Monica Espinel is an independent curator and writer specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art from Latin America. She is currently a guest curator for Artpace in San Antonio and a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has experience working internationally in museums, galleries, alternative art spaces, biennials, auction houses, art fairs, and philanthropy; and has been navigating curatorial practice and collaboration across various institutional (Metropolitan Museum, Bronx Museum, Whitney Museum, Liverpool Biennial, Artpace) and commercial platforms (Marvelli Gallery, Wildenstein, Latincollector, Phillips, Deutsche Bank, Armory Show, SP-Arte, ArtRio) for over a decade. She cultivates long-term relationships with artists and employs postcolonial and feminist theory to advocate for artists from Latin America. Her research interests include issues of representation, international artistic networks, the intersection of art and politics, the body, film, literature, performance, and visual culture.
Curatorial projects include: ‘‘Black Milk: Theories on Suicide’’ (Marvelli Gallery, New York, 2004), ‘‘Carmen Herrera - Estructuras’’ (Latincollector, New York, 2008), ‘‘Memory Leaks’’ (Creon, New York, 2010), “Photographic Treasures from the Collection of Alfred Stieglitz” (curatorial assistant, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), “Rituals of Chaos” (Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2012), “The Skin I Live In” (SP-Arte, 2013), “Bruno Miguel: Todos à Mesa” (Galeria Emma Thomas, São Paulo, 2015) and "Hybrid Topographies - Encounters from Latin America" (Deutsche Bank, New York, 2018).
Espinel was a Mentor for the Associate Artists program of the Liverpool Biennial (2016-18) and is the recipient of numerous awards including ArtTable’s Diversity Grant to be a curatorial fellow at Wave Hill (2009), a Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation Curatorial Fellowship at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2010), and a Roswell L. Gilpatric Award to work in the department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011). She has participated in curatorial workshops in Asia, Europe, and South America; lectured and published widely; and her writing has been featured in ArtNexus, Arte al Dia, Flash Art and Artforum.com.
Espinel holds a BS in psychology from Florida International University and an MA in Art History from Hunter College, where she wrote her thesis about Mexican photojournalist Enrique Metinides.
