Elisa Arguello

Elisa is a 2026-2027 MODA Curatorial Fellow, currently in her second year of Columbia’s M.A. in Modern and Contemporary Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies. She previously earned her B.A. with Honors in Art History from Stanford University, where she was also awarded the Christopher Meyer Prize in Art History. Elisa’s past work regards the positioning of soft sculpture in the American museum space. Her current studies focus on paper ephemera, performance, and new media from the 1960s and 1970s.

Elisa’s MODA Curates exhibition, set to open in March 2027, regards the early work of the experimental Bay Area collective, Ant Farm. Ant Farm: Pneu Tools focuses on the collective’s collaboration with students, highlighting their projects, Truckstop Network (1971) and Inflatocookbook (1970), as emblematic of Ant Farm’s collapse of practical teaching methods with artistic intervention, a prescient recognition and response to the necessity of media literacy in an era of rapid technological development. 

Elisa has previously worked for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Phillip’s Auctioneers, and Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. Additionally, she has conducted independent research at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Rutgers University Archives and Special Collections, and the Tate Modern in London.