Julián Sánchez González
Julián Sánchez González is a PhD Candidate in Art History at Columbia University and a Research Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art’s Cisneros Institute. His work specializes in the intersection of artistic and spiritual practices in the Americas and the Caribbean throughout the twentieth century. His dissertation analyzes the influence and interrelation of non-hegemonic spiritualities in the arts of Colombia, United States (California), and Trinidad and Tobago in the 1970s and 1980s. This project seeks to build an innovative theoretical framework that incorporates the concepts interspirituality and spiritual promiscuity into the writing of modern and contemporary art history. Julián’s academic career has been supported by the Fulbright Program, the Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia, and the Fundación Colfuturo. He has also received grants from the Heyman Center for the Public Humanities and the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life at Columbia University.
Before joining the PhD program in 2018, Julián received an M.A. in Art History (Honors Thesis) from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts (2018), and a double B.A. in History and Political Science from the Universidad de los Andes (2012-13). He has also worked at the Museos de Arte y Numismática del Banco de la República de Colombia and the Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States. Julián has given lectures on his research projects at major art and research institutions nationally and internationally, and his thinking has been published by the Museum of Modern Art, the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Oxford Art Online, Artsy, Alice Yard, the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, and the Universidad Tres de Febrero.
Publications
“Activismo espiritual y contracultura souvenir: el Primer Congreso Mundial de Brujería, 1975,” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango 57, no. 104 (August, 2023).
“Stipan Tadić: Levity as Resource and Method,” in Stipan Tadić. Metropolis: 36 Views of New York, James Fuentes Gallery, 2023.
“Vessels of Myth: The Shamanic Paradigm in the Works of Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Belkis Ayón, and Purvis Young,” Caribbean Culture Institute, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2021.
“Art Historian Julián Sánchez González Discusses Wifredo Lam’s Complex Legacy,” Pace Gallery, 2021.
“Exhibir la abstracción latinoamericana: lo bueno, lo malo y lo no tan bonito,” Estudios Curatoriales, Universidad Tres de Febrero, 2020.
“Caribbean Popular, Caribbean Contemporary: Current Artistic Practices of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago,” The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, 2020.
“12 Artists from the Caribbean and Its Diaspora Who Are Shaping Contemporary Art,” Artsy Editorial, 2019.
“Rubem Valentim and Ibrahim El-Salahi: Strategies of Hybridization and Abstraction in the Global South,” Post: Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art around the Globe, The Museum of Modern Art, 2018.
“El Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá y la contención política: tensiones entre la definición de lo político en el arte y la (des)articulación de la movilización social,” in Diego Salcedo-Fidalgo, ed., Horizontes culturales de la historia del arte: aportes para una acción compartida en Colombia (Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, 2018), 131-157.
Edited Volumes
“Espiritualidades no hegemónicas y arte contemporáneo de América Latina y el Caribe,” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango 57, no. 104 (August, 2023).
Interviews
“Laura E. Pérez: On Altars, Eroticism, and the ‘Mundane Sacred’,” MoMA Magazine, 2024.
“Didier William: Opaque Bodies/Spiritual Futures,” MoMA Magazine, 2023.
“Delcy Morelos: Working with Soil to Free the Soul,” MoMA Magazine, 2023.
“José Bedia, a Cuban Artist Collecting the Intangible,” MoMA Magazine, 2023.
“The ‘Yearning Practices’ of Jorge González and Bernardo Zabalaga,” MoMA Magazine, 2022.
“Ariel Guzik and Catalina Juárez’s Bid for the Re-Enchantment of Life,” MoMA Magazine, 2022.
Conferences
Forthcoming paper presentation at the conference “Psychedelic Intersections: Cross-cultural Manifestations of the Sacred,” Harvard University Divinity School, Center for the Study of World Religions, 2024.
“Contracultura souvenir: el Primer Congreso Mundial de Brujería, 1975,” Corporación Fernando González - Otraparte, 2023.
“Shamanism, Environmental Preservation, and Collective Healing: A Conversation with A k u z u r u and Miguel Keerveld,” Institute for Religion Culture and Public Life, Columbia University, 2022.
“Spirit Sharing: An Interspiritual Conversation on Non-Hegemonic Beliefs and Community Building,” The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Public Humanities, Columbia University, 2021.
“Unusual Scenes: A Series of Unorthodox Lectures in Art History - Geographies of Knowledge,” Columbia University and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 2021.
“Touch, Taste, Turn: Unleashing the Senses in the Arts of the Americas,” Columbia University, New York University, City University of New York, and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 2021.
“Unusual Scenes: A Series of Unorthodox Lectures in Art History – Art History and Spirituality,” Columbia University and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 2020.
“In-Between Worlds” – “Entre mundos”, Galería Liberia, 2020.
“Simposio - Dimensión desconocida: otros relatos del Caribe,” Salón Regional de Artistas 16, Zona Caribe, Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia, 2018.
“Super/Natural: Excess, Ecologies and Art in the Americas,” New York University, City University of New York, and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 2018.
“Coloquio - Historia del arte en Colombia, ¿cómo y para quién?,” Departamento de Historia del Arte, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, 2015.
Advisory Committees
Graduate Student Representative, Columbia University Committee on Art Properties, 2022-2024.