Chus Martínez, the head of Documenta 13’s department for artistic direction, has been selected as chief curator of El Museo del Barrio, Art in America reports. Ms. Martínez, who had been with Documenta for three years, will follow Deborah Cullen in the role. Ms. Cullen left the museum in June to lead the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia.
Ms. Martínez’s curatorial credits include organizing Cyprus’s pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale and serving as a curatorial advisor on the 2010 Bienal de São Paulo. According to her Documenta bio, she was chief curator at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona from 2008 to 10, director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein from 2005 to 08 and the artistic director of Bilbao’s Sala Rekald contemporary art space from 2002 to 2005.
Last year, former Christie’s vice president and specialist Margarita Aguilar was picked to lead the museum. In a statement released to press, she called Ms. Martínez an “inspiring curator.”
In other El Museo news, the massive show of Caribbean art that it organized with the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Queens Museum of Art, “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World,” is on view through Jan. 6, 2013.
Here’s a short video clip of Ms. Martínez discussing her 2010 show at MACBA, “Are You Ready for TV?”
https://vimeo.com/16732663
