Judy Chicago in Conversation with Maura Reilly

Carmina Escobar is an extreme vocalist and intermedia artist with an active teaching practice. Born in Mexico and based in Los Angeles, Escobar investigates and expresses emotions, politics, states of alienation, and the possibilities of interpersonal connection through voice performances that experiment challenge our understandings of musicality, gender, queerness, race, the spoken word, and the foundations of human communication. She has performed in Cuba, Europe, Mexico, the United States, and Germany. Her work FIESTA PERPETUA! a communitas ritual of manifestation (2018) was included in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Los Angeles. Her new project with Micaela Tobin, HOWL SPACE is a virtual hub offering individualized teaching sessions, workshops, and salons.

Dr. Maura Reilly is a curator and arts writer who has organized dozens of exhibitions internationally with a specific focus on marginalized artists. She has written extensively on global contemporary art and curatorial practice, including, most recently Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating (Thames & Hudson, 2018), which was named a “Top 10 Best Art Book of 2018” by the New York Times. Her next book, The Ethical Museum is forthcoming from Thames & Hudson in 2022, followed by a textbook on Feminist Art, also with Thames & Hudson. Reilly is the Founding Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she developed and launched the first exhibition and public programming space in the USA devoted entirely to feminist art. While there, she organized several landmark exhibitions, including the permanent installation of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, the blockbuster Global Feminisms (co-curated with Linda Nochlin), Ghada Amer: Love Had No End, Burning Down the House, among others. She is a founding member of two initiatives dedicated to fighting discrimination against women in the art world – The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) and Feminist Curators United (FcU). She received her M.A. and PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is an Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail. Dr. Reilly is an Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at Arizona State University.