Albuquerque Museum Names Josie Lopez, PhD as New Curator of Art

Born and raised in Albuquerque, Lopez brings both curatorial and academic experience as well as a local perspective. She will oversee one of the region’s important art collections of more than 10,000 works and will advance the museum’s goal to bring the world to Albuquerque and Albuquerque to the world through a full complement of diverse exhibitions. Lopez will work closely with the director to continue the museum’s ongoing effort to serve as the city’s premier cultural institution.

Lopez will start on December 10, 2018 and says, “I am particularly elated to join such an exceptional team at a time when one of the most important exhibitions to come to Albuquerque, Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, is on view. My master’s thesis was an examination of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, so the history of Spanish art has been a cornerstone of my art historical experience.”

Currently the curator at 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, Lopez received her BA in History and a Master’s in Teaching from Brown University, and a PhD in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley.

As guest curator at the Albuquerque Museum, Lopez wrote The Carved Line: Block Printmaking in New Mexico and curated the accompanying exhibition which was on view in January 2017. Her research and curatorial projects have included examining art as a discursive agent in the political arena, the intersections of art and the environment, modern and contemporary Latin American art, 19th century France, Spain and Mexico, Spanish art from El Greco to Goya, and the history of New Mexican art. As the 2013-15 Eleanor Tufts Fellow at SMU she taught courses on modern Mexico and the prints of Francisco Goya. She has also taught courses on the history of printmaking and European art at the University of New Mexico.

“Josie is a consummate scholar and generous collaborator — a specialist in 19th and 20th century printmaking with a thorough grasp of the world of art history,” says Andrew Connors. “We are so pleased that after interning at the Museum in 2014, and in 2017 curating the groundbreaking exhibition The Carved Line, Josie will join the permanent staff and share her wisdom and great ideas with all of us in New Mexico.”