TULSA, OK.- Alejandro Garay Celeita, Ph.D, has been selected to serve as the inaugural assistant curator for Latin American art and culture for Gilcrease Museum. As Gilcrease prepares to open its new museum building in early 2027, Garay Celeita brings expertise with historical and contemporary Latin American art and archival collections to its growing curatorial team.
In this role, Garay Celeita will lead exhibitions, acquisitions, research and interpretation within Gilcrease’s broad visual culture and archival collections. These include fine art from the 16th through 20th centuries from throughout the Americas, ranging from Spanish colonial retablos and work by Juan Correa to paintings, drawings and prints by Diego Rivera, Miguel Covarrubias, Jos Clemente Orozco, Maria Izquierdo and Rufino Tamayo. Gilcrease also holds one of the most significant collections in the United States of manuscripts, documents and rare books pertaining to European settlement and conflicts across New Spain from the Caribbean and present-day Mexico to South America, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. These archival holdings, which frequently draw scholars to the Helmerich Center for American Research, will feature prominently in future curatorial projects.
With Garay Celeita’s leadership, stories from Latin American history and cultures will play a prominent role in the interpretive plan of Gilcrease Museum’s new building, representing the diverse cultures of the Americas beyond the present-day United States.
“Within the vast collection of historical documents, books and artworks at Gilcrease, the outstanding items from Latin America merit deeper study and appreciation. We’re excited for Dr. Garay Celeita’s expertise to unlock and share their stories in future shows, publications and public programs,” said Alex Mann, director of curatorial affairs.
Garay Celeita holds doctorates in art history from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil and in comparative studies in literature and culture from the University of Southern California. Within the field of Latin American visual culture, his research gives particular attention to Indigenous and Afro-diasporic art, archives, memory and decolonial aesthetics. He is the author of the Spanish-language monograph “Constelaciones Visuales: la mirada del viajero durante el siglo XIX en Colombia” (Universidad del Rosario, 2022). In his current book project, “Disobedient Aesthetics: Radical Intimacies among Indigenous Peoples and Plants in the Americas,” Garay Celeita develops a new approach to contemporary Latin American art through Indigenous arts and philosophies, rethinking artistic practice through the interconnections between humans and plants.
Beyond his research and teaching, Garay Celeita has contributed to projects with the National Museum of Colombia and Banco de la Repblica’s Luis ngel Arango Library and held fellowships at the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, Dumbarton Oaks, the Getty Research Institute and the John Carter Brown Library.
At Gilcrease, Garay Celeita will engage with the institution’s rich collections and spearhead their growth in new directions. By bringing traveling exhibitions and collectors of Latin American art to Tulsa, he will build transregional conversations that connect Gilcrease’s explorations of American history and art to Latinx and Indigenous communities in Oklahoma and beyond. This work is in collaboration with Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator for Indigenous Art and Culture Chelsea Herr and assistant curator for contemporary culture and community Jenny Keller, broadening Gilcrease’s commitments to contemporary art and living artists.
The creation of a new permanent curatorial role for Latin American art and culture is the first of many initiatives at Gilcrease to increase accessibility and welcome wider audiences. With the opening of its new museum building in 2027, Gilcrease will introduce Spanish-language tours and programs, wall text in Spanish for many exhibitions and Spanish-language features on its new Mobile Guide. In addition, the museum has expanded digital access to its colonial Latin American collections through new online research tools, launched in March 2026.
“I am honored to join Gilcrease at such a transformative moment for the museum. Gilcrease is a truly unique institution, one whose collections are essential to understanding the histories and cultures of the Americas. As someone who has worked across art and archives, I look forward to building exhibitions, publications and public programs at Gilcrease that make Latin American materials more visible and accessible to broader audiences,” Garay Celeita said.
His appointment begins on August. 31.
