Curatorial Advisors
Our Americas COVID-19 Memorial Project Curatorial Advisors will be responsible for selecting and inviting the 20 artists that will be commissioned to submit their memorial artwork. Join us on April 16th during our next virtual Coffee Chat to hear from Maria and Derrick on their involvement in the memorial project, their work and the importance of art for healing.
Maria Paz Gaviria
Derrick Velasquez
María Paz has a degree in art history from Columbia University. Since 2019, she is the Manager of Cultural Platforms for the Chamber of Commerce of Bogota, which aim to promote and position the city as a destination for arts and culture through ARTBO, the institution’s art program, the Bogotá Audiovisual Market, the Bogotá Music Market, Bogotá Fashion Week, and the gastronomy congress Bogotá Madrid Fusión. In 2012, Ms. Gaviria was appointed ARTBO Director, under which she created the institution's arts program, that has positioned itself as a program that most deeply impacts visual arts in the country, and as a referent in Latin America.
Derrick Velasquez is an artist and exhibition organizer who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. His most recent exhibitions include solo shows at The Herron School of Art and Design, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Robischon Gallery, Pentimenti, and The Black Cube Nomadic Museum. He has had recent group exhibitions at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Carvlho Park, Transmitter, and was a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors and a 2019 MacDowell Fellow. Derrick also runs Yes Ma’am Projects, an artist-run gallery in the basement of his Athmar Park home.