Monira Foundation

Ysabel Pinyol Blasi is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Monira Foundation. Ysabel has over 20 years experience working in the arts; among her many accomplishments, she has built and cultivated the public and private collections of established contemporary artists. Previously the Curatorial Director at Mana Contemporary, Pinyol continues to curate independently for galleries and museums around the world, most recently Jonas Mekas, Open Archives (2023) and Candida Alvarez, stretching, nesting, rearching, feeling (2024). In October 2017 Pinyol was invited to be a guest critic for the Brooklyn Rail where she wrote “Alt-Art Spaces and the Question of Identity Refusal.”

Lidia Costa is the Director of Public Programs at Monira Foundation, leading the organization and development of online and onsite programs that aim to connect artists with the community. Lidia also designs educational resources for educators and other interpretive materials for visitors. Prior to joining the Monira Foundation, she was an Art Educator in Jersey City for more than eight years. Lidia has also worked in education and public programming coordination in art institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the International Center of Photography amongst other art institutions and organizations in NY, UK and Galicia, Spain, where she is originally from.

Anne Muntges directs the residencies and grants development for the Monira Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Anne was the Program Officer of Fiscal Sponsorship for the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she worked with artists to develop fundraising strategies and project development. She has worked with several nonprofit organizations, including the Center for Book Arts in New York and the Western New York Book Art Center in Buffalo, directing education programs, studio and community development, and overseeing residencies. Anne received an MFA from the University at Buffalo and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. She maintains an active studio in Jersey City and an active exhibition schedule.

Karline Moeller is the Founder of Art Frankly, a platform for the global arts community to seek and post jobs. In concert with Art Frankly, Karline runs KMP, a private recruitment company that specializes in filling senior positions within the art world. Before founding Art Frankly, Karline ran the New York office for the Cy Twombly Foundation. She also co- owned Moeller Snow Gallery, worked in the Contemporary department at Sotheby’s and was assistant director at Nyehaus gallery. In 2012 Karline co-founded the Mana Residencies at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ. Karline continues to work closely with the artists in residence and she contributes actively to the curatorial programming at Mana.

Kevin Quiles Bonilla is an interdisciplinary artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Through photography, performance and installation, his works explore ideas around power, colonialism, and history with his identity as context. He received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons The New School for Design (2018). He has presented his work at Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Lincoln Center and Ford Foundation. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the EmergeNYC (2021) and Monira Foundation Residency (2024), among others. His work has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic and The Guardian. His upcoming solo show will be at Baxter St. Gallery in June 2024. He lives and works between New York and Puerto Rico.

Pol Morton is a chronically ill non-binary artist with an unreliable body making assemblage paintings about queerness, transness, and disability. Morton’s diaristic paintings attempt to locate the self when it is trapped, whether in a bed, in the home, or even within the body itself. Born in Palo Alto, California, they received their BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (2009) and their MFA at Hunter College in New York City (2022). Their work has been exhibited at White Columns, New York; Bass and Reiner, San Francisco; and The Beijing American Center, among others.

Rashad Wright is the poet laureate emeritus of Jersey City, New Jersey and a teacher on behalf of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Foundation and Passaic County’s Theatre & Poetry Program. He is a graduate of New Jersey City University, receiving his BA in English: Creative Writing. He is the author of Romeo’s Whiskey, published via Rebel Ink. He recently was a member of the 2023 New Jeru Slam Poetry team whom placed second in the country at the Southern Fried National Poetry Slam. Rashad has also been awarded First Place at the Walter Glospie American Academy of Poets Prize, being inducted into the Academy of American Poets. He can be found on multiple podcasts and radio interviews most notably NPR’s Here & Now and WBGO.

Ginevra de Blasio is a writer and curator from Rome, Italy, now based in New York City, USA. She graduated with a BA in Art History and Visual Culture from the University of Exeter, England, and from an MA in Visual Arts Administration at NYU, New York. Ginevra had curatorial and work experiences at The Drawing Center, Performa, Fondazione Corsini, 99 Canal, and Paula Cooper Gallery. Currently, she is involved in multiple projects and serves as a research assistant to Adam Weinberg, Director Emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art.