Igor Simões

Clark Fellow

01/28/2024–06/02/2024

Igor Simões is professor of history, theory, and art criticism, as well as methodology and practice in art teaching, at Universidate Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He holds a PhD from the same institution. His work focuses on the intersections of histories of art and racialization in Brazilian art. Recent and current curatorial projects include Presença Negra no Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, Empowerment (Volfsburg, Germany); Social Fabric (Houston and Dallas, Texas); and Dos Brasis: Arte e Pensamento negro. In 2019 he served as educational curator of the Bienal 12—Bienal do Mercosul, and he is the invited curator of the Instituto Inhotim in Minas Gerais for the 2023 season. Simões is a member of the curatorial board of Museu de Arte Contemporânea USP and an advisory board member for AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions), including advising the initiative “Rewriting Art History in the Americas: BIPOC Women Artists in the 19th and 20th Centuries,” which will culminate in the exhibition Art and Feminisms at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany.
At the Clark, he aims to answer the question: How can we explain the absence of black Brazilian artists in the international debate on Afrodiasporic art?