NEW YORK CITY.- Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, co-founder and chairman of the Fundación Cisneros and its visual arts program, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), today announced that Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, curator of Latin American art at the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, has been named director of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Dr. Pérez-Barreiro, who assumes his post effective April 15, 2008, succeeds Rafael Romero D., director of the CPPC since 1998, who has been named director emeritus and senior advisor.

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros states, “The CPPC team came to know Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro well over the course of a multiyear scholarly collaboration between the CPPC and the Blanton Museum. As part of this, Dr. Pérez-Barreiro led a five-semester graduate seminar that culminated in The Geometry of Hope, a major exhibition, catalogue, and symposium focused on the collection. We are thrilled that he has now agreed to join the CPPC as director. One of the world’s leading experts in modern Latin American art, he is both a scholar and a talented administrator.

At the same time, our utmost appreciation goes to Rafael Romero for his ten years as director of the CPPC. With great intelligence and wisdom, Dr. Romero professionalized what began as a simple private collection, guiding it to become an invaluable resource for the curatorial and academic communities, schoolchildren, and the general public. We are delighted that he has agreed to continue to play an active role with the CPPC, as director emeritus and senior advisor.”

Dr. Pérez-Barreiro adds, “The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros is a major reference for all scholars and curators of modern Latin American art, and increasingly for scholars of modern and contemporary art in general. More recently, during the five years that I was involved with the CPPC-Blanton collaboration, I became truly immersed in the collection, the depth and quality of which continue to astonish me. I am thrilled to join the CPPC as director, and am eager both to become better acquainted with other areas of the collection and to work to develop even further the rich constellation of programs that are centered on it.

My predecessor, Rafael Romero, has been a true pathfinder, and I am honored to have been selected to continue the work he so brilliantly began. I am delighted that he has agreed to continue an active role with the CPPC, as senior advisor on special projects, and I look forward to working closely with him and the CPPC’s talented staff in the years ahead.”

Dr. Pérez-Barreiro joins the CPPC at an exciting point in its history. Over the past several years, the collection has undertaken more active programming than in its three-decade history, completing an eight-year program of international exhibitions organized by its curators, engaging in the collaboration with the Blanton Museum of Art, and developing and implementing highly successful educational programming. Dr. Pérez-Barreiro will oversee all aspects of CPPC programming, including an expanded roster of publications, curatorial/academic partnerships, and continued development of educational and academic programming. The Caracas headquarters will be managed by Rafael Santana, who as assistant director for the CPPC, Venezuela, will report to Dr. Pérez-Barreiro, as will the CPPC’s distinguished curatorial team: Ariel Jiménez, curator of modern and contemporary art; Jorge Rivas, curator of colonial art; and Carlos Palacios, curator of contemporary art. Other CPPC staff-members who will report directly to Dr. Pérez-Barreiro include María del Carmen Gonzalez, the CPPC’s head of international education programs, and Guillermo Ovalle, collections manager. Dr. Pérez-Barreiro will also confer with Paulo Herkenhoff, a leading Latin American art scholar who is a longtime curatorial advisor to the CPPC, among others.

Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, who has been curator of Latin American art at the Blanton since 2002, will bring to the CPPC not only his noted scholarship on modern Latin American art, but also substantial experience in collections management, exhibitions, and publications. At the Blanton, he guided the growth, development, and care of the Museum’s distinguished collection of modern and contemporary Latin American art and organized diverse exhibitions, including most recently The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, now on view at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery through December 8, 2007. From 2000 to 2002, Dr. Pérez-Barreiro was director of visual arts at The Americas Society, in New York, and from 1998 to 2000, he was exhibitions and programs coordinator at the Casa de América in Madrid. From 1993 to 1998, he was founding curator of the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art.

Dr. Pérez-Barreiro has published and lectured widely on modern and contemporary art from Latin America, and in 2006 he edited and produced a comprehensive catalogue of the Blanton’s extensive collection of Latin American art. A sought-after guest curator, teacher, and writer, in 2007 he served as chief curator of the sixth Mercosur Biennial, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Dr. Pérez-Barreiro was born in La Coruña, Spain, in 1970. He holds a PhD in art history and theory from the University of Essex, and an MA in art history and Latin American studies from the University of Aberdeen.

Rafael Romero became director of the CPPC in 1998, initiating a period of tremendous growth and vitality for the collection. Prior to joining the CPPC, he was executive director of the Galería de Arte Nacional, in Caracas, from 1989 to 1998. From 1984 to 1988 he was director of culture at the Universidad Nacional Abierta, in Caracas.

Dr. Romero, who received a medical degree in 1971 and a BA in literature in 1979, both from Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, received a PhD in the history of art from the Sorbonne, in Paris, in 1983. He has published a variety of essays about Venezuelan art, and has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Venezuelan art. These have included Armando Reverón 1889–1954 (Palacio de Velázquez, Centro de Arte Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, 1992); Otero, Soto, Cruz-Diez: Three Venezuelan Masters of Abstraction (Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, 1994); and The Genius and Glory of Arturo Michelena: 1863–1898 (Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, 1998), among others. Dr. Romero is a member of the Caracas-based Proyecto Armando Reverón, has served on the advisory councils of several Venezuelan museums, and has taught the history of art at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.