Photo: Sebiha Öztaş

The fourth guest of our At the Transit Bar: An International Visiting Curator Series is Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, a contemporary art curator with a focus on collaboration. (The title At the Transit Bar refers to Vera Frenkel’s multi-channel video installation … from the Transit Bar, documenta IX, 1992.)

Hernández Chong Cuy was Director of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, the institution formerly known as Witte de With, where she lead the process of renaming the institution. Such process is part of a broader effort that addresses colonial traces and unconscious bias in The Netherlands. The institution’s name references an early art work by Canadian artist Ken Lum, Melly Shum Hates Her Job. During her tenure at the Melly, from 2018 to 2023, Hernández Chong Cuy co-developed a series of initiatives to engage with the field of art, including Tools for Convivality, Tools for Collective Learning, and Tools for Demodernizing. For her public talk, she will delve into her evolving curatorial methodology. She will also briefly introduce her latest research focus on the cultural protagonism of breath.

Hernández Chong Cuy’s visit continues At the Transit Bar, a program bringing ten prominent international curators to Toronto over two years to support curatorial research and to further propel Toronto’s contemporary arts and cultural scenes into a global network of artists, curators, and art institutions. Each visiting curator will give a public talk on their research, conduct studio visits with local artists, and host a curatorial workshop for emerging curators that in part addresses funding in the visual arts. AGYU has partnered with ten Toronto arts organizations to host each curator and present the talks in various locations across the city. We are pleased to partner with Art Museum at the University of Toronto in presenting this public talk.

This in-person public talk by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 6:00 pm at Debates Room at Hart House (7 Hart House Circle, 2nd floor).

Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy (she/her) was director of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam from 2018 to 2023, the institution formerly known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. In 2023, she was also a Mellon Visiting Lecturer in the Art History Department at CUNY Graduate Center in New York. Hernández Chong Cuy regularly participates in jury panels and advisory committees. Among these are the 2023 Frieze Tate Acquisition Fund in London, the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award in 2017, and the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013. Since 2022, she is a board member of International Manifesta Foundation. Previously, Hernández Chong Cuy was the curator of contemporary art at Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a foundation with offices in New York and Caracas. She has also been director at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, held curatorial positions in New York at Art in General and Americas Society, and worked as the artistic director and chief curator of the 9a Bienal do Mercosul (2013) in Porto Alegre. Additionally, Sofía has guest curated exhibitions at several spaces and museums internationally, including CCA in Vilnius, Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, and MALBA in Buenos Aires.

Art Museum at the University of Toronto (est. 2014) is a public contemporary art gallery affiliated with University of Toronto’s St. George Campus that hosts a year-round program of critically engaged exhibitions and events that foster innovative research and interdisciplinary scholarship. Composed of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) and the University of Toronto Art Centre (University College), it is one of the largest gallery spaces in Toronto.

Thank you to our Funders:
At the Transit Bar is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council; and Toronto Arts Council with the support of Outset Contemporary Art Fund, UK and Partners In Art, Toronto. Sensorium: Centre for Digital Art and Technology is providing space for the emerging curator workshops. Our core operations are supported by York University.

The visiting curator series At the Transit Bar is conceived and led by Jenifer Papararo, AGYU director/curator, with support from Kalina Nedelcheva, communications assistant, and Maria Won, gallery administration assistant.

At the Transit Bar comes at an exciting moment for the gallery, as we transition from the Art Gallery of York University to The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery, opening November 2024 with a new building, visible vault, and a renewed engagement with the numerous communities we are embedded within.