REDCAT Appoints Daniela Lieja Quintanar Chief Curator & Deputy Director, Programs

Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) has appointed Daniela Lieja Quintanar as its new Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Programs. The longtime Los Angeles-based curator and arts researcher will assume the position on Oct. 11, 2022.

"I am honored to join the CalArts community and REDCAT team and am excited to work with João Ribas and Edgar Miramontes," said Lieja Quintanar. "I look forward to collaborating with local and International Artists at REDCAT, a place for intersectional discourse in the arts."

In her new role, Lieja Quintanar will oversee the 3,000 square-foot gallery at REDCAT, as well as develop REDCAT's multidisciplinary program as part of its artistic direction team with João Ribas, Steven D. Lavine Executive Director of REDCAT, and REDCAT's Deputy Executive Director and Curator, Edgar Miramontes.

"With her engaged perspective on contemporary art and culture, and her commitment to artists, Daniela is a vital curatorial voice," said Ribas. "We're thrilled to have her join us to shape our ongoing commitment to experimentation and the transformative potential of performance and art."

Miramontes added, "This is an exciting time for REDCAT. Daniela's appointment continues to build on a curatorial team for REDCAT, with a collaborative structure driving the creative, one that is committed to an inclusive arts ecology, engages with our local, national and international community, and expands the openness and diversity of experience on the team."

Since 2016, Lieja Quintanar has served as the Chief Curator and Director of Programming at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). While with LACE, her exhibitions included Intergalactix: against isolation/contra el aislamiento (2021), Unraveling Collective Forms (2019); CAVERNOUS: Young Joon Kwak & Mutant Salon (2018); Emory Douglas: Bold Visual Language (2018, co-curated with Essence Harden); home away from by Jimena Sarno (2017); and El Teatro Campesino (1965-1975) (2017, co-curated with Samantha Gregg). Her curatorial practice takes inspiration from everyday spaces of political struggle and communal forms of knowledge production. Currently, she is curating the upcoming LACE exhibition, (un)disciplinary tactics: Beatriz da Costa, as part of The Getty's Pacific Standard Time 2024 initiative.

Lieja Quintanar also served as part of the curatorial team of the MexiCali Biennial (2018-19) and participated as the Project Coordinator and Contributing Curatorial Advisor for the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition, Below the Underground: Renegade Art and Action in 1990s Mexico at the Armory Center for the Arts (2017-18). Also, in 2017, she co-curated the exhibitions Between Words and Silence: The Work of Translation and Down and to the Left: Reflections on Mexico in the NAFTA Era with Irene Tsatsos at the Armory. In 2016, she coordinated Teresa Margolles's La Sombra project for the Public Art Biennial CURRENT: LA Water and curated the exhibition Acciones Territoriales at the Museo Ex Teresa in Mexico City in 2014.

She received the Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Grant in 2018. Originally from Mexico City, Lieja Quintanar holds a BA in Ciencias de la Cultura from the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City, and an MA in Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere from the University of Southern California.

To learn more about REDCAT and its programs, please visit redcat.org.

REDCAT | The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, is a multidisciplinary center for innovative visual, performing and media arts founded by CalArts in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. Through performances, exhibitions, screenings and literary events, REDCAT introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT continues the tradition of the California Institute of the Arts, its parent organization, by encouraging experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse.

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools-art, critical studies, dance, film/video, music, and theater-CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.

REDCAT is located at 631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, within the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex.

GENERAL INFORMATION: For current program and exhibition information, visit redcat.org.

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