I was born in Puerto Rico and grew up engaged in various artistic activities such as dancing ballet and flamenco, playing the piano, and studying art w/award-winning artist Nora Rodríguez-Vallés. I also loved fashion, and when I went to college at Brown University and the Rhode Island I studied art history, silversmithing, costume history, and Italian. The most important experience at this time took place when I lived and studied in Firenze, Italy, between 1992-1993. I traveled extensively around the country, and fell in love with its culture, language, people, food, and diverse landscapes.Upone graduating with a B.A. in The Visual Arts and a B.A. in The HIstory of Art and Architecture in 1994, I decided I would devote my life to the arts in all earnestness.

In 1996 I became the first appointed Director of Education at the Museo de Arte de Ponce (Puerto Rico), the most important museum in the Caribbean. In 1999 I moved to Philadelphia, USA, to begin my career as a curator at the Galería Lorenzo Homar in Taller Puertorriqueño (Puerto Rican Workshop). I curated some 45 exhibitions between 1999 and 2008, and also started a Ph.D. in Visual Anthropology focusing on Art as a Future Faculty Fellow at Temple University.

In 2009 I participated in the Latino Museum Studies Program at the Smithsonian Institution, continuing a relationship that has evolved into various activites such as evaluating SI Latino Pool Initiative proposals (2009, 2011) for such projects as the Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space, the first exhibition to reevaluate the evolution of the international Light and Space movement through the work of five pivotal Latin American artists: Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. Caracas, Venezuela, 1923), Lucio Fontana (b. Rosario, Argentina, 1899; d. Varese, Italy, 1968), Julio Le Parc (b. Mendoza, Argentina, 1928), Hélio Oiticica (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1937; d. Rio de Janeiro, 1980), and Jesús Rafael Soto (b. Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela,  1923; d. Paris, France, 2005).

In 2011 I became the Biennale Researcher stationed at the United States Pavilion in Giardini during the 54th Biennale di Venezia: ILLUMInations, conducting ethnographic research by having the opportunity of interviewing visitors to the Pavilion from all over the world. Upon my return to the United States I founded a new experimental initiative dedicated to the research and promotion of new international art called The ~curARTorial LAB, currently housed in Crane Arts Old School.

As part of the activities I conduct through The ~curARTorial LAB I accepted the invitation to serve as a member of the international jury for the YICCA 2012 contest. This has been one of the most significant and enjoyable activities of my career, and I look forward to attending the opening reception in Prague during early October.

In the meantime, I am currently curating the citywide multi-sited screenings of the PUMA.Creative films4peace throughout the City of Philadelphia (September 21-29), as well co-curating the Inside the Moment International Short FIlm Festival with Tracy Lisk @ Crane Arts (October 11-November 4, 2012). I am also the 2012 Chief Curator of Diálogo 365: CARPE DIEM @ Art in City Hall (October 18-December 7 @Philadelphia City Hall), a 25+ artist exhibition initiative focusing on US Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Art that is co-presented by Casa de Venezuela and the Office of Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez.

I am also a professor of Art History at The University of the Arts, where I teach an Art of India seminar since 2010, and at Rutgers University @ Camden, where I teach a course on the Art of Ancient Egypt.

As an artist I rarely exhibit since I devote most of my public work to curatorial endeavors, but I paint regularly and also draw in a variety of media, as well as working with photography and video. I will use this platform to share my art with the YICCA community, since I know this is a wonderful space for sharing one's work with the world.

~@/Anabelle Rodriguez-Lawton