LACE 2027 EMERGING CURATORS EXPLORE THE BODY AS A SITE OF MEMORY
Los Angeles, July 14, 2026 — For LACE’s twelfth Emerging Curator presentation, Alexa Ramírez Posada and Vanessa Esperanza Quintero curate What Is This Body but a Vessel for All That Has Been and All That Will Be? This performance series explores how movement and time-based media can activate the body as a site of diasporic memory in response to violent border nations and displacement. Artists including Gurmukhi Desai Bevli, Karla Ekaterine Canseco, Jay Carlon, Xandra Ibarra, Rio Nagaoka, and Azad Namazie embody a personal and communal archive that witness and counter the whitewashing of history by colonial forces.
“As we worked together, we agreed on many things, though one was whole-hearted: the function of an archive is to serve as a witness to the past and the present, for a future. Often, archives are found in stasis, hidden in spaces like our closets, the basements of our institutions, infinite Rolodexes. In this project, our goal is to showcase how the intangible, the lived, and the memory can all also exist as an alternate archive, activated by the body and all it remembers,” says Alexa Ramírez Posada and Vanessa Esperanza Quintero.
With the 2027 open call, LACE requested proposals centered on performance art works that can be presented as a single program, or programming series. Posada and Quintero’s proposal was selected from a large pool of applicants by a panel of artists and arts professionals. This year’s panelists included Dr. Meiling Cheng, author and professor at USC; Andrea Gyorody, curator, writer, and cultural strategist; and Anna Luisa Petrisko, interdisciplinary artist, healer, and teacher.
“One of the most remarkable aspects of LACE’s Emerging Curators Program is its emphasis on mentorship. Awardees are not only given an exciting opportunity to realize their ambitious and thoughtful projects, but are also supported by the expertise and guidance of Selene Preciado and the entire LACE team. While LACE’s renovations are still in progress, the resulting focus on experimental performance feels like a gift—creating space for new possibilities while honoring the organization’s deep legacy of supporting groundbreaking live and interdisciplinary work,” says Anna Luisa Petrisko.
About the Emerging Curators
Alexa Ramírez Posada is a practicing artist and curator born in Mexico City, raised in Chicago, and currently based in Los Angeles. Her work is research-based and informed by Queer x immigrant x Chicanx/Latinx history, media, and theory. She utilizes printmaking, multi-media, and archive-based methods to process the effects of violent border nations, displacement, and ensuing nostalgia. Posada is a Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial alum at LACMA and curates as an extension of her art practice.
Vanessa Esperanza Quintero is a research and collections specialist born and raised in Southeast Los Angeles. Her research focuses on audio-visual, ephemeral, and paper archival collections that explore issues of social justice. Her involvement in the field of information studies and arts and culture collections began with her recognition of the need for advocacy through the amplification and preservation of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ arts, ephemera, culture, and activism. She earned an AA in art history from East Los Angeles College, a BA in art history from California State University, Los Angeles, and an MA in library and information science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Together, Posada and Quintero are interested in deconstructing the archive and activating it through a curatorial approach within contemporary art practices.
About the Emerging Curator Program
The Emerging Curator Program is designed to discover curatorial talent in Los Angeles and provides opportunities for emerging curators to partner with LACE. Applicants are reviewed by a panel that recommends a compelling project to the LACE team consistent with LACE’s experimental spirit. Click here to view all past eleven Emerging Curator projects, including the 2026 presentation No Loneliness Like This curated by Semaj Peltier and pom*pom. The Emerging Curator Program is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
About LACE
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) champions artists, curators, and cultural workers who explore and defy boundaries through socially-engaged projects. We provide platforms within and beyond our space for diverse communities to connect deeply with challenging contemporary art. Uniquely positioned in the heart of Hollywood, LACE amplifies the voices and visions of Los Angeles’ diverse makers. LACE presents free, significant, and timely exhibitions, performances, and public projects, complemented by education initiatives. www.welcometolace.org
