curator
A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
,
art critic
An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
,
art historian
Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history.
Traditionally, the ...
and educator.
Background
Zamudio was born in
Tijuana
Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...
, Mexico. He was raised in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, California and moved to New York City where he currently lives and works. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history from the
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
and the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...
. He also studied at the following institutions: Vassar College, Université Laval, Columbia University, and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He is an alumnus of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in Critical Studies.
Curatorial work
He was Curator-at-Large, Pristine Galerie, Monterrey, Mexico; International Art Director, Other Gallery, Beijing, Shanghai; Director of Exhibitions, White Box, New York, New York; Curator-at-Large, the:artist:network, New York, New York, and Curator, Empty Circle Brooklyn. Recently, Raúl Zamudio has opened an exhibition space in his home in the West Village, New York City, under the name of Proyectos Raul Zamudi He has curated or co-curated over 150 exhibitions in the Americas, Asia and Europe including solo shows of
Dennis Oppenheim
Dennis Oppenheim (September 6, 1938 – January 21, 2011) was an American conceptual artist, performance artist, earth artist, sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the na ...
, Javier Téllez, Miguel Angel Rios,
Bik Van der Pol
Bik van der Pol is the artists duo Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol, who work together since 1994 as conceptual artists and installation artists.Gordon Cheung, Riiko Sakkinen, Wojtek Ulrich, Shahram Entekhabi, Sun Yao, and Lui Lei, as well as group exhibitions including '' The Twilight of the Idols'' (Madrid), ''
The Metamorphosis
''The Metamorphosis'' (), also translated as ''The Transformation'', is a novella by Franz Kafka published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, ''The Metamorphosis'' tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes to find himself inex ...
'' (Shanghai), ''
Body Double
In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...
'' (Wrocław), ''
The Picture of Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...
'' (Mexico City), ''Under Your Skin'' (New York City), ''The
Phantom Limb
A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. It is a chronic condition that is often resistant to treatment. When the cut ends of sensory fibres are stimulated during thigh movements, the patient feels as ...
'' (Chicago), ''The Crystal Land Revisited'' (Newark), ''
That Obscure Object of Desire
''That Obscure Object of Desire'' (; ) is a 1977 comedy drama film directed by Luis Buñuel, based on the 1898 novel '' The Woman and the Puppet'' by Pierre Louÿs. It was Buñuel's final directorial effort before his death in July 1983. Set in S ...
'' (Monterrey, Mexico), ''The
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly bounded by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Since the mid-20th century, it has been the focus of an urban legend sug ...
'' (Miami), ''
Under the Volcano
''Under the Volcano'' is a novel by the English writer Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) published in 1947. It tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic British Consulate general, consul in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca, Quauhnahuac on the D ...
'' (San Jose, Costa Rica) and '' Theater of Cruelty'' (New York City).
Raúl Zamudio's curatorial work is distinguished by an expansive approach underscored, for example, in the following exhibitions:'' Rayuela'', which used the structuralist configuration of the similarly titled novel by the writer
Julio Cortázar
Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine and naturalised French novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenc ...
as curatorial framework; '' The Passenger'', based on the film by the director
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni ( ; ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", ''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and '' ...
;'' The Crystal Land Revisited,'' which was conceptually organized around an essay by the artist
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...
;'' In the Future the Curator Will Point and Say, "Those Objects Over There is an Exhibition",'' based on an aphorism by
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
; ''The Pavilion of Realism ,'' based on
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...
's rejection from the 1855 Exposition Universelle, which Zamudio presented in Shanghai during the 2010
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...
; another exhibition that incorporated a medical condition as thematic; and ''Art After Dark And After'', a talk show in which he served as host that was both an interview program with artists and an art exhibition masked as dialogue and discussion. Apart from organizing exhibitions in galleries, art fairs, art festivals, alternative art spaces, academic and museum institutions, Zamudio was co-curator, "Here Is Where We Jump!," La Bienal 2013,
El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the City ...
, New York, New York; co-curator, "City Without Walls," 2010 Liverpool Biennial; co-curator, ''Constellations'': 2009 Beijing 798 Biennial; artistic director/curator, ''Garden of Delights'': 2008 Yeosu International Art Festival; co-curator, ''Turn and Widen'': 2008 Media_City Seoul International Media Art Biennial; and co-curator of an official collateral exhibition titled ''Poles, Apart, Poles Together'' presented at the 2005
Venice Biennial
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. He is one of the curators of the 2024 Gangwon International Triennial, Kore
His exhibitions have been reviewed in numerous periodicals including ''Art in America'', ''Art Nexus'' ''Art Notes'', ''Diario ABC'', ''L Magazine'', ''New York Art World'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''Randian'', and the ''Village Voice''.
Criticism and writing
As an art critic, Raúl Zamudio has written over 200 published texts of which many have been translated into Chinese, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is author, co-author, or contributor to more than 70 art-related books and exhibition catalogs, and some of the artists he has written essays on include
Francis Alys
Francis may refer to:
People and characters
*Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025)
*Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Francis (surname)
* Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie29 ...
, Waltercio Caldas,
Lygia Clark
Lygia Pimentel Lins (23 October 1920 – 25 April 1988), better known as Lygia Clark, was a Brazilian artist best known for her painting and Installation art, installation work. She was often associated with the Brazilian Constructivist moveme ...
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Italian Argentines, Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist. He is known as the founder of Spatialism and exponent of Abstract art, abstract painting as the f ...
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...
,
Rebecca Horn
Rebecca Horn (24 March 1944 – 6 September 2024) was a German visual artist best known for her installation art, film directing and body modifications such as ''Einhorn'' (Unicorn), a body-suit with a very large horn projecting vertically from ...
, Teresa Margolles,
Cildo Meireles
Cildo Meireles (born 1948) is a Brazilian conceptual artist, installation artist and sculptor. He is noted especially for his installations, many of which express resistance to political oppression in Brazil. These works, often large and dense, ...
,
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American ar ...
,
Gabriel Orozco
Gabriel Orozco (born April 27, 1962) is a Mexican artist. He gained his reputation in the early 1990s for his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. In 1998, Francesco Bonami called Orozco "one of the most influentia ...
Santiago Sierra
Santiago Sierra (born 1966) is a Spanish artist, known for performance art and installation art. Much of his work deals with the topic of social inequities. He lives in Madrid.
Career
Sierra's most well-known works involve hiring laborers to co ...
, Jesús Rafael Soto, Javier Téllez, and Teresa Serrano. He is corresponding editor for
Art Nexus
''ArtNexus'' is the leading magazine to cover the contemporary art of Latin America. From its documentation center in Bogota, the magazine covers visual art and architecture. By publishing in both Spanish and English, the magazine fulfilled its go ...
, and his texts have appeared in numerous periodicals including
Contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...
, TRANS> Arts Culture Media, Estilo, Art in Culture, Art Map, Zingmagazine, Art Notes, Laboratory, Framework: The Finnish Journal of Contemporary Art, Journal of the West, Tema Celeste, La Tempestad, Public Art, and
Flash Art
''Flash Art'' is a contemporary art magazine, and an Italian and international publishing house. Originally published bilingually, both in Italian and in English, since 1978 is published in two separate editions, Flash Art Italia (Italian) and ...
. Raúl Zamudio's writing has been cited by Reed Johnson of the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...