Curators

ISAW’s curatorial team for this exhibition are:

Pedro Azara

Professor Azara was trained as an architect and is now a Professor of Aesthetics at the School of Architecture of Barcelona (UPC-ETSAB, Spain). His main field of research is the relationship between mythology and architecture, particularly in the Ancient Near East and in Ancient Greece. He has written several books on the subject, including his most recent, La reconstrucción del Edén. mito y arquitectura en oriente (The Reconstruction of Eden: Myth and Architecture in the Ancient Near East) (Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 2010). Among the many exhibitions he has curated and designed are Casas del alma. Maquetas arquitectónicas de la antigüedad 5500 aC-300 dC (Soul Houses: Ancient Architectural Models 5500 BC-300 AD) at Centro de Cultura Contemporánea, Barcelona (1997), which was voted one of the ten best exhibitions in Spain for the last twenty years); Bulls: Image and Cult in the Ancient World at Cultural Olympics, Benaki Museum, Athens, (2003), voted best exhibition of the year in Spain; City of Mirage: Baghdad, from Wright to Venturi, which was presented in Barcelona, New York, Boston, and Ramala (2008-2012); and Before the Flood: Mesopotamia 3500 BC-2100 BC at the CaixaForum in Barcelona and Madrid (2012). His architectural designs have been shown in L´Arsenal (Paris, 2010), and at the Biennale of Architecture (Venice, 2014)

Jennifer Chi

Dr. Chi established and leads ISAW’s exhibitions program. Dr. Chi was curator of ISAW’s inaugural exhibition, Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani (2008); co-curator of The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley 5000–3500 BC (2009); and on the curatorial team for Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos (2011) and Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan (2012). In addition to co-curating Archaeology and Aesthetics, Dr. Chi is currently working on future exhibitions focused on Ancient Mediterranean textiles. A specialist in Roman imperial sculpture, Dr. Chi was a fellow of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1999–2000. She is also a member of the sculpture publication team at the renowned classical site of Aphrodisias in Turkey. Dr. Chi holds an M.A. from the University of Oxford with distinction, and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.