Collection Talks Coordinator
As part of the FORO, the ‘Charlas de Colección’ (Collection Talks) cycle will be inaugurated, coordinated by Pablo León de la Barra. This is a program of formation and reflection that will address the various formats of collecting in Latin America.
Pablo León de la Barra was born in Mexico City in 1972 and currently lives in Rio de Janeiro. He has a Ph.D. in Histories and Theories, from the Architectural Association in London. Since 2013, he has been the Curator for Latin America at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where he has curated exhibitions such as Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today (2014-16), Cecilia Vicuña: Spin Spin Triangulene (2022), and Gego: Measuring Infinity (2023). He is also responsible for acquiring works by Latin American artists for the museum's collection. León de la Barra worked as Chief Curator on the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2016-2020), and as Director of Casa França-Brasil in Rio de Janeiro (2015-2016). He is the founder and co-curator of the 1st and 2nd Tropical Biennials in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2011 and 2016). Over the course of his more than two-decade curatorial career, he has curated numerous international exhibitions. He was a co-curator of the Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico (2017) and the curator of the Mexican Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, showcasing the work of Carlos Amorales. In 2012, he received the first Travel and Research Grant from Independent Curators International/ Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros for Central America and the Caribbean, in honor of Virginia Pérez-Ratton. He is a member of advisory boards, including the Luis Barragán Foundation in Mexico, the Nasher Sculpture Prize in Dallas, the Caribbean Art Initiative in Basel, and serves as the chair of the jury for the Prince Claus Fund Impact Awards in the Netherlands.
Photos by David Heald, Guggenheim Museum.