Pablo N. Barrera joined Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center as the inaugural Curatorial Fellow before being promoted to Associate Curator. In 2024, he stepped down from his previous role and was named Adjunct Curator appointed to the upcoming retrospective, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: Honor Song, scheduled to open in spring of 2025. Pablo collaborates with local art communities to produce exhibitions and explore innovative strategies that support formal/informal learning of art. He is committed to raising public awareness of Indigenous artistic practices through generating gallery experiences that invite audiences of all backgrounds to engage with art. Pablo has independently curated shows in London, Seoul and New York.
Pablo’s achievements include being among the first cohort of curators at NXTHVN Art Space (Connecticut), serving as graduate advisor for Yale University Art Gallery’s first student-led Native American art exhibition and being invited to serve on the advisory committee for the Getty Foundation Pacific Standard Time art initiative, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, which launched Sept. 15, 2024 across Southern California. He has written on the artistic representation of cultures that experienced colonization, including a co-authored chapter on Korean heritage vernacular architectural (Springer International) and a paper on Mesoamerican art production as part of the Columbian Exchange between Colonial Spain and East Asia (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute).
Pablo is a first-generation high school graduate, earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania (history of art) and holds graduate degrees from Harvard University (regional studies: East Asia) and Yale University (history of art). He is a Fulbright scholar (2011) and a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow (2012). Pablo was born in Chicago to immigrant parents; his father is a member of the Wixáritari community near Mazamitla, Jal., Mexico, where Pablo spent his formative years. Pablo works to amplify the invaluable role Indigenous artistic perspectives contribute toward globalizing the arts.
