Staff Picks: Jovanna Venegas on Carmen Herrera

Discover hidden gems and hear from multiple perspectives in this series of gallery talks. Each month, an SFMOMA staff member highlights work that pushes boundaries, defies expectations, and inspires deep thinking. You might find a new favorite!

This month, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Jovanna Venegas draws our attention to Carmen Herrera’s dynamic painting Untitled (Orange and Black). Born in Havana, Cuba, Herrera moved to New York City in the 1950s and developed a striking abstract style.

Venegas lived in Mexico City from 2010 to 2015 and worked on projects and exhibitions at House of Gaga, Colección Cesar Cervantes, and La Tallera, and with Eduardo Terrazas Studio. She was research assistant on the exhibitions Citizen Culture (Santa Monica Museum of Art, California) and SITElines: New Perspectives on Art of the Americas (Santa Fe, New Mexico). From 2015 to 2017, she worked on public programs and curatorial projects at e-flux, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Independent Curators International, and the 11th Gwangju Biennial. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2010 and a master’s in curatorial practice from the School of Visual Arts in 2017. She currently is working on a large-scale exhibition that will open at SFMOMA in fall 2019.