BIO

Sofía Shaula Reeser-del Rio (b. 1989) is a Puerto Rican curator, scholar, multidisciplinary artist, and educator whose practice bridges storytelling, critical inquiry, and advocacy. Based between Puerto Rico, Madrid, and NYC, she is dedicated to uncovering untold histories and amplifying stories often excluded from dominant cultural narratives.

Sofía has organized and produced several major exhibitions with a special focus on Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean artists, particularly supporting LGBTQ and self-identified female artists from Puerto Rico. Sofía’s curatorial work celebrates their cultural and civic contributions, highlighting the ways these communities have shaped public life, equity-building efforts, and urban transformation. Exploring themes of memory, ecology, sustainability, new modes of economic/social production, and pedagogy. 

During her tenure (2012-2017) at El Museo del Barrio in New York, she coordinated and organized over thirty exhibitions and numerous public programs, artists’ projects, site-specific installations, and off-site special projects. Some notable ones include NKAME: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón (2017), Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion (2016), Illusive Eye (2016), Marisol (2015), Pa'Lante: Young Lords in New York (2015), PLAYING WITH FIRE: Political Interventions, Dissident Acts, and Mischievous Actions (2014), Museum Starter Kit: Open with Care (2013), La Bienal (2013), Caribbean Crossroads of the World (2012). She also oversaw the development, and management of the Artists in Residency, Lucky Sevens Art Salon, and the Portfolio Reviews, programs that reimagined contemporary artists’ roles and their relationships with the Museum.

Sofía has an MFA from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, and a BFA from the Pratt Institute. She is also a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, where she took courses with renowned Puerto Rican visual artists, educators, and academics that shaped and informed her practices. She is a member of the community-based organization Mujeres de Islas, Inc, a Culebra, PR's NGO, and a certified postnatal Doula and an Ashtanga and prenatal Yoga Teacher.

STATEMENT

My practice is guided by the questions: Who is telling our stories? Why are our stories being told? Where are our stories being told? How do we remember when tangible markers of memory are lost or inaccessible? These inquiries frame my work as an exercise in illuminating untold histories, re-centering narratives often excluded from dominant cultural frameworks, and exploring the fragility and resilience of memory across time and space.

My artistic and curatorial practices are deeply intertwined, both guided by a transdisciplinary approach that explores issues of gender, sustainability, and race. Through collaboration and research, I aim to bring visibility to what has been overlooked or marginalized—focusing on self-care as a form of #HealingRevolution, the stories and experiences of migration and exile, and alternative economic and socio-political modes of production. These efforts generate programs that amplify the diverse communities and voices of the Caribbean, Latin America, and their diasporas, while fostering connections between artistic and academic communities.

My artistic work focuses on the body's relationships with three fundamental axes: memory, rituals, and architecture. It is an empirical work (based on the senses, observation, and experimentation) and poetic (approaching experience and knowledge from the intuitive, subconscious, and imaginary) as pauses allow us to observe the interactions (conscious and unconscious) more closely.

As a curator and arts producer, I provide and find platforms to heighten artists' diverse voices, social/cultural realities, and communities. In my role as curator, I take an active role in ensuring that what is programmed and selected invites new ways of thinking about ourselves, our communities, and the world, pushing boundaries, trying new technologies, and creating memorable experiences that generate meaningful dialogues. My goal is to weave the gap between art and the public responding to the ever-changing ecosystems each inhabits.