dance on the parquet of the Salone, or filling her studio with piles and piles and mounds and mounds of salt, Devon drew all of us into her punkstar, rockstar fabulousness," said Aliza Wong, AAR Director. "At the Academy, Devon Dikeou is now a part of every pile of pine needles and every collection of salt and pepper shakers. And we are the richer and more open for her."
Julia, her fellow Fellow, collaborator, and friend, offers this tribute to Devon:
Unmatched in intelligence and generosity, with a devilish sense of humor and the most beaming smile, Devon was truly singular. She was the first person I met at the Academy—we walked through the gates together on arrival—and she remained a constant inspiration. We wound up collaborating closely throughout the year, culminating in a curatorial project and a book we co-authored.
Devon was a fearless, groundbreaking conceptual artist, a passionate collector and curator, and a truly inventive publisher, providing a platform for hundreds of artists for over thirty years in zingmagazine. But, above all, I’ll remember her as a thoughtful, loving friend and mentor. She brought to the Academy endless wit and fun—organizing parties for events like the Kentucky Derby and July 4th, as well as special visits to Palazzo Farnese and the Valentino archives, not to mention baking what seemed like endless pies for our community.
I will miss our morning chats and afternoon teas, her diatribes on the design merits of vintage Playboy magazines and the genius of Italo Calvino. I learned so much from her. She made me laugh always. I loved her and will miss her dearly.
Rock on, Devon.