Curator Talk: 77 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse + Guests

The Contemporary Art Modern Project is pleased to announce the curator talk for our annual fiber exhibition, 77 Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse, FAMA and Guests: We Got The Power. Gallery founder and director Melanie Prapopoulos, and assistant director Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco will be joined by Veronica Pesantes Vallejo and Nuria Richards in conversation October 12, from 5 to 7pm.

This panel will feature the curators of this year’s Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse, as well as special guests Veronica Pesantes Vallejo, curator and activist for Miami Art Hang and the Decolonizing Project, and Nuria Richards, Director of Development at Locust Projects and a key figure in artist-driven spaces through her roles in ArtTable and Clandestina. Centering the exhibition in the gallery, the panelists will discuss its themes as well as their experiences as women in an ever-changing art world.

MELANIE PRAPOPOULOS

b. in Athens, Greece

Looking at curation as an opportunity to learn and experience art as a means for understanding society, Melanie Prapopoulos has been curating for over eleven years, in gallery, at Art Fairs, and Museums. Key to her approach is how society is reflected in the works of the artist being exhibited, as she believes like the Romantics, that the artist is a prophet and speaks truths, and thus she wants to know what does the artist say about society, what can we learn from the artist? Also central to her approach is how the work crosses disciplines and how can it blossom into the tool for awakening. Utilizing her tools learned in academia, Prapopoulos brings that knowledge in her search for universals and suggestions, sometimes unknown to the artist, and opens a door to a myriad of interpretations and conversations, with the goal of making art accessible to all. This is most seen in the annual exhibition: Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse, now in its fifth year, where Prapopoulos reads the textile works as the artists’ subversion of social expectations of women working with thread as not passive participants but instead as strong voices weaving truths we cannot ignore.

MARIA GABRIELA DI GIAMMARCO (she/her)

b. in Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco is a writer, curator, and anthropologist living and working in Miami, FL. She collaborates directly with artists and institutions in a holistic effort to produce exhibitions and programs that bridge gaps between art spaces/ecosystems and those who don’t think they belong within them. Her curatorial approach relies on playful interrogations of art, conceptually and in the context of culture and history as lived experiences.She fuse anthropological theories and decolonial philosophy with pop cultural references and human mundanity to contextualize art and art-making with authenticity and humor.

Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco has a BA in Visual and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Florida and a Certificate in Art Writing from Sotheby's Institute of Art. In addition to being assistant director at The CAMP Gallery, she also works as an independent curator and freelance art writer.

Host or Publisher The CAMP Gallery