Curating Across Uneven Grounds
Curating Across Uneven Grounds, Negotiating Theory and Practice
Led by Portia Placino, Gallery Administrator and Curator, JCB Gallery, Philippine Women's University, Quezon City, Philippines
Wednesday, 30 September 2026
- 10:00 Paris
- 12:00 Dubai
- 16:00 Manila
- 18:00 Sydney
CIMAM Members can access the Zoom registration link by logging into the Members Only Section.
Abstract:
This session will explore forms of curatorial labour that complicate the relationship between theory and practice, grounding curatorial work in everyday realities while continuing to advance critical and theoretical thinking and embracing the complexities of contemporary discourse.
Bringing together curators and museum directors from diverse trajectories, the session will examine how curatorial practice unfolds across varied and uneven contexts. Central to the discussion is the importance of engaging with critical theories and frameworks, even when such engagement is constrained, postponed, or overshadowed by the urgent realities that curators face on the ground.
The conversation will address the limitations, possibilities, and complexities of curatorial practice when working within and across conditions of inequality, struggle, and uneven infrastructures. Building on the discussions initiated at the 2025 CIMAM Annual Conference in Turin, CIMAM members will play a key role in further unpacking the challenges and opportunities of curatorial practice across diverse global contexts.
Biography:
Portia Placino is a curator and independent arts writer based in Manila, Philippines. She currently runs the JCB Gallery at the Philippine Women’s University. Her writing has appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, ArtReview, ArtSG, Art+ Magazine, Spot.ph, Esquire Philippines, and various local and international academic publications. She received the Ateneo Art Awards–Purita Kalaw Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism in 2021 and has been awarded writing and research residencies and grants in the Philippines, Germany, Korea, Belgium, and Singapore. Her work focuses on marginal and off-center art practices, including regional contemporary art, feminist perspectives, and sociopolitical critique. She examines the place of contemporary art in a society marked by precarity and struggle.
As curator of the JCB Gallery, Portia led its transition from student- and alumni-based shows to critically engaged and socially responsive programming. She presented Jomar Galutera’s politically charged White Elephant Project, addressing remnants of the dictatorship, and curated a posthumous exhibition of Brenda Fajardo’s prints and archives, exploring the contributions and challenges of women artists in a still male-dominated art world. For 2025, she initiated projects featuring Aze Ong’s experimental fiber installations and Veejay Villafranca’s documentary photography, among others. She believes institutional spaces—especially those free from market pressures—are crucial for fostering experimentation, discourse, and critical engagement. Continuing critical perspectives and practices expressed in her curatorial vision and projects remain key to growing both her practice and the space she runs.
Portia earned her BA in Art Studies from the University of the Philippines and completed her academic requirements for an MA in Art Studies (Art Theory and Criticism) at the same institution. She currently lectures at the Center for International Studies at UP Diliman and the School of Culture, Arts, and Performance at De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde.
Portia Placino is a 2025 CIMAM Travel Grantee awarded by Fernando Zobel de Ayala.