Ceci Moss: Director and Chief Curator of the Mandeville Art Gallery

With renovations complete, the Mandeville Art Gallery will soon open its doors under the direction of a new, dynamic leader: Ceci Moss, who joins UC San Diego poised to take arts education and outreach to new heights, building on the gallery’s expansive, 57-year history.

“Since its founding, the Mandeville Art Gallery operated much like a groundbreaking and ambitious artist-run space, one that has been in deep dialogue with the specificity of Southern California and its art movements,” Moss said. “As someone who has a background in non-traditional, contemporary arts organizations, I plan to continue this visionary and thoroughly artist-centered spirit.”

As Director and Chief Curator, Moss brings nearly 20 years of experience organizing solo, group, touring and online exhibitions, as well as public programs, performances and screenings, in museums, galleries and artist-run spaces. Moss holds a dual appointment as a Professor of Practice in the Department of Visual Arts, where she will teach courses in Museum and Curatorial Studies.

Moss said she envisions the Mandeville Art Gallery — previously named the University Art Gallery — as a “teaching gallery” and laboratory that will promote “technologically innovative, democratic, accessible and socially engaged means” of both production and presentation. She will organize group exhibitions and invite leading artists to develop new projects that maximize the gallery space and deepen collaboration across the university.

Prior to UC San Diego, she was the Director of Gas, Assistant Curator of Visual Arts at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Senior Editor at Rhizome, and Special Projects Coordinator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Moss’s writing has appeared in numerous arts publications, and she is the author of Expanded Internet Art: Twenty-First Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu.

“What strikes me most about Ceci Moss is her deep respect for art and its potential impact on bettering society. I am eager to watch her vision for the Mandeville Art Gallery unfold, and I’m confident our students have much to learn from her, both in the classroom and in the gallery,” said School of Arts and Humanities Dean Cristina Della Coletta.

To inaugurate the gallery’s grand re-opening this Spring, Moss will curate the first Department of Visual Arts faculty-focused exhibition since 2015. Titled ARE WE NOT DRAWN ONWARD TO NEW ERA, the show features new faculty who have joined the department over the past eight years: Memo Akten, Danielle Dean, dean erdmann, Malik Gaines, Mariah Garnett, Janelle Iglesias, Lorena Mostajo, Alexandro Segade, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Pinar Yoldas. The exhibition highlights recent projects within the context of the defining forces of our moment, such as continued struggles for equity and social justice, accelerating climate change, threats to democracy, and rapid technological developments. The works address both the possibilities and the complexities of this new era, and offer a distinct sense of hope for the future. The exhibition will be open March 4–June 18.

“Coming into this role, at this time, I’m keenly aware of the many ways in which art practice provides a space of respite, genuine connection, empathy and survival,” Moss said. “My hope is that the program at the Mandeville Art Gallery, as well as my courses at UC San Diego, will help students conceive of the world they want to see, and aid them in actualizing those dreams.”