International Focus: Leslie Moody Castro / Austin, Texas / Mexico City

Leslie Moody Castro will be visiting Estonia for a research residency from 5-26 June, 2016. Based in Mexico City, Mexico and Austin, Texas, the United States, Leslie will be visiting over 20 artist studios as part of ECADC Visiting Curators programme. She will also serve as a member of the selection committee for the award of the Best Young Talent of the Baltics, announced from among the strongest Arts Academy graduates in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the basis of their graduate shows.

As an independent curator and writer, Leslie has collaborated with such art institutions as Artpace, San Antonio; Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio; Texas State University; CentralTrak, Dallas; and Co-Lab Projects, Austin. She is committed to artistic exchange and dialogue, and is the co-founder of the artist residency programme Unlisted Projects in Austin, Texas. Leslie has been nominated for various awards for her work in the field of contemporary art in Austin, Texas, and has recently been awarded an endowment for curating the collaborative project Placeholder at the Centre of Visual Arts of the University of Texas. Leslie has also been appointed the Artistic Director of the upcoming Texas Biennial (2017). She is a regular contributor to Artforum, Flash Art International, Frieze Magazine, ArtNews, and Artcritical. Leslie holds an MA (2010) in Museum Education with a portfolio supplement in Museum Studies from the University of Texas in Austin, and a BA (2004) in Art History from DePaul University in Chicago.

Leslie will be visiting Tallinn as part of the ECADC Visiting Curators programme, generously supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.