Executive Director and Chief Curator

 

José Esparza Chong Cuy is the newly arrived Executive Director and Chief Curator of Storefront for Art and Architecture. At Storefront, José introduced a new curatorial framework called Building Cycles, which presents a year-long program of exhibitions and events that explores the notion of building as both place and process, laying the groundwork for new ways of making spaces, places, and relationships with and within our surroundings.

 

Before his role at Storefront, José served as the Pamela Alper Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), which he joined in 2016. At the MCA, he co-organized a major collection exhibition to celebrate the museum’s 50th anniversary and curated solo shows of Tania Pérez Córdova and Mika Horibuchi, as well as a major commission with Federico Herrero. With MCA, José also recently oversaw a solo exhibition of Jonathas de Andrade, a collection show of recent acquisitions, and a large-scale retrospective on the life and work of Lina Bo Bardi, co-organized with the Museu de arte de São Paulo and the Museo Jumex in Mexico City.

 

Prior to the MCA, José was Associate Curator at the Museo Jumex. From 2007-2012 he lived in New York and held positions as Curatorial Associate at Storefront for Art and Architecture, Research Fellow at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, and contributing editor at Domus magazine. In 2013 he was Co-Curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial, titled Close, Closer. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s M.S. in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture.