Adriano Pedrosa has been appointed as the director of the Visual Arts Sector of La Biennale di Venezia, with the specific task of curating the 60th International Art Exhibition, to be held in 2024. Pedrosa is currently the artistic director of Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, also known as MASP.
Prior to his current position, Pedrosa has had a long and accomplished career in the art world. He co-curated the 12th Istanbul Biennial with Jens Hoffman, was the adjunct curator of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo in 1998, and the curator in charge of exhibitions and collections at Museu de Arte da Pampulha in Belo Horizonte from 2000 to 2003. He has also been the co-curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo, the curator of InSite_05 at the San Diego Museum of Art and Centro Cultural Tijuana, and the artistic director of the 2nd Trienal de San Juan.
Jens Hoffmann (left), Adriano Pedrosa (right). Courtesy of Sanatatak.
In addition to being appointed as the director of the Visual Arts Sector of La Biennale di Venezia, Adriano Pedrosa has also been praised for his work as the artistic director of MASP. Pedrosa has been with the museum since 2014, and has been instrumental in creating the Historias series of exhibitions, which include Histórias da sexualidade (Stories of Sexuality) in 2017, Histórias das mulheres (Women’s stories) in 2019, Histórias da dança (Dance Stories) in 2020, and the critically acclaimed Historias Afro-Atlantic (Afro-Atlantic Stories) in 2018. The latter has since toured North America, including to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, with a stop at LACMA scheduled for December. The current exhibition at MASP is Histórias Brasileiras (Brazilian Stories).
(left to right) Posters of Histórias da sexualidade (Stories of Sexuality), 2017. Histórias das mulheres (Women’s stories), 2019. Historias Afro-Atlantic (Afro-Atlantic Stories), 2018 exhibitions.
Pedrosa has also been the curator of several exhibitions at MASP, including solo shows dedicated to the work of Tarsila do Amaral, Anna Bella Geiger, and many other notable artists. He has recently been appointed as the 2023 recipient of the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, given by the Central for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York.
Pedrosa holds a degree in law from the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, and a master's degree in art and critical writing from the California Institute of the Arts. He has published in various art publications such as Artforum, Frieze, and Mousse.