Tanya Karina Pragnell Lopez

As a curator, it is my aim to keep developments and complex interactions of current art production as well as the influence this has on contemporary curatorial practices. It is therefore my professional focus to support post-studio practices and immaterial artworks as much as sustaining traditional disciplines of art production, such as painting and sculpture.

My interests extend beyond the realm of immaterial artworks however – especially considering that many artists’ work defies easy categorisation or definition in terms of media. For me, the curator’s role is to accompany the artistic process and help facilitate the spaces for those artists seeking public platforms but who have yet to reach wider audiences. My dissertation ShowGirls: Why do Women dominate gender ratios in the field of curating and how does this further reflect the social configurations of the contemporary art system? is reflected in my personal objective is to support female and minority artists; I have worked closely with the New York-based artist Kazuko Miyamoto, assisting in the executing of her work Archway to Cellar at the Daimler Collection, Berlin in 2013 and was the copy editor of her first monograph, an archive of her life’s work spanning five decades. In addition, I am especially keen to work with artists that contribute to challenging institutional ways of experiencing art; co-commissioning the Berlin-based artist Hanne Lippard to produce a mail-out Spam artwork on viagra and financial impotence as part of my graduate projects, is one such example. 

For some time now, I have tried to link my interest in curation to my wider art practice: because of my education as a trained artist, I have a unique insight into the needs and requirements of the artist and approach curating from an artist's perspective. Curating provides the necessary professional space in which I have been able to create a site of research and archive working with certain themes such as ‘the multiverse’ and ‘contagion’, working closely with and alongside practicing artists such as Pil & Galia Kollectiv at Wysing Arts Centre where I co-curated a Masterclass retreat, comprising of workshops and talks.

From my first experience of a curatorial role as student of the Fine Art department on my foundation year at Wimbledon College of Art and Design, I went on to become the organiser and editor of the Chelsea Student Awards, the organiser and editor for the Fine Art Degree Show Catalogue and also Treasurer for the Fine Art Degree show fund for Chelsea College of Art  Fine Art Degree Show, 2012.

Following my graduation, my aim was to broaden my experience of the current European art market and art system. Living in Berlin between 2012 and 2014, I worked as curatorial assistant to Christian Siekmeier at Exile Gallery, alongside working part time in an honorarium role at Sternberg Press, coordinating and managing image research for publications including The Artist’s House by Kirsty Bell and Beatriz Colomina’s Manifesto Architecture: The Ghost of Mies, Critical Spatial Practice 3. In the balancing of these two working positions I copyedited, proofread, and wrote texts for various exhibitions, working with and coordinating between authors and artists, and assisted in the curation and set-up of exhibitions both on site at the gallery, and offsite at art fairs such as Liste, and Artissima, amongst other responsibilities granted to me throughout my time at both establishments.