Assistant Curator, Visual Arts Center
María Emilia Fernández recently completed her MA in Art History at UT Austin and is an alumna of the Center for Latin American Visual Studies (CLAVIS). Her thesis focused on the work of three contemporary Brazilian artists, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Aline Motta and Juliana dos Santos, who collaborate with their ancestors through photography to redress colonial traumas. Her research explores issues in contemporary artistic practices related to language, translation, the archive and memory, as well as the power of alternative narratives to question hegemonic forms of knowledge.
Prior to pursuing her Master’s, she worked as Curatorial Assistant at Museo Jumex in Mexico City. She collaborated in more than twelve exhibitions, including projects with Jonathas de Andrade, Jeff Koons, Xavier Le Roy, Michael Smith, Barbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Franz Erhard Walther, among other artists. As a freelance Curatorial Assistant, she worked with Catalina Lozano on the group exhibition A Natural History of Ruins at Pivô, in São Paulo, as well as a mid-career survey of Mariana Castillo Deball’s work at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo (MUAC), in Mexico City.
Before joining Museo Jumex, Maria Emilia was Communications Assistant at kurimanzutto gallery. She holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College. Her exhibition reviews and short essays have been included in publications such as Burnaway Magazine, OndaMx, Artishock and Nexos. Along with her father, she broadcasts Covertitlán, a weekly show featuring music covers on Mexican public radio.