October 17, 2024
The ICAA is thrilled to announce the first cohort of the ¡Aquí Estamos! and Latinx Papers Project fellows, supported by the Mellon Foundation and Terra Foundation for American Art. Based in Curatorial, the ICAA, Conservation, and Learning and Interpretation departments, the fellows will contribute to research on archival materials, potential acquisitions, and collection objects, as well as their care and interpretation. Welcome to the MFAH/ICAA!
2024-2026 Postdoctoral Curatorial Research Fellow, Latinx Art: Amy Crum (Houston, TX)
Amy will assist the MFAH department of Latin American and Latino Art in the study of Latinx artworks in the Museum’s collections as well as in the research and identification of works by Latinx artists for potential acquisition. She will also contribute to the development of collection displays and public programs that center on Latinx artists.
As a scholar and curator Amy Crum specializes in contemporary art of the Americas. Her doctoral dissertation examines several experimental mural exhibitions in Los Angeles and Mexico by Chicanx artists beginning in the 1970s in dialogue with the emergence of practices like installation art, institutional critique, and social practice art. Prior to joining MFAH Crum participated in the Tyson Scholars program hosted by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and served as the Predoctoral Fellow in Latinx Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Her research has been supported by the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, the Fowler Museum, and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Prior to earning her PhD in Art History from the University of California Los Angeles (Fall 2024) she earned her MA from Tulane University (2019).
In addition to her academic pursuits, Crum is an alumna of the Mellon Foundation/Center for Curatorial Leadership and the Independent Curators International Curatorial Intensive. She has also held curatorial positions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
ICAA Latinx Papers Project Fellows
2024-25 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ICAA: Lesdi C. Goussen Robleto (Oakland, CA)
Lesdi will assist in the implementation of partnerships in the Bay Area; lead and advise the research team on the development of editorial criteria; and brings a research focus on Central American diasporas in Latinx communities.
Lesdi C. Goussen Robleto works on modern and contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on experimental, mixed media, and performance practices in Central America. More broadly, her research also considers the entangled relationship between art, curation, and pedagogy within the region. Her dissertation, “Patricia Belli: (Un)mending Bodies within the Folds of the Revolution and the Neoliberal Turn in Nicaragua, 1987- 2001,” looks at the work of the contemporary artist Patricia Belli against the backdrop of inter and postwar Nicaragua. By tending to gendered materialities and themes within the artist’s oeuvre, such as the relationship between bodies and textiles, the dissertation considers how Belli’s works mobilize feminized intertextualities and practices of repair that intervene in the aesthetic discourses of this time, including the social, political, and economic ideologies that marked the neoliberal transition in the country. While taking a monographic approach, the project places Belli’s work in conversation with other Central American women artists from this period, whose works recodify gendered labor and everyday objects into conceptual, feminist interventions.
Lesdi was a 2023-2024 Archive and Collections Management Fellow at 500 Capp Street in San Francisco. In 2021, she formed part of the Curatorial Seminar at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York. Her research has been supported by the Institute for Studies of Latin American Art, the Ford Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. She earned her BA in Art History from New York University and recently received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley.
2024-26 Research and Metadata Development Fellow, ICAA: Gwen A. Unger (New York, NY)
Gwen will assist in the development of new vocabularies and metadata specific to the Latinx Papers Project. Based in New York, Gwen will also conduct onsite research in partner repositories and brings a research focus on Caribbean diasporas in Latinx communities.
Gwen A. Unger is a Ph.D. Candidate in Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University in the City of New York, specializing in modern and contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Art. Her dissertation, “Other Selves: Critical Self-Portaiture in Cuba during the ‘Special Period in Time of Peace’ 1990-1999” considers how three black Cuban artists— Elio Rodriguez, Belkis Ayón, and Rene Peña—negotiate questions of race, subjectivity, and belonging through the portrayal of alter-egos. Gwen’s research draws from art history of the African Diaspora, Afro-Cuban studies, Caribbean theory, and Black Queer studies, among other fields. While at Columbia, Gwen has served as coordinator of the Columbia Graduate Colloquium and co-organizer of the Fifth Annual Symposium of Latin American Art. She also helped to co-found the lecture series “Unusual Scenes: A Series of Unorthodox Conversations in Art History. Recently, Gwen co-curated the exhibition “Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art” at the Wallach Art Gallery and contributed to Selected Essays On the Work of Gertrudis Rivalta, edited by Jacqueline Loss.
2024-25 Predoctoral Research Fellow (California), ICAA: Janina López (Pittsburgh, PA)
Janina will research and annotate selected documents from partner repositories in California, and on materials related to California-based Latinx artists and artist collectives.
Janina López is a PhD candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently writing a dissertation entitled “The Royal Chicano Air Force’s Comuniversidad: Public Art and Education in Northern California, 1960 to Now,” about the murals and screenprints of a Sacramento-based group of educator-activist-artists. It is a study of California’s public education systems and collaborative community educational arts practices. Janina has participated in curatorial projects at the Westmoreland Museum of Art and university art galleries in California and Pennsylvania. She is currently curating an exhibition of Chicano murals at California State University Sacramento. Previously, Janina worked with the Philadelphia-based Monument Lab to aid in the development of a database of US-Mexico border monuments. Janina completed her undergraduate degree in art history from California State University Sacramento, where she worked extensively with the university’s art collection.
2024-25 Predoctoral Research Fellow (Texas), ICAA: Alana J. Coates (Albuquerque, NM)
Alana will research and annotate selected documents from partner repositories in Texas, and on materials related to Texas-based Latinx artists and artist collectives.
Alana J. Coates holds bachelor’s degrees in art history and fine arts from the University of Rhode Island. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio, specializing in art history and nonprofit leadership. After serving as a director in both private and academic galleries, she chose to pursue a Ph.D. in the art of the Americas at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on contemporary art, with a special emphasis on the art of Texas, inspired by her decade-long residence in San Antonio. She is honored to conduct an in-depth study of primary source materials on Texas artists as an ICAA Pre-doctoral Research Fellow.
