MICA Grad Show III

MICA’s Office of Graduate Studies is delighted to announce Grad Show III, curated by Manuela Paz and Darren Jones, will feature 51 students from five MFA programs: Community Arts, Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, Mount Royal School of Art, Photographic and Electronic Media, and Rinehart School of Sculpture. MICA Grad Show III will be on view April 19–May 5 in galleries on MICA’s campus and in Station North. Opening reception, Saturday, April 27, 5–8:30pm.

Visit micagradshow.com for a complete schedule of exhibitions, film screenings, public programs, and student-curated installations throughout Baltimore city.

About the curators:

Darren Jones is a US-based, Scottish-born critic, curator and artist. He earned a BFA (Painting) at Central Saint Martins College, London, and his MFA from Hunter College, New York. His reviews, and criticism of the art world’s structures hierarchies and practices, have been widely published, including in Artforum, ArtUS, Artslant, Artsy, Brooklyn Rail, and New Art Examiner. He has exhibited extensively in group and solo exhibitions, including at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow; Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh; National Library of Argentina, Buenos Aires; Queens Museum of Art, New York; Altes Finanzamt, Berlin; Konsthallen-Bohusläns Museum, Sweden; and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclow, Poland. Jones’ various projects have been noted in The Guardian, Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Artcritical and Scotland on Sunday among others. His book, The Contemporary Art Gallery: Display, Power and Privilege, co-authored with David Carrier, was published by Cambridge Scholars in 2016. Jones is a 2018 recipient of a Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Manuela Paz is Director of Development and Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York, an organization that produces exhibitions, events, publications, and research centering on the role of the curator as a contextualizing and infrastructural force for contemporary art. In 2015 she co- founded Embajada, an exhibition space in San Juan and platform for promoting Puerto Rican and Caribbean voices in an international context. There, Paz, together with her partner, artist Christopher Rivera, have maintained a rigorous exhibition program showcasing important local artists. Prior to her role at ICI, Paz worked with the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) as the organization’s membership director, developing year-round programming for emerging galleries. Before NADA, Paz worked for The Armory Show in New York, beginning as an assistant and working her way up to Director of VIP Relations over the course of eight years. During her tenure at The Armory Show, she co-founded Armory Arts Week, a city-wide public programming series recognized and supported by New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Throughout her career, Paz has shaped meaningful experiences for today’s leading arts patrons and collectors, while providing artists with a platform for exposure and growth.