Biography
Hirugami is a first-generation transnational Mexican Japanese immigrant, formerly undocumented.
She holds an MA in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in conjunction with the Drucker School of Management and Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Her most recent MA from Chicanx Studies at UCLA is entitled “Political Art Action: The Aesthetics of Undocumentedness.” Hirugami also holds BAs in the fields of Art History, Chicano Studies, and Mexican Studies from UCLA, currently a lecturer and doctoral candidate at UCLA, where she epistemologically braids the aesthetics of undocumentedness to challenge immigration policy and politics.
Hirugami is the founder and CEO of CuratorLove, Co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective, the ED at AHSC, a Professor at CBMArts, LAMC, and SMC, Arts for LA Fellow, NALAC NLI Fellow, and CCI Catalyst. As a Getty and Kress Foundation Fellow, she has developed curatorial statements at museums across México and the United States. Former Public Art Curator for the Department of Cultural Affairs and gallery director. She has curated exhibitions for galleries and museums across the globe, and her written work has been published internationally.
More on Erika Hirugami at http://www.curatorlove.com/hirugami
Education
MPhil, Aesthetic Theory, UCLA.
MA, Chicanx Studies. UCLA
MAAB, Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Drucker School of Management
BA, Art History, Chicanx Studies, and Mexican Studies, UCLA
Research
Aesthetics of Undocumentedness. Undocreative labor. Art Law and Latinx Labor Politics in the US. Emancipatory policies for undocumented artists. Latinx aesthetics and transcendental curatorial praxis. Necropolitics in Mexican aesthetics. Institutional accountability and community-driven practices. Latinx contemporary aesthetics market value and business. Transcendental policies for Latinx artists in the art business.
Selected Publications
Pertenecer | Encarnar: Die Ästhetik Des Undokumentiert-Seins
Pertenecer | Encarnar: Aesthetics of Undocumentedness
Yet, amongst ourselves, we know: fencescapes as site of infinite undoc+ deliverance.
Exclusion: How immigration policy racialized the U.S.
Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies – Vol.45 No.1 Spring 2020
On Their Backs: Latinx Labor in the U.S.
Impeach Art History
Who owns contemporary art?
Who are museums accountable to?
Reinventing the Wheel: Museum Diversity and Inclusion for All
In the Shadow of History
Big Data and the future of Museums
Complete list of publications at curatorlove.com/publications
Honors & Awards
CCI Catalyst Award
NALAC NLI Fellowship
Arts for LA Fellowship
Graduate Council Diversity Fellowship
CSRC’s Guillermo E. Hernandez Scholarship
Courses
Aesthetics of Undocumentedness: Undocreative Labor in the Arts Industries
Chicanos in Film: Undocumentedness in Hollywood
Art Market Dynamics
Aesthetics of Undocumentedness: Art, Migration, Policy, and Politics
Latinx Immigration (Art) Policy & Politics
Radical Empathy: Undocreative Labor
Coalesce; Beyond the boundaries of Latinx Aesthetics
Living Collections; Latinx communities and their stories
Monumental Installations; complexity and logistics of creation
Transcendental Curatorial Organizations; LA as Home.
Pathways to Diversity in the Arts Professions
Curating your career
Latinas in LA’s Creative Fields
Big Data at Museum