MONTERREY.- The Museo de Arte Contempor醤eo de Monterrey (MARCO) has appointed curator and art critic Sof韆 Hern醤dez Chong Cuy as its new Yolanda Santos de Hoyos Curator-at-Large, a newly created position that the museum says is the first of its kind in Mexico.

The appointment, announced on August 25, marks a significant step in MARCO’s efforts to rethink how its permanent collection can be presented and interpreted, particularly in relation to the cultural complexity of northern Mexico and its connections across the U.S.-Mexico border. The position is being sponsored by Monterrey philanthropist and art collector Yolanda Santos de Hoyos.

Hern醤dez Chong Cuy, who was born in Mexicali, Baja California, in 1975, brings more than two decades of curatorial experience to the museum. Her career has included leadership roles at major institutions in Europe, the United States and Mexico, including Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and the Colecci髇 Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. She studied visual arts at the University of Monterrey and later completed graduate studies at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York.

At MARCO, her role will focus on developing a curatorial framework for the museum’s collection while considering the artistic production of northern Mexico not as an isolated regional phenomenon, but as part of a larger network of cross-border and transnational exchange.

The museum said the position was developed in consultation with specialists from Mexico and abroad. Curator-at-large roles backed by named sponsors are familiar at institutions in the United States and parts of Europe, but MARCO says this is the first time such a model has been introduced by a museum in Mexico.

“This is a unique opportunity to collaborate with an exemplary institution and a museum leader with a strong artistic vision, who are making positive change in the art field,” Hern醤dez Chong Cuy said, referring to MARCO director general Taiyana Pimentel Paradoa.





The new curatorial position also reflects a long relationship between the museum and Yolanda Santos de Hoyos, who joined MARCO’s original Board of Directors when the institution was founded. Although she is no longer on the board, she remained closely involved in shaping the new role alongside MARCO’s current leadership.

Santos de Hoyos has long supported cultural, educational and public health initiatives in Monterrey. She is the founder and honorary president of Ballet de Monterrey and has also supported projects benefiting women and vulnerable communities through the nonprofit organization Supera. In addition, she is a prominent collector of contemporary art.

“I would like to highlight the valuable contribution of Sof韆 Hern醤dez Chong Cuy, one of the world’s most renowned curators,” Santos de Hoyos said. “Her involvement with MARCO will not only enrich the museum’s cultural discourse, but also strengthen its international profile, creating new opportunities for its development and long-term sustainability.”

The appointment comes after roughly two years of discussions among Santos de Hoyos, the museum’s board and MARCO’s leadership. According to Pimentel, Hern醤dez Chong Cuy was selected from two finalists in part because of the critical perspective she has developed through her recent work in the Mexicali-Calexico border region.

That border perspective is expected to play a central role in MARCO’s future programming. One of the museum’s plans is to devote its second-floor galleries to contemporary visual art from northern Mexico, bringing works from MARCO’s own collection into dialogue with loans from private and institutional collections across the region.

The project is envisioned as an evolving, multi-phase initiative that combines exhibitions with education, public discussion and research. Rather than presenting northern Mexico as a fixed geographic or cultural category, MARCO hopes to use the program to raise broader questions about how the region is defined and how its histories, identities and artistic communities connect with the wider world.

Hern醤dez Chong Cuy’s broader practice extends well beyond exhibition making. Over the course of her career, she has worked in acquisitions, publishing, artistic commissions and philanthropic consulting. More recently, she founded Atresti.com, served as guest director of the ESAP program at the A&L Berg Foundation in the United States and curated an exhibition for the Pavilh鉶 Juli鉶 Sarmento in Portugal.

She is also a member of 100 Grados de Arte, a Mexicali-based collective that this year organized the first Art Week in the capital of Baja California.

For MARCO, the appointment signals not only the arrival of a curator with substantial international experience, but also a renewed effort to examine the museum’s own collection through the cultural realities of the region it calls home.