BLINDSIDE 2021 EMERGING CURATOR MENTORSHIP

8 -18 Dec 2021

Curator | Bea Rubio-Gabriel

Mentor | Amelia Wallin

Bea Rubio-Gabriel

The 2021 Emerging Curator Mentor program is focused on curatorial research and the development of an exhibition at BLINDSIDE.

The annual Emerging Curator Mentorship is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the City of Melbourne. 

Bea Rubio-Gabriel (b. 1996, Manila, Philippines) is a performance artist, writer, and curator born in the Philippines, now based in Naarm/Melbourne. Exploring systems of care and Resistance Aesthetics, they challenge current curatorial and euro-centric modes of exhibiting, approaching the curatorial as its own way of making; grounding it in community, and rhizomatic ways of care and collectivisation. Their research focuses on pre-colonial writing systems (namely, Baybayin) and (Ifugao) ways of healing of the Philippines. Approaching writing as artform, they explore the Baybayin script in how it can be activated as a gateway to rebuild cultural connections through performance.

Bea graduated from Monash University with a double Bachelor of Arts/Visual Arts and was awarded the BAHC x MUMA Curatorial Award in MADA19. In 2020 they undertook the Loadnadito’s Curating in Local Contexts, the Eastcall Curatorial Residency and the What Could/Should Curating Do? Curatorial Programme. Former co-director at Intermission Gallery, they also worked as the Associate Editor for WCSCD’s curatorial inquiry with the As You Go Journal and have presented their research as a part of Monash CURIE’s International Centre for Undergraduate Research (ICUR) conference. They are currently a part of SEVENTH Gallery’s Emerging Writer’s Program and sit on the KINGS Artist-Run committee.

Bea’s curatorial projects include RIOT! (Connection Art Space, 2020); /dis/location (Monash MPavillion, 2019); The Art of Consumption and theanswersyouneedarerightwhereyouare (Intermission Gallery, 2019); and Revisiting the Quadriennale (CareOf Facility, Milan, 2018). They have exhibited locally and internationally in Ideas of Resilience (Brunswick Street Gallery, 2021), Rain Dance (Grey Gardens, 2020), SALUHAN: Pearl Diving Report (Project20 Gallery, Manila), and Unpacking Hysteria (Monash University, Prato, 2018). Their writing has been published with UnProjects, The Climatized, Art-Bazhan Journal, and As You Go…roads beneath your feet towards a new future.

Amelia Wallin (b. 1986, Sydney) is a curator, writer and director. With a focus on care, feminisms, and reproductive labour, Amelia is concerned with alternative models for instituting.
Since 2019, Amelia has been Director of West Space in Melbourne, where she works collaboratively to commission and facilitate cross-disciplinary artistic programs.

Amelia graduated from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in 2018, where she curated More than mere jelly at the Hessel Museum of Art and co-curated Inside Voices at CCS Bard Galleries. While at CCS Bard Amelia organised programs at The Kitchen in New York City; was commissioning editor of the aCCeSsion journal; and provided curatorial research to the Director of the Graduate Program and Chief Curator Lauren Cornell as Curatorial Fellow. In The United Kingdom and Europe in 2017, Amelia undertook curatorial residencies at Spike Island, Bristol, and Enough Room For Space, Brussels.

Prior to her graduate studies, Amelia was Curatorial Fellow at Performa in New York and held directorial positions at Firstdraft and Tiny Stadiums Festival in Sydney, and as co-founded the residency and exhibition program Sydney Guild. Amelia has also held curatorial and administrative positions at the Biennale of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Vivid Ideas, Performing Lines and Performance Space.

Amelia holds a BA in Theatre & Performance Studies and Art History & Theory from the University of New South Wales.
Her writing has been widely published in Running Dog, Memo Review, Runway, un Magazine, Artlink, Art Collector, amongst others.

IMAGES | Bea Rubio-Gabriel, listen, 2021, performance documentation still, 04:41min. | Courtesy the artist. | Amelia Wallin.