CV
EXTENDED BIO
Joseph Daniel Valencia is a curator, educator, historian, and writer. He currently serves as Curator of Exhibitions at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, where since 2016 he has developed projects focused on American, Latin American, and modern and contemporary art. He has wide-ranging curatorial, museum education, archives, and arts management experience working at VPAM, and previously at ONE Archives, UCR ARTS, LACMA, and the Getty Museum.
A scholar of Latinx art and history, his recent exhibitions include We Place Life at the Center / Situamos la vida en el centro (2024-2025), Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art (2022), and Liberate the Bar! Queer Nightlife, Activism, and Spacemaking (2019). He also served on the curatorial team for Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell (2017-2021), and organized several solo exhibitions by premier Los Angeles artists, including Phung Huynh, Patrick Martinez, noé olivas, Guadalupe Rosales, Gabriela Ruiz, and Kang Seung Lee.
His art criticism and scholarship often addresses the importance of artist networks, alternative spaces, and issues of historical erasure and collective memory in contemporary art. He has contributed to Aperture, Artforum, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, KCET Artbound, OC Register, and the U.S. Latinx Art Forum, as well as several academic journals and exhibition catalogs.
A dedicated educator, he has taught large survey courses on art and design history, as well as seminars on Latinx art, museum studies, and art and environmental studies. Between 2017-2020, Joseph launched and co-directed the East Los Angeles College pilot internship of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program, which created new pathways for dozens of emerging museum professionals over a seven year period.
Joseph began his career as a non-profit art and higher education paraprofessional, leading the fiduciary, programmatic, and advocacy functions of a multi-million auxiliary at California State University, Fullerton. He proudly serves as an advisor to artists, museums, and non-profit arts organizations and is available for freelance curatorial, writing, lecturer, and juror opportunities.
EDUCATION
University of Southern California – M.A. Curatorial Practice. Additional coursework in Arts Leadership and Cinema and Media Studies programs.
California State University, Fullerton – B.A. Art History. Minors in American Studies, Latin American Studies, and Political Science.
RESEARCH & TEACHING AREAS
Histories of art, design, and visual culture · Art and politics of the Americas · Latinx art and media · Performance studies · LGBT/queer art and archives · History and theory of photography · Exhibition design and museum studies · California history
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Vincent Price Art Museum – Curator of Exhibitions, supported by the Advancing Latinx Art in Museums initiative. February 2023-Present.
Vincent Price Art Museum – Associate Curator and Programs Manager (previously Curatorial Assistant). August 2016-Present.
USC Roski School of Art and Design – Gallery Curator, Designer, and Communications Coordinator. August 2018-May 2020.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries – Guest Curator. September 2018-November 2019.
The Laura Aguilar Trust – Cataloguer for Photographic Collections. December 2017-June 2018.
UCR ARTS – Curatorial Assistant and Event Producer. October 2015-March 2016.
J. Paul Getty Museum – Curatorial/Collections Intern, Department of Photographs. June 2015-August 2015.
LACMA – Curatorial/Collections Intern, Department of Decorative Arts and Design. November 2014-February 2015.
LACMA – Summer Academy Participant, Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship. June 2014.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
East Los Angeles College – Co-Instructor, Art and Environmental Studies (co-taught with Anthropology). Spring 2024.
Whittier College – Lecturer, Latinx Art and Media Studies. Spring 2023.
USC Roski School of Art and Design – Lecturer, Histories of Art, Design, and Visual Culture. Fall 2022.
East Los Angeles College – Museum Studies Internship Program Coordinator/Lecturer. Winter 2018. Winter 2019. Winter 2020. Winter 2021.
USC Roski School of Art and Design – Guest Critic, BA/BFA and MFA programs. Fall 2018. Spring 2019. Fall 2019. Spring 2020. Fall 2020.
USC Roski School of Art and Design – Teaching Assistant, Histories of Art, Design, and Visual Culture. Fall 2019. Spring 2020.
CONFERENCES AND LECTURES
Latinx Art Curators Convening, MoMA, New York, 2024.
Sounding Latinx Institute, UCSB, Crossing Latinidades, Santa Barbara, 2024 .
“Latinx Art: Curating and Shaping a Field,” College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, February 16, 2024.
“Anti-Biennial: (De)Constructing Exhibition Models,” MexiCali Biennial Symposium, The Cheech Center for Chicano Art and Culture, Riverside, April 21, 2023.
Participant, Curatorial Leadership Summit, The Armory Show, New York, 2023.
“Exhibiting Nightlife: Notes on Curatorial Activism and Historical Erasure,” Guest Lecture for Professor Joanna Roche’s ART 480T: Topics in Art History, CSU Fullerton, March 18, 2021, and Professor Eric Gonzaba’s AMST 454: American Nightlife, CSU Fullerton, May 12, 2021.
“Curator as Exhibition Designer: Case Studies from the Vincent Price Art Museum,” Guest Lecture for Professor Camila Maroja’s ART 453: Exhibition Design and Museum Studies, CSU Fullerton, February 7, 2021.
“Museums Then & Now: History, Covid-related Closures, and Future of Museums in U.S.,” Lecture for Professor Linda Kallan’s ART 385: Museum Studies Internship, East Los Angeles College, January 4, 2021.
“Exhibiting in the Time of COVID: William Camargo’s Photographs in the Public Sphere,” Guest Lecture for Professor Camila Maroja’s ART 453: Exhibition Design and Museum Studies, CSU Fullerton, November 20, 2020.
“Curating and Archiving Latinx Culture: Artist and Community-Driven Approaches,” Discussion with Josh T. Franco as part of Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program (Virtual), August 31, 2020.
“Curating Together: Decolonial and Polyvocal Approaches to Exhibition-Making,” Centering Community Narratives of Lived Experience, Digital Humanities 2020 Conference (Virtual), July 22-24, 2020.
“A Radical Curator? Teaching U.S. Latinx Narratives Through Archives, Exhibitions, and Digital Initiatives,” 12th Annual Graduate Research Symposium, University of Southern California, February 5, 2020.
“Sebastian Hernandez and Queer of Color Performance Against the Canon,” Subversive Histories of Performance Art, Critical Mediations Conference, University of Southern California, October 4, 2019.
“Laura Aguilar in Transit: Mapping Networks and Sites of Activism and Art Making,” Guest Lecture for Professor Matthew Clement’s QS 302: L.A. in Transit—Communities, Organizations, and Politics course. CSU Northridge, March 26, 2018.
“Carving a Path: Community, Academia & the Museum World.” Guest lecture with Rose G. Salseda for Professor Joanna Roche’s ART 480T: Topics in Art History lecture course. CSU Fullerton, February 8, 2018.
“Curating and Designing Exhibitions.” Guest lecture with Benjamin Balken for Professor Joanna Roche’s ART 480T: Topics in Art History lecture course. CSU Fullerton, February 16, 2017.
“Exhibiting Bodies: Contemporary Art Responses to the Human Zoo,” Oral Presentations in Art History, Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research, CSU Fullerton, November 22, 2014.
“Illuminating Anti-Black and Anti-Indigenous Stereotypes: Drunkenness and Domestic Abuse in Mexican Casta Paintings,” Oral Presentations in Art History, Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research, CSU Fullerton, November 22, 2014.
“Reinforcing Stereotypes through Mexican Casta Paintings,” Mexico’s Past and Present: An Interdisciplinary Discussion, Latin American Studies Student Association Annual Conference, CSU Fullerton, May 1, 2014.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program (Supervisor, Learning Community Leader, and Alumnus)
Art Historians of Southern California (College Art Association affiliate)
U.S. Latinx Art Forum (College Art Association affiliate)