Claudia Pretelin, New York City, 2016. © Image by Bryan Murray

Hi! Welcome to Instruments of Memory. I’m Claudia Pretelin. I’m a Mexican art historian, independent curator, and arts administrator based in Los Angeles, California. This site is my long-term art history documentation project. It has evolved with time and I find myself now focusing on promoting the work of women in the arts through in-depth conversations, exhibitions, and programming with different community partners. You can learn more about me here.

Thanks for visiting!

UPCOMING EVENTS

VII Coloquio Repensar América Latina: Inter(acciones) entre migración, identidad y cultura en el siglo XXI.

El equipo curatorial de la exposición Memorias y Resistencias: Mujeres | Artistas | Historias Afrolatinas y Caribeñas formará parte del VII Coloquio Internacional Repensar América Latina: Inter(acciones) entre migración, identidad y cultura, del 16 al 20 de octubre de 2023, en la Universidad de Costa Rica.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN AQUÍ

INTERVIEWS

“I have always had strong women mentors – from my mother and sisters to teachers, and have spent most of my professional life in women-led organizations.” – Holly Jerger

Don’t miss this conversation between artist and curator Holly Jerger and art historian Claudia Pretelin.

Holly Jerger (she/her) was just appointed Art Galleries Director at California State University, Northridge. Previously, she was Senior Exhibitions Curator at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles where she organized numerous exhibitions including solo presentations of Lezley Saar, Kay Sekimachi, Gronk, and Diedrick Brackens, as well as the surveys: Wayfinding, The Body, The Object, The Other and Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ball State University, Indiana, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she also taught. Holly has also served on the boards of the Museum Educators of Southern California and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

READ FULL INTERVIEW HERE

EXHIBITIONS

EXPOSICIÓN EN LÍNEA | ONLINE EXHIBITION CONTINUES!

Instruments of Memory en alianza con el Museo de las Mujeres de Costa Rica presenta MEMORIAS Y RESISTENCIAS: MUJERES | ARTISTAS| HISTORIAS AFROLATINAS Y CARIBEÑAS una muestra colectiva con más de diez artistas emergentes y otras de amplia trayectoria que examinan historias visuales de mujeres de la diáspora africana y afrodescendientes en América Latina. Con curaduría a cargo de Claudia Mandel Katz (Argentina-Costa Rica), Adriana Palomo (Argentina), Claudia Pretelin (México-Estados Unidos) y Sussy Vargas (Costa Rica) esta exposición busca reflexionar sobre las diferentes comunidades afrolatinas enfatizando la importancia de comprender el legado de estas comunidades en nuestro continente.

Da click AQUÍ para acceder a la galería

Instruments of Memory, in partnership with The Women’s Museum of Costa Rica, presents an online exhibition featuring the work of emerging and established artists who examine visual stories of the African diaspora and Afro-descendants in Latin America. Curated by Claudia Mandel Katz (Argentina-Costa Rica), Adriana Palomo (Argentina), Claudia Pretelin (Mexico-USA), and Sussy Vargas (Costa Rica ) this exhibition seeks to reflect upon the different Afro-Latin communities emphasizing the importance of understanding the legacy of these diverse black communities in our continent.

Click HERE to access the online gallery!

NEW INTERVIEWS

Cecilia Vázquez’s work feeds off situations stemming from the still life and the landscape, and from the invention of elements that encourage the remembrance of something remotely familiar. Be it in painting, drawing, or three-dimensional pieces, Vázquez maneuvers in the interstice of figurative and abstract syntaxes to revalue the image as a territory loaded with subjective possibilities in terms of imagination, and its potential for the articulation of new metaphorical meanings.