Sofia Bastidas Receives the 2016 Pollock Curatorial Fellowship

The Pollock Curatorial Fellowship provides recent graduates in the field of curatorial studies with important professional experience. Selected annually, fellows manage all elements of exhibitions in the Pollock Gallery and curate two to three exhibitions during the year. Sofia Bastidas is the third curatorial fellow. Previous fellows included Sally Frater and Danielle Avram.

The Pollock Gallery plays a significant role in an active academic ecology, extending the experiences of the studio classroom with thoughtful and creative considerations of present and past art forms. It is a vehicle to study a wide array of art practices, providing the Division of Art with an arena for experimental considerations of the space where curatorial and studio practice meet.

Sofia Bastidas (b. Ecuador, 1987) is a curator and cultural producer who is interested in creating collaborative systems and networks to formulate a regenerative curatorial and historical research practice working with artists, scholars and organizers. Bastidas received a B.A. in art history from Florida International University, with a focus in contemporary art. In 2012, she founded Dwelling Projects, an itinerant residency program that generates partnerships with artists, institutions and alternative spaces in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bastidas has curated and organized exhibitions at Spinello Projects (Miami), Bakehouse Art Complex (Miami), Dimensions Variable (Miami), Espacio 20/20 (Puerto Rico) and The Girls’ Club Collection Annex Space (Fort Lauderdale), among others. In 2015, she was Cannonball’s local artist-in-residence and co-organized TVGOV, an independent research group that aims to direct government towards preservation of territory, as land and sea.