The Curators

Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock – New York, USA

Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996. His artistic and curatorial projects range across the mediums of photography, film, and sculpture. Currently, he is a Clinical Associate Professor and Gallery Director at Fordham University, New York.

Margalit Berriet – Paris, France

Margalit Berriet obtained her Master in Fine Arts (MFA) from New York University, Since 1983 she has initiated multi-disciplinary and pluricultural arts events and conferences in the USA, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, promoting, via the arts better knowledge and appreciation of the “others”, while fostering a respectful dialogue between people of different backgrounds. She is the Founding President and Director of Memoire de l’Avenir (2003), and of (Humanities), Arts and Society Project since 2016 in association with UNESCO-Most and CIPSH.

Felice Hapetzeder – Bro, Sweden

Felice Hapetzeder is an artist and an artistic project manager. He obtained his MFA in 2002 from the Fine Arts department at Konstfack College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm Sweden. He is interested in the aesthetics and social context of creative practices as well as cultural heritage production and manipulation of collective memory. One of his major projects focused on brining contemporary art to the small town of Bro, Sweden. This ongoing project aims to explore at how contemporary art can be a positive part of local life through artistic expressions created in collaboration

Manuela de Leonardis – Rome, Italy

Manuela de Leonardis is an art historian, journalist and independent curator. She has been writing about visual arts since 2004 for the Italian newspaper il manifesto. She is the curator of various exhibitions in Italy and around the world and has written numerous books on and about art. In her curatorial practice, she devotes great attention to women and topics that have to do with the female experience.

Thomas Linsmayer – Munich, Germany

Thomas Linsmayer is a lawyer, art historian, cultural manager and event organizer. He received his MA in art history from the University of Munich. Since 2000, he has been managing the gallery in the Pasinger Fabrik Urban Cultural Center with a focus on contemporary art. He has out together over 150 solo and group exhibitions with artists from Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Norway, Netherlands, Russia, Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Japan and the USA. In addition, he has curated a number of thematic exhibitions, focusing on areas such as urban development, documentaries, social issues and exhibitions with a socio-cultural character.

Tomasz Matuszak – Lodz, Poland

Tomasz Matuszak graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland, where he has been teaching since 2007. Currently he is head of Site- Specific and Interactive Actions Studio at the Sculpture Department. As an artist, he works in the field of installation, sculpture, photography, video and public intervention. Many of his works are based on a sustained involvement with the environment of the gallery or any given public space. Department. For the last few years he hs begun curating and co-curating international artists and student projects in Lodz.

Sania Papa – Thessaloniki, Greece

Sania Papa is an art historian and art theorist. She obtained her PhD from University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and is currently a Professor at the School of Visual and Applied Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has an impressive list of curatorial work, including curator for the Greek pavilion at the XLIV Venice Biennale, co-coordinator for the Greek participation in the 5th and 6th international Biennale of Istanbul, Turkey and was the National Commissioner at the XXIV Biennale of Sao Paulo (1998). She has acted as the Director of the Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, the State Museum of Contemporary Art- the Costakis Collection.

Nicola Rae and Paul Malone – London, England

Nicola Rae received her MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London, and she is currently a UAL Staff Researcher at University of the Arts London. Her art practice engages with sound visualization in response to scientific data as well as live co-produced sound. She initiates and co-curates exhibitions with other curators from around the world and has become an important aspect of her working process as an artist.
Paul Malone receive MFA his in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London. He is interested in how the physical world comes into existence; how it originated, how it maintains itself and its relationship to consciousness.

Pier Paolo Scelsi – Venice, Italy

Pier Paolo Scelsi studied Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Ca’Foscari and obtained an MA in virtual restoration of bibliographic assets. He has directed and curated several tv show focused on current affairs, politics and culture. He is active in the fields of human Identity, environment, eco-sustainability and cultural policies. Since 2014 he has been a founding partner, president and artistic director of One Contemporary Art Cultural Association. In 2017 he became the  Director of GAD Giudecca Art District, a One Contemporary Art Project.

Yiannis Toumazis – Nicosia, Cyprus

Yiannis Toumazis is the Director of NiMAC [The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre Associated with the Pierides Foundation]. He is also Professor of History and Theory of Art at the Department of Arts and Communication of Frederick University, Nicosia and the Coordinator of the doctoral program “PhD in Applied Arts” of the University. Since 1994, he has curated more than one hundred contemporary art exhibitions both in Cyprus and abroad. In 2011 he was the curator of the Cyprus Pavilion at the 54th Biennale of Venice in Italy. In 2013 his book Marcel Duchamp: Artiste Androgyne, was published by Presses Universitaires de Paris Ouest. He is one of the co-authors of the book Cyprus Art of the 20th Century, and author of numerous contemporary art exhibition catalogues, articles and publications. In 2011, he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Republic for his contribution to culture. From 2014-2019 he was Chair of the State Theatre of Cyprus (THOC). In 2015, he was appointed Vice-Chair of the Bi-communal Technical Committee for Culture, which aims to bring together the two main communities of Cyprus through Culture. Since In 2020, he joined the jury for the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in Gothenburg, Sweden. In the same year, he was unanimously elected Corresponding Member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts.

Jan Van Woensel – Plzeň, Czech Republic

Jan Van Woensel is a curator, art critic and researcher. He is curator of international projects, conferences and symposiums; international relations manager; and publisher at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic. In 2019, he established the platform “curatorial x praxis; laboratory for discursive curatorial strategies”. cxp establishes an autonomous zone of thinking. Members engage in open-format dialogues that examine the intersections of art, curation, community, machines, politics, history and historization, social memory and deconstruction, and networks. Van Woensel is a guest lecturer at FAMU, Prague, and the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw.

Joyce Yahouda and Julia Vincelli – Montreal, Canada

Joyce Yahouda grew up in Milano and lived in Geneva and São Paulo before settling in Montreal. For over three decades, as an independent curator and through Joyce Yahouda Gallery, she has promoted emerging and established contemporary artists whose works include installation, video and performance art. She advocates demanding, challenging and thought-provoking art. Through exhibitions, conferences and round tables, she incites dialogue amongst artists, curators, collectors, art critics and art lovers. She has organized several exhibitions in England, France, Italy, Brazil, the USA and Canada. In 2012, Joyce Yahouda was awarded the prize for the “Gallery Owner of the Year” at the Visual Arts Gala in Montreal.
Julia Vincelli began her career as a full-time studio painter, and has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal. While developing her craft in educational settings, Julia discovered her passion for supporting other artists, specifically in managing their careers. Coming from a visual arts background, she understands the nonlinear manner of the creative process. Since 2016, Julia has been Assistant Curator at Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montreal, working on various international projects. Julia is inspired by street and underground art, and is motivated in finding platforms for those artists to be recognized amongst the artistic community. Julia Vincelli is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Cultural Business Management at HEC Montreal.