LACE has appointed Selene Preciado as the organization’s new Curator & Director of Programming. Selene Preciado was LACE’s first Emerging Curator in 2016, co-curating Customizing Language with Idurre Alonso. Since then, she has curated two additional projects at LACE—Destino Elei via Tiyei with Daniela Lieja Quintanar in 2019, which explored LACE’s history through collaborations and exchanges with Latinx and Latin American artists in Los Angeles, and Ser Todo Es Se Parte, presented as a storefront exhibition during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“We are thrilled to have Selene join the LACE team several years after working with her as our inaugural Emerging Curator.” said LACE Executive Director Sarah Russin. “She brings a great energy and knowledge of the LA art scene to help LACE as it enters its exciting new phase.”
Preciado is a Los Angeles-based independent curator who has worked at the Getty Foundation since 2015, supporting Pacific Standard Time (PST: LA/LA and PST ART: Art and Science Collide), and co-managing the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program since 2018. Prior to joining the Getty, she worked at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), and inSite_05.
Selected curatorial projects include Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture in conjunction with the National Museum of the American Latino (2022–2023, ongoing national tour); Ser todo es ser parte/To be Whole is to be Part, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2020); Destino Elei vía Tiyei, Centro Cultural Tijuana (2019), co-curated with Daniela Lieja Quintanar; Customizing Language, the inaugural exhibition of the Emerging Curators Program at LACE, co-curated with Idurre Alonso (2016); José Montoya’s Abundant Harvest: Works on Paper/Works on Life, Fowler Museum at UCLA, co-curated with Richard Montoya (2016); MIXTAPE (2013); and Anywhere Better than this Place (2012) at MOLAA. Her research-based curatorial practice approaches topics such as history, memory, language, diaspora, place, ritual, and popular culture through experimental perspectives.
Raised in Tijuana, Preciado obtained a B.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and holds an M.A. in Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere from the University of Southern California (USC).
“I am honored and humbled to be part of this dynamic team and that together we will continue to build on LACE’s history and mission of championing artists, experimentation, and community,” said Preciado. “I deeply admire and celebrate the dedication of the current team in elevating LACE’s history through the investment in our own professional community with initiatives such as the Emerging Curator Program and Apprenticeships. These programs are a testament of the institutional values of mentorship and professional development that also motivate me on a personal and professional level.”
Preciado will begin at LACE on August 1, 2023. She will play an integral role in the launch of the organization’s renovated gallery at 6522 Hollywood Blvd. and will curate the first exhibition in LACE’s new home.
“As a member of the LACE Board of Directors, I can say that we are delighted to welcome Selene Preciado to the LACE team, particularly as the organization is about to begin a new chapter with the renovation and redesign of the space just getting underway.” said Ken Gonzales-Day. “We can hardly wait to see what she will do!”
Image credit: Portrait of Selene Preciado. Photo by Raymundo Barrera.
