Tanya Barson is Chief Curator of MACBA, Barcelona. Previously, she was Curator of International Art at Tate Modern 2007-2016, and Exhibitions and Collections Curator at Tate Liverpool, 2004-2007. She originally joined Tate in 1997 as an Assistant Curator. She has curated exhibitions including Christian Marclay: Compositions, MACBA (2019), Melanie Smith: Farce and Artifice, MACBA (2018); Rosemarie Castoro: Focus at Infinity, MACBA (2017); Georgia O’Keeffe, Tate Modern (2016), Mira Schendel, Tate Modern (2013); Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic at Tate Liverpool (2010); Oiticica in London, Tate Modern (2007); Ellen Gallagher: Coral Cities, Tate Liverpool (2007); Jake and Dinos Chapman: Bad Art for Bad People, Tate Liverpool (2006); Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now, Tate Liverpool (2006); and Frida Kahlo, Tate Modern (2005). She was an advisor for Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel Art Gallery (2015). She is currently working on a solo exhibition of the work of the Venezuelan artist Gego, in collaboration with MASP, Sao Paulo, the Museo Jumex, Mexico City and Tate Modern, to open at MACBA in 2021. From 2002 to 2016 she worked with Tate’s Adjunct Curator of Latin American art [Cuauhtémoc Medina 2002-2008, Julieta Gonzalez 2008-2012, Jose Roca 2012-2014, and Inti Guerrero 2016-] to acquire Latin American art for the Tate collection.

Last update 31th October 2019

Melanie Smith was born in England in 1965. She lives and works between Mexico City and London. Her work, in diverse media, has reflected on the extended field of painting within the history of art and its entanglement with moving image. She is interested in fragmented montage, and creates filmic and performative experiences that often allude to behind the scene productions and political farse. Mostly, her work shatters any rational significance, as a way of thinking through contingent forms and being.

She has exhibited at numerous institutions including PS1 and MOMA, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Tate, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. In 2011 she represented Mexico at the 54th Venice Biennale. “Melanie Smith: Farce and Artifice” a panoramic survey, was presented at MACBA Barcelona in 2018, and traveled to MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Museo Amparo Puebla, 2019 and MARCO Monterrey in 2020.