CLAUDIA ZAPATA IS A SPECIALIST IN LATINX AND CHICANX ART.
Claudia E. Zapata (they/them) earned their Ph.D. in art history at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture program. Their dissertation is titled “Chicano Art is Not Dead: The Politics of Curating Chicano Art in Major U.S. Exhibitions, 2008-2012.” They received their BA and MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, with a specialization in Maya art of the Classic period (250-900 CE).
Zapata was the curator of exhibitions and programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. They developed several Texas exhibitions, including A Viva Voz: Carmen Lomas Garza (2009), Sam Coronado: A Retrospective (2011), and Fantastic & Grotesque: José Clemente Orozco in Print (2014). From 2018-2022, Claudia was the curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working on the award-winning exhibition, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now (2020) and curating Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
They have published articles in Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, JOLLAS: Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Their essay "Chicanx Art in the Digital Age” is featured in the ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics,1965-Now exhibition catalogue, published by Princeton University Press in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their essay, “The Future is Feminist: How the Maestras Atelier Transformed Self Help Graphics,” is part of the anthology Self Help Graphics & Art at Fifty published by University of California Press.
In 2024, their published essays include “Post-Internet Latinx Art: Networked Interventions in the Digital Diaspora” in the academic journal Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture and the co-authored essay with Asiel Sepúlveda, “Rethinking the Ph.D. Exam for the Study of Digital Humanities” in What We Teach When We Teach DH: Digital Humanities in the Classroom, published by University of Minnesota Press.
Their recent featured essays are “The Chicana Reclamation of the Sleeping Figure: Yolanda López’s 'Mexican Chair' and Judith F. Baca’s 'Pancho'” in The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture published by Princeton University Press in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their work is part of USLAF’s (US Latinx Art Forum) debut writing initiative, X as Intersection: Writing on Latinx Art, with their contributing essay, “Two-Spirit Joy: Ester Hernandez’s Queer Portraiture.” Zapata now serves as a member of the editorial board member for USLAF’s (US Latinx Art Forum).
In 2026, their forthcoming essays include “Latinx Artesanía Painting: Cultural Fantasies and Material Rebellion” in the Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way: Latinx Painting Today, edited by Andrea Alvarez published by DelMonico Books-D.A.P. in association with the Buffalo AKG Museum, Buffalo. Also coming soon is the essay “Tejana/Chicana por vida: Carmen Lomas Garza’s Early Activist Texas Visions” in Carmen Lomas Garza Picturing the Familiar, edited by Alana Hernandez published by ASU Art Museum. In 2028, their edited volume on the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection of Latino Art at the Blanton Museum of Art will be available through the University of Texas Press.
They co-founded the Latinx art project Puro Chingón Collective in 2012. This experimental art group develops zines, prints, apparel, designs, and art toys. The collective’s zines are part of the collections at the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Library and Archives, Benson Latin American Collection, Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, Mexic-Arte Museum, and London College of Communication Library, among many others. Zapata’s artwork has been featured at the Hawn Gallery in Dallas, the Blanton Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin; the Carver Community Cultural Center and Lady Base Gallery in San Antonio; and the Trans-Pecos Festival in Marfa. Their designs have been part of Austin’s Fusebox Festival, Pachanga Music Festival, and the International Women's Day March in San Antonio.
From 2024-25, they illustrated Arborama! A Tree Game showcasing the Central Texas native trees, climate-resilient trees, and other tree species with the City of Austin’s Urban Forest Program. They are currently artist-in-residence with the City of Austin as part of its inaugural Artist-in-Residence initiative, designed to highlight the culture of East Austin. Zapata is developing the Memorias Project, an immersive archival recital and installation that chronicles the history of Latina/o/x communities in Austin.
From 2022-2023, Zapata was a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, mentored by Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor in the Departments of Art History and Chicana/o and Central American Studies. Their research topic was "Advancing to Web 3.0: Chicanx and Latine/x XR Immersive Environments, NFT Decentralization, and Experiential Visions in the Metaverse.” From 2023-2026, Zapata has worked with conservation specialist Wendy Rose and the Smithsonian American Art Museum to create a virtual tour of Judy Baca’s Uprising of the Mujeres portable mural using the Smithsonian’s Voyager, an open source 3D explorer.
In 2023, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, selected Zapata as their inaugural Associate Curator of Latino Art. Their current exhibition, Move Your Body: Figures in Motion, is on display in the Blanton’s Latino gallery. In 2025, Zapata’s curated traveling exhibition Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum was on view at Colby College Museum of Art (February 6- June 8, 2025) and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (November 16, 2025- March 2, 2026). The exhibition’s next stop includes H’Art Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, (April-September 6, 2026). In 2027, the Vilcek Foundation will feature their curated exhibition Rebel Craft: Latinx Artists Reclaiming the Familiar in New York.