Contributors

Silvana Alborés holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, a master’s degree in biotechnology, and a doctorate in chemistry. She has worked in the field of microbiology since 1999. She is currently a full-time adjunct professor in microbiology at the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, carrying out teaching, outreach, management, and research activities, and responsible for tracks related to researching new antimicrobials and nanotechnology. She is a researcher for PEDECIBA (Basic Science Development Program) and the National Network of Researchers (ANII / National Agency for Research and Innovation).

Camilla Ayla Oliveira dos Anjos holds a bachelor’s degree in conservation and restoration of cultural heritage from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She first worked with conservation and restoration of Baroque and classical art, but became more interested in the conservation of modern materials and art concepts after her first contact with contemporary art. In 2019 she concluded her master’s in preservation of cultural heritage at the Graduate Art Program from the Fine Arts School in the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais with the dissertation “Outdoors Installations and Their Connections with Their Surroundings: Reflections on Preservation.” The same year, she specialized in contemporary art at the Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais. The case study discussed in her article in this volume is the result of her master’s research.

Sarah Barack studied art history and art conservation at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, at New York University; she also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. Barack recently joined the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Washington, DC, as head of conservation and senior objects conservator. She is also the current treasurer of the boards of the American Institute for Conservation and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.

Claudia Barra holds a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and is a researcher in natural science for cultural heritage. She began her career in conservation and restoration of paintings in 1983, and is currently a conservator and restorer of paintings at the Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo. She is also an instructor in both preventative conservation of cultural heritage and pictorial techniques at various departments at the Universidad de la República.

Cristina Bausero is a graduate of the School of Architecture, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and a doctoral student in architecture in the Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, Universidad Nacional del Litoral; she also holds a graduate degree in project research. She is an associate professor at the School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism, Universidad de la República; director of the Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo; director of the Centro Cultural Dodecá and the Escuela de Cine Dodecá, Montevideo; and a member of Uruguay’s National Commission for Visual Arts.

Ivana Bačić is a forensics expert for fire and explosions at the Forensic Science Centre “Ivan Vučetić” of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia. She received a doctoral degree in chemistry in 2016 in the field of nanomaterials and corrosion protection of stainless steel. Her work involves numerous spectroscopic, chromatographic, and elemental analysis methods.

Katrien Blanchaert graduated with a master of architecture degree in 2008 at Sint-Lucas, Ghent, following a one-year postgraduate course on the presentation and conservation of contemporary art at KASK, Ghent, Belgium. From 2009 to 2017 she worked as a collections researcher for S.M.A.K., Ghent, focusing mainly on the conservation of installation artworks. Alongside this, she started working as an assistant at KULeuven, Department of Architecture, Sint-Lucas, Ghent, in 2015. She currently works as a collection, archive, and exhibition coordinator at Herbert Foundation, Ghent.

Courtney Books is a conservator specializing in easel paintings and murals. Internationally trained, she is currently assistant paintings conservator at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Books received her MAC in paintings conservation from Queen’s University in 2018 and an MA in art history from McGill University in 2013. An interest in biodeterioration and bioremediation of art fuels her collaborative research with practicing bioartists.

My Bundgaard is an object and sculpture conservator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. She holds a BSc and an MSc from KADK – Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design, and Conservation. Her current research focus is kinetic sculpture and installations involving varied and ephemeral elements.

María Pía Cerdeiras holds a master of science in biotechnology from the University of London. She has worked in the field of microbiology in the bioscience division of the School of Chemistry, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, since 1986. She is a specialist in the study of filamentous fungi, with special concentrations in the production of enzymes for industrial use, improvement of lignocellulosic substrates in agriculture, contaminant degraders such as colorants and agrochemicals, and compound producers with antimicrobial activity. She teaches graduate and postgraduate courses.

Davison Chiwara’s research focuses on the conservation of heritage and museum and gallery practice. He has presented several research papers at American Institute of Conservation annual meetings, International Institute of Conservation congresses, the Culture in Crisis Conference, and other regional conferences in Africa. He has published in Museum International and IIC’s Studies in Conservation.

Claudia María Coronado García holds a bachelor’s degree in restoration of movable property with a specialization in museum studies from the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, and a master’s degree in contemporary and modern art from Casa Lamm. Since 2014 she has been an adjunct professor at ENCRyM’s Seminario Taller de Restauración de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, which has allowed her to coordinate and participate in various restorations and train future restorers.

Gabriel de la Mora was born in 1968 in Mexico City, where he still lives and works. He completed an MFA at the Pratt Institute and a licentiate’s degree in architecture at Anáhuac University North Campus in Mexico City. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in museums and galleries in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, the UK, and elsewhere. He is represented by Timothy Taylor, London; Sicardi Gallery, Houston; and Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City. Through a meticulous and obsessive process of searching, gathering, selecting, classifying, cataloging, and manipulating otherwise heterogeneous materials, de la Mora explores the finite and the permanent, the passage and suspension of time, and the transformation of both material and energy.

Mercedes Isabel de las Carreras holds a graduate degree in museum studies, specializing in the restoration of easel paintings, polychrome sculptures, and contemporary art. Since 2008 she has been head manager of collections for the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. She has participated in events and symposia with grants received from the Getty Conservation Institute, the Gabo Trust, APOYO, and Fundación Antorchas. She formerly worked as a restorer at Fundación TAREA, Buenos Aires, and has organized restoration projects and contemporary art conferences and published articles on restoration.

Belén Estévez holds a degree in clinical biochemistry from the Universidad de la República, Uruguay. She is currently a doctoral student in chemistry and an intern at the School of Chemical Science, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, and the Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón, Spain. She has received grants from CAP (Center for Professional Development), ANII (National Agency for Research and Innovation), and CSIC (Spanish National Research Council). She is a microbiology assistant (grade 1), has presented at national and international conferences, and publishes in peer-reviewed international journals.

Maura Favero holds a PhD in contemporary art history from Sapienza – Università di Roma, where she was also awarded her diploma in the postgraduate school in the science of historic and artistic heritage. She collaborates with MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, and also works on projects related to the structuring and management of artists’ private archives.

Harald Fitzek has been working since 2018 as a senior scientist with a specialization in vibrational spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and correlative microscopy at the Austrian Centre for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis. In 2018 he obtained his PhD with a focus on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy at the Institute for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis at Graz University of Technology.

Natilee Harren is an assistant professor of art history at the University of Houston and the author of Fluxus Forms: Scores, Multiples, and the Eternal Network (University of Chicago Press, 2020) and “The Provisional Work of Art: George Brecht’s Footnotes at LACMA, 1969” (Getty Research Journal). Her research and teaching engage the conservation of modern and contemporary art from philosophical, art historical, and curatorial perspectives.

Jens Hauser is a Paris- and Copenhagen-based media theoretician and art curator focusing on interactions between art and technology. He is currently a guest researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Medical Museion, a distinguished affiliated faculty member at Michigan State University, and a guest professor in the Department of Arts and Sciences of Art at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Tora Hederus is a paper conservator holding a BSc and an MSc from KADK – Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design, and Conservation. Since graduation, Hederus has been working for three years as a conservator at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and has had opportunities to work with objects composed of a mix of paper and plastic.

Rebecca Heremans graduated in 2011 with a master’s degree in conservation and restoration studies of photographic objects from Universiteit Antwerpen. Since 2012 she has worked as a restorer at S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium. She focuses on the preventive conservation of a highly diverse range of artworks from the collection, in particular the conservation and restoration of paper objects.

Claudio Hernández holds a bachelor’s degree in restoration of movable property from the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico, and a master’s degree in conservation of new media and digital information from the Freie Kunstschule Stuttgart. Since 2009 he has led the restoration laboratory at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City. His work focuses on documentation, research, and conservation of contemporary art. He has completed internships and organized national and international conferences on preservation. Since 2011 he has been teaching collections management and conservation as part of the master’s program in art history, with a specialization in curatorial studies, at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Jasna Jablan is an assistant professor in the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Croatia. After obtaining graduate degrees in both medical biochemistry and pharmacy, she received a doctoral degree in biomedicine and health in 2014. Her scientific interests include the application of existing analytical methods and the development of new ones for different kinds of samples.

Kelly Kleinschrodt is a studio artist and independent arts educator who lives and works in Los Angeles. She has presented solo projects in Chicago with Andrew Rafacz, in Los Angeles and Miami with Carter & Citizen, and in London and Los Angeles with Crisp London Los Angeles. Kleinschrodt’s work has also been exhibited and screened in the United States and internationally at such venues as Steve Turner, Los Angeles; Five Car Garage, Los Angeles; (OFF)ICIELLE, Paris; Josh Lilley, London; UNTITLED, Miami; Samson Projects, Boston; L.A.C.E., Los Angeles; The Wand, Berlin; Moving Image, New York; Kavi Gupta, Berlin; Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City; and OPEN Contemporary Art Center, Beijing. Her work is held in private collections throughout the United States and Europe as well as in the Franks-Suss Collection, London. Kleinschrodt received her MFA at UCLA, where she was the recipient of the Elaine Krown Klein Award.

Thérèse Lilliegren is a senior paintings conservator at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. She holds a BA in art history and conservation from Stockholms Universitet. Her research interests focus on modern and contemporary art, with a special emphasis on political and ephemeral art, conservation ethics, and the development of a digital report tool.

Rosario Llamas Pacheco is a professor in the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage Department, and assistant director of the Instituto de Restauración del Patrimonio, at the Universitat Politècnica de València. She specializes in conservation and restoration of contemporary art and has written numerous articles on this topic for industry journals, as well as books and chapters of books. She has led various competitive research projects and has directed numerous doctoral dissertations and master’s theses.

Eugenia Macías is a restorer for the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Mexico City, and winner of the Paul Coremans Prize (2000) awarded by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. She holds a master’s degree in social anthropology from the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de Antropología Social and a doctorate in art history from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She was formerly a curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, and a researcher at the Centro de Documentación Arkheia at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo. She is currently a research professor at the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía, Mexico City.

Soledad Martínez holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and clinical biochemistry from the School of Chemistry, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and is currently pursuing graduate work in chemistry there. She was an intern at the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, and a G1 assistant, microbiology, Department of Bioscience (since 2015), as well as a recipient of study grants from CAP (Center for Professional Development), ANII (National Agency for Research and Innovation), and PEDECIBA (Basic Science Development Program). She presents research results at national and international science events.

Ana Lizeth Mata Delgado holds a licenciada degree in restoration from the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and a master’s degree in history and art history from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is a professor-researcher and head of the Seminario Taller de Restauración de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo at ENCRyM, and currently the academic coordinator of ENCRyM’s degree program in restoration.

Darío Meléndez is a professor at the School of Arts and Design at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He pursued his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in visual arts with a specialization in painting, as well as his doctorate in arts and design, at that university. His artistic research focuses on material explorations based in painting, while also touching on the fields of drawing, action art, installation art, and beyond.

Sara Norrehed is an advisor and conservation scientist at the Swedish National Heritage Board. Her main interests are in organic materials and analytical methods for organic molecules. Previous work focused on developing tools for analyzing flexible organic molecules by nuclear magnetic resonance, but recently she entered the field of conservation and heritage science. She holds a PhD in organic chemistry, including a master’s degree in nature sciences, from Uppsala Universitet, Sweden.

Barbara Ursula Oettl has studied art history, American and Italian linguistics, and art at Universität Regensburg, Germany, and at the University of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Her books include White, Transgressions of Art, and Richard Serra; she has also authored essays on photography, gender and body art, bioart, Land art, and the material turn. Oettl is alternately teaching at the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and Universität Regensburg.

Flavia Parisi holds a PhD from the Universitat Politècnica de València with a specialization in the interdependence of conservation and education in contemporary art museums. She collaborates with different institutions, such as the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (2013–19) and MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (2017, 2019). She previously worked for the Dallas Museum of Art, the Italo-Latin American Institute of Rome, and private galleries.

Mirta Pavić is head of the Conservation Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia. She received her MA in conservation from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Pavić teaches a compulsory course on modern and contemporary art conservation at the University of Split. Her research interests include modern materials, new media, modern museum practice, and the educational role of the conservation field.

Flavia Perugini holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Florence, and a BSc with honors in conservation and restoration from Guildhall University, London. Since 2006 she has been an associate conservator for contemporary art and time-based media art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation and the American Institute for Conservation.

Sherry Phillips has worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, since 1989, and specifically as a conservator of contemporary art since 1996. Following an honors BSc in microbiology and zoology from the University of Toronto, she studied art history and studio techniques before continuing her education at Queen’s University’s Master of Art Conservation program.

Marcia Reed is chief curator and associate director for special collections and exhibitions at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. The exhibitions she has curated include China on Paper (2007), The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals (2015–16), Cave Temples of Dunhuang (2016), and Artists and Their Books / Books and Their Artists (2018). Research in progress includes a publication and exhibition on the Jean Brown Collection of avant-garde and Fluxus works.

Cristina Reyes studied visual arts at the School of Arts and Design at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where she is now a professor. She is a member of the Imago Post Aural research group, coordinated by Víctor Monroy. She works at the Centro de Documentación Arkheia at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.

Rachel Rivenc is the head of conservation and preservation at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Prior to that she worked at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, as part of the Modern and Contemporary Art Research Initiative. She was the coordinator for the Modern Materials and Contemporary Art working group of ICOM-CC for six years and sits on the steering committee of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art. Rivenc holds a master’s degree in paintings conservation from Université Paris 1-Sorbonne and a PhD from the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Kendra Roth is the conservator of modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Tufts University and a master’s degree in art conservation from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and did postgraduate work at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard University. She serves in the Conservation Advisory Group for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York and as assistant coordinator of the Modern Materials and Contemporary Art Working Group of ICOM-CC.

Tom Sandström is a conservation scientist at the Swedish National Heritage Board. He holds a MAC from Queen’s University. His work focuses on the conservation of organic material, including archaeological wood, and the technical analysis of paintings and other works of art.

Magali Melleu Sehn is an associate professor of conservation of modern and contemporary art of the Conservation-Restoration Course of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She is also a tenured professor in that university’s graduate program in arts at its the School of Fine Arts and chief editor of the graduate program’s academic journal. She was a conservator of paintings and sculptures for twelve years at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo. She holds a bachelor of visual arts, a master’s degree, and a PhD in visual poetics in art history from the University of São Paulo – ECA/USP. She authored the book Entre resíduos e dominós: Preservação de instalações de arte no Brasil (C/ARTE, 2014) with the support of FAPEMIG (Qualis L3).

Sjoukje van der Laan holds a master’s degree and a professional doctorate (PD Res) in modern and contemporary art conservation from Universiteit van Amsterdam. She has been employed at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, since 2015 as an assistant conservator of contemporary art. Her specialization gives her a strong familiarity with the conservation of a wide variety of modern (synthetic) materials, kinetic art, electronic art, and complex contemporary art installations.

Adrián Villar Rojas creates immersive, situated, and perishing worlds using materials both organic and inorganic, human-made and machine-made, that undergo change over time. Tied to their production and exhibiting contexts, these worlds generate irreproducible experiences relying on collaborative exchange between the artist, his team, and local agents. His projects that extend over open-ended periods of time allow him to question the aftermath of the normalized production of art in the Capitalocene era. He lives and works nomadically.

Sebastián Villar Rojas is a writer, playwright, and theater director who is currently generating “androgynous” projects that inhabit the borderline between artistic fields, taking advantage of the ontological ambiguity of this liminal zone. He studied political science at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina, and holds a diploma in playwriting from the School of Philosophy and Letters, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Jessica Walthew holds an MA in art history and archaeology with an advanced certificate in conservation from the Conservation Center at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. At Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Washington, DC, she works primarily with the product design and decorative arts collection and digital acquisitions. She is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation.