WALTHAM, MASS.- The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University announced today the appointment of Ruth Estévez as Senior Curator-at-Large. With extensive experience as a curator of contemporary art and performance, Estévez will organize exhibitions and programming, expand interdisciplinary research and scholarship, and advise the museum on key acquisitions. As Senior Curator-at-Large she will share expertise with Brandeis faculty, staff, and students.

“Ruth’s extensive knowledge of contemporary art practice and her experience questioning and mining existing structures will play a key role in shaping the museum’s future and will serve as a connector to the rest of the world,” said Luis Croquer, the Rose’s Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator.

“I am thrilled to welcome her to the Rose where her unique perspective will enrich the Rose’s mission to exhibit, collect, and preserve important and prescient modern and contemporary art, as well as advance the values of freedom of expression, academic excellence, global diversity, and social justice.”

Estévez is currently an independent curator, writer, and stage designer living between Mexico City and Los Angeles, USA. She is also co-curating the performance program “Idiorritmias” at MACBA in Barcelona. Estévez previously served as Gallery Director and Curator at REDCAT/CalArts in Los Angeles. Her curatorial approach is influenced by her interest in the historical relationship between theater and the visual arts. In her work she challenges the possibilities of the exhibition format, pushing the boundaries of time and materiality, as well as the methodologies of production and presentation.

At REDCAT Estévez worked on solo projects with artists including Javier Téllez, Joăo Maria Gusmăo and Pedro Paiva, Allora and Calzadilla, Pedro Barateiro, Quinn Latimer, Hector Zamora, and Andres Jaque, among many others. Additionally she curated many important group exhibitions and public programs, such as Agency (Assembly: Before and After the Split Second Recorded) (2015), related to issues of copyright protection in ephemeral practices; Hotel Theory (2015), curated with Sohrab Mohebbi, focusing on the performance of theory in contemporary art; Chalk Circles (2017), an exhibition co-curated with Jose Luis Blondet, analyzing acting methodologies in the 20th century based on mixed traditions of movement and gesture, as well as pedagogic models. Most recently she opened The Words Of Others dedicated to the unexplored theatrical work of groundbreaking Latin American artist León Ferrari, which travelled to Pérez Art Museum Miami; in its performative version to Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid; and finally to Jumex Museum in Mexico City (2018). Ruth Estévez has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and art publications and has independently organized exhibitions in Spain, France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

Prior to her time at REDCAT, Estévez was the Chief Curator at the Carrillo Gil museum in Mexico City. She is also the Founder and Director of LIGA, Space for Architecture, a nonprofit platform focused on experimentation in Latin American architecture, urbanism, and public art also located in the Mexican capital.

Commenting on her new post, Estévez said, “I´m delighted to join and advise the Rose Art Museum in this new phase, contributing to the creation of an experimental program that will touch political and social issues from a variety of perspectives and exhibition methodologies. I´m interested in creating multidisciplinary programs that cross boundaries between visual arts, performing arts and spatial practice and plan to bring forward a plurality of voices, inspired by the longtime legacy of social justice at Brandeis University.”