Leandro Martínez Depietri

Leandro Martinez Depietri is an Argentine curator, critic, educator, and arts researcher currently based between San Diego, California, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. After working in different positions and several projects for the first two iterations of BIENALSUR -South American International Contemporary Art Biennial- he was appointed to the curatorial team of BIENALSUR 2021 working under the artistic directorship of Diana Wechsler, where he carried out curatorial projects for different partner institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo in Buenos Aires, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Mar del Plata, among others. He holds an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, for which he was awarded the New Artist Society Scholarship, and a BA in Image and Sound Design by the University of Buenos Aires. He also served as the 2018 McMullan Family Intern in the curatorial Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, assisting with research for acquisitions and exhibitions and took part in the 2018 Summer University at Centre Pompidou, Paris. He currently pursues his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego, and carries out independent curatorial projects such as Marcolina Dipierro's solo show at the Fortabat Collection opening in April 2023 and the show by queer duo Chiachio&Giannone's at Ruth Benzacar Gallery opening in September 2023. Independently, he curated the first solo show in Buenos Aires of La Chola Poblete, Tenedor de Hereje (2020), Alexis Minkiewicz's first museum solo show at MArCo La Boca Rep(úb)lica (2019) and co-curated with French philosopher Barbara Cassin and Argentine art historian Marina Aguerre the exhibition Después de Babel. Traducciones Rioplatenses at MUNTREF-Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, spanning 400 years of crossings between literature and visual arts with a focus on translation as a worldmaking device. In 2020, he was awarded a prize at the 1st Contest for Critical Essays on Argentine and Latin American Art organized by Fundación PROA + AACA (Argentine Art Critics Association) and his essay "From Assistance to Intervention, the Urgency of a Social Turn in Argentine Art" was published by Fundación PROA.  He is the author of the book Putting Things on Black & White, a critical view on the emerging discussion about race in Argentine contemporary art, which was published as part of the series Argentina Hoy directed by Dr. Diana Wechsler, and contributed an essay on the Italo-Argentine artist Lucio Fontana for the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibition catalog Material Meanings (2020), as well as an essay for the project Silver Rights (2021) by Italian artist Elena Mazzi.