Laura Castagnini

Laura Castagnini is a curator and writer interested in the histories of feminism and their current articulations, especially as they intersect with the politics of sexuality and race, and their expression in modern and contemporary art. She is currently Curator at ACMI in Melbourne, where she is currently working on several projects including Light: Works from Tate’s Collection and Angela Tiatia’s Ian Potter Moving Image Commission. Prior to ACMI, Laura worked in as Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate in London, where she curated monographic displays of Lubaina Himid and Liliane Lijn as well as assisted on major exhibitions including Frank Bowling’s first retrospective and All too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life. In this role she also played an active role in diversifying the collection, leading on major acquisitions such as Maud Sulter and Claudette Johnson, as well as conducting collection research into the representation of LGBT+ artists. She had previously worked as Programme Coordinator at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), where she worked on a range of projects exploring the politics of race in the visual arts including a series of collaborations with the Black Artists and Modernism research group, and in editorial roles for art publications including frieze magazine and n.paradoxa. Prior to moving to London, Laura began her career in Melbourne where she held roles at Margaret Lawrence Gallery (Victorian College of the Arts) and Anna Pappas Gallery, alongside working as a freelance curator and writer. She holds a Master of Arts (Art History) from the University of Melbourne and has received numerous grants and awards for her research on feminist and queer art, including most recently a Research Continuity Fellowship from the Paul Mellon Centre to trace an exhibition history of the touring exhibition Stolen Glances: Lesbians Take Photographs (1991-2).