JOSH T FRANCO, PHD
www.joshtfranco.com
CURRICULUM VITAE
Education
2017 Course: “Born Digital Materials in Special Collections,” Rare
Book School. Instructors: Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Naomi
Nelson
PhD 2016 Binghamton University
Dissertation: “Marfa, Marfa: Minimalism, Rasquachismo, and
Questioning ‘Decolonial Aesthetics’ in Far West Texas”
2014 Summer Course: “Slavery, Democracy, and the Decolonial
Option(s),” University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University,
Middelburg, Netherlands. Instructors: Maria Lugones, Walter D.
Mignolo, Rolando Vasquez
2012 Summer Course: “The New World (Dis)Order and the Challenge
of Social Justice: Ethics and the Decolonial Option,” Roosevelt
Academy, Utrecht University, Middelburg, Netherlands.
Instructors: Maria Lugones, Walter D. Mignolo, Rolando Vasquez
MA 2010 Binghamton University
BA 2006 Southwestern University (Paideia Scholar)
Professional Experience
2017- National Collector, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
2015-17 Latino collections specialist, Archives of American Art
2013-15 Artist-Guide, 101 Spring Street, Judd Foundation, New York
2013-15 Instructor, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
2013 Teaching Assistant, “Art History and Visual Culture,” Spring, Binghamton
University
2012 Teaching Assistant, “Introduction to Art and Architecture of the Asian World,”
Spring, Binghamton University
2010 Instructor, “Chicano/a Art & Historiography,” Spring, Binghamton University
2009 Teaching Assistant, “Detective Films & Literature,” Fall, Binghamton University
2008-09 Publishing Assistant, International Studies in Philosophy Journal
2007-08 Instructor, “Performance and Contemporary Art Practice & Theory,” Fall and
Spring, Por Vida Charter High School, San Antonio, TX
2006-08 Service-Learning Coordinator, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio,
TX
2003-06 Assistant Gallery Director, Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Southwestern University
Grants / Fellowships / Awards
2020 Risograph Residency, The Future Minneapolis
2019-20 Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence, Addison Gallery of American Art
2019 Southern Constellations Fellowship and Residency, Elsewhere Museum
18 under 40 honoree, Southwestern University
2018 Prix de la publication d’art, Ontario Association of Art Galleries
2017 Carol Bowers Norris Visiting Artist, DePauw University
2016 Distinguished Former Odessan Award, Odessa Heritage Foundation
2014 Performance art residency, WorkSpace Brussels
2014 Binghamton Foundation Travel Grant, Binghamton University
2013-14 Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research
2013-14 PAGE (Publicly Active Graduate Education) Fellowship, Imagining America
2013 Provost Academic Project Fund award, Ithaca College
2013-14 Pre-Doctoral Diversity Fellowship, Ithaca College
2013 Dissertation Award for Primary Source and Field Research in Art History,
Binghamton University
2013 Anthony D. King Travel Award, Art History Department, Binghamton University
2012 Finalist, Austin Critic’s Table Awards. Project: MARFITA
2010-13 Clifford D. Clark Fellowship, Binghamton University
Publications
Artworks
Performance stills, “Rebozo [Man] In Nepantla #2, #4,” In El Mundo Zurdo: Selected
Works from the Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, 2007 & 2009,
308, 332. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Press, 2009.
Chapters in books
“Rebozo [Man] in Nepantla: Gender & Arts Revolution in San Antonio, TX.” In México
en sus revoluciones: historia, crítica, y poéticas de la emancipacíon y la resistencia en
México, eds. Berenice Villagómez, Alejandro Zamora, Esther Raventós-Pons, 45 - 64.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
“MARFITA: A Toltec Methodology.” In El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the
Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, 2010 & 2011, 135 - 154. San
Francisco: Aunt Lute Press, 2012.
Scholarly periodicals
“There Are No Amateurs in Far West Texas,” Third Text, 34:1, 2020, 71-87. DOI:
10.1080/09528822.2019.1663688
“Gene Swenson papers,” Archives of American Art Journal vol. 59, no. 1 (Spring 2020):
104 – 105.
“George Tooker papers,” Archives of American Art Journal vol. 58, no. 2 (Fall 2019):
100 – 103.
“Lee Hall papers,” Archives of American Art Journal vol. 58, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 88 –
89.
“Hispanic Hoopla: Latino Collecting at the Archives,” Archives of American Art Journal
57, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 78 – 93.
“Juan Sánchez papers,” Archives of American Art Journal vol. 57, no. 1 (Spring 2018):
88 – 89.
Book review: The heart of the mission: Latino art and politics in San Francisco,
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017 in Latino Studies (2018).
“Más Rudas Collective, 2009-2016 (An Archival Epilogue to an Epic Pachanga),” special
issue: “A Gun for Every Girl,” The Journal of Feminist Scholarship, Issue 12/13
(Spring/Fall 2017): 38 – 53.
“Naul Ojeda Papers,” Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 56, no. 2 (Fall 2017): 86 –
87.
Book review: The Accidental Archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force, Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2016 in Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal,
Chicago: Center for Latino Studies at DePaul University, vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 2017):
199 – 201.
“Kathy Vargas Papers,” Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 56, no. 1 (Spring 2017):
86 – 87.
“Moses Ros Papers,” Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 55, no. 2 (Fall 2016): 95 –
97.
“Yo soy Guadalupe,” Shift: Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture, Issue 8,
2015. www.shiftjournal.org
“(Un)traceable Circuits: Insects, Cognition, and Mexican Masks,” The Thing Itself
(2008): 60 - 66. Awarded Judge’s Choice, Non-fiction.
“Anarchy and Service-Learning,” Texas Campus Compact Journal of Service-Learning
(“The Compact Impact”) (2006): 32-36.
Websites
“Questioning the Value of Change from Inside the Archives of American Art,” ArtsBlog,
Americans for the Arts (March 2018),
https://www.americansforthearts.org/2018/05/09/questioning-the-value-of-change-from-
inside-the-archives-of-american-art
“Long Read: Letter to Donald Judd,” …might be good 196 (2012): 2012,
http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/interview/index/196/135.
non-scholarly publications
“The Bound Critics,” catalogue contribution, From the Margins, Washington, DC:
Gallery 102, 2019.
“Dear Theaster: Considering Black Power and Rasquachismo,” catalogue essay,
Theaster Gates: How to Build a House Museum, Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2018.
“Role Call,” Emerging Artist Grant 2016 catalogue, New York: Joan Mitchell
Foundation, 2018.
“POSED-MINIMALISM,” Joshua Saunders: Rock Candy, catalogue published on the
occasion of exhibition at Steve Turner Gallery (Santa Monica, CA), Austin, TX: BooBoo
Books, 2016.
“Dear Joshua, All My Love,” Kinda Blew, catalogue published on the occasion of
exhibition at Co-Lab (Austin, TX), Austin, TX: BooBoo Books, 2014.
“Interview: Michael Garcia,” zingmagazine (September 2013).
“Interview: Richard Benari & Lauren Henkin,” zingmagazine (July 2013).
“Interview: Más Rudas Collective,” zingmagazine (March 2013).
“Interview: Fabian Barba,” zingmagazine (February 2013).
“Interview: Alison Kuo,” zingmagazine (January 2013).
“Interview: Ben Brandt,” zingmagazine (September 2012).
“Interview: Natalie Goodnow,” zingmagazine (December 2011).
“East Side, West Side, I-35,” 7STOPS Magazine (November 2011).
“Interview: Brother John,” 7STOPS Magazine (September 2011).
Introduction, “Talking Shape: Alison Kuo and Joshua Saunders On Their First Visit to
Marfa,” 7STOPS Magazine (September 2011).
“Suddenly Verbose: In the Studio(s) With The Books,” 7STOPS Magazine (August
2011).
“All Hail McQueen,” 7STOPS Magazine (August 2011).
Exhibitions
“SNAKE ATLAS (serpent lightning leads to water; for my father who was bitten, so the
rattler also resides in me),” part of Wayfinding: Contemporary Artists, Critical
Dialogues, and the Sidney R. Knafel Map Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art,
Andover, Massachusetts, September 1, 2020 – February 28, 2021.
“PICTURES ELSEWHERE | ‘Arts are positional games and each time an artist is
influenced he rewrites his art’s history a little.’ (for Michael Baxandall and Sylvia
Gray),” Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, February 2019 – permanent
installation.
Solo show, Work as Art / The Primitives’ Revenge, Studio SoHy, Hyattsville, Maryland,
December, 2018 – March, 2019.
“Scriptorium con safos: Prologue,” installation and performance, DePauw University,
Greencastle, Indiana, October 6, 2017.
Performer, “Cultivo de babosas / Slugs’ Garden,” choreographed by Fabian Barba and
Esteban Donoso, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels, Belgium, May 4-14, 2017.
Selected objects from “impurity takes huevos y reading con cariño (for María Lugones),”
Honoring Lydia Cabrera’s Story: Altar, Performance, and the Living Archive,
HistoryMiami Museum, October 2016.
“in tlilli, in tlapalli: three Tejanos in red and black (otra vez),” part of DEADLANDS /
Karkaot Maot, NurtureArt, Brooklyn, NY, April-May 2016.
“impurity takes huevos y reading con cariño (for María Lugones),” part of Espejos:
Mirrors (in honor of Eduardo Galeano, 1940-2015), Community School of Music and
Arts (CSMA), Ithaca, NY, October 2015.
“LICKable racist wallpaper or…How Many Licks To the Center of Racism?,” part of 2 x
3 Art Show curated by Lady Base Gallery for Spare Parts Studio’s MINI ART
MUSEUM, Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio, March 2014.
“in tlilli, in tlapalli: three Tejanos in red and black,” part of Boy Talk, Mulberry House,
San Antonio, December 2013.
“in tlilli, in tlapalli: three Tejanos in red and black,” part of Querida Maestra at the semi-
annual convening of the Society for the Study of Gloria E. Anzaldúa, University of Texas
San Antonio Art Gallery, November 2013.
“Teléfono Piece (para las veteranas, con respeto y amor),” with Natalie Goodnow, part
of Exploring the World of Gloria Anzaldúa at the semi-annual convening of the Society
for the Study of Gloria E. Anzaldúa, University of Texas San Antonio Art Gallery, May
2012.
“MARFITA,” Large-scale collaborative multimedia installation with Alison Kuo, Joshua
Saunders, and Natalie Goodnow, Co-Lab artspace, Austin, October; 2011.
“Rebozo [Man] in Nepantla,” three photosculptures accepted from larger series as part of
El Mundo Zurdo at the semi-annual convening of the Society for the Study of Gloria E.
Anzaldúa, Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, San Antonio, May 2009.
Conferences / Presentations / Papers
2018 Latino Studies Association Conference
Respondent, Panel: “Remapping Latinx Art History: Visualizing Diaspora, Asylum, and
Exile,” organized by Robb Hernandez
Rebele Speaker Series, Critical Issues and Professional Practices in Visual Studies,
University of California, Santa Cruz
Presentation: “Latino Collecting Initiative at the Archives of American Art”
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, Los Angeles
Panel: “A Second Talent: Art Hsitorians Making Art, Part II”
Paper: “Hecho a mano: Art History is Made by Hand”
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, Los Angeles
Panel: “Reconsidering Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA,” organized by Selene Preciado
and Idurre Alonso
Presentation: “Considering ‘Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas’”
2017 Pinta Art Fair, Miami
Panel: “Nela Arias Misson”
“Latinx and Latin America Works on Paper @ El Museo del Barrio,” course instructed
by Anna Indych-Lopez and Rocio Aranda Alvarado, The Graduate Center, City
University of New York
Guest Lecture: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
“A line that birds cannot see”: Mexican/US Art and Artists Crossing Borders in the 20th
Century, Symposium on the occasion of the exhibition “Tamayo: The New York Years,”
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Respondent, remarks: “Tómas and Chaz in Mexico: Documents from the Archives of
American Art …and Postcommodity”
Joan Mitchell Foundation (New Orleans), Emerging Artists Grant Convening
Presentation: “Preparing Archival Materials”
A Conversation with Andres Serrano and Josh T. Franco, Pace Gallery and Archives of
American Art
Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), 6th Biennial Siglo XXI
Conference: Mapping of Latino Research
Panel: Archives and Documentation
Presentation: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
104th Material Culture Forum, Smithsonian Institution
Presentation: “Color on Color: The Color-Coded Archives of Fanny Sanín”
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, New York City
Panel: “Mexico City Today”
Paper: “Cochair Presentation: A Brief History of Latinx Artists in Mexico City:
Documents from the Archives of American Art”
National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) Arts Advocacy Leadership
Institute
Presentation: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
2016 US Latinx Arts Futures Symposium, convened by Teresita Fernandez,
Ford Foundation
Presentation: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) Arts Advocacy Leadership
Institute
Presentation: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
Independent Curators International
Dead Lands: Josh T. Franco in Conversation with Rotem Rozental
Joan Mitchell Foundation
Presentation: “Latinx Presence in the Archives of American Art”
National Women’s Studies Association
Panel: “Radical Unbecoming as Artistic Practice”
Moderator
Archive Live: Paul Ramirez Jonas
Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Latino Art Now! Chicago
Panel: “Living Archives: Recovering the Sources for Latino-American Art”
Paper: “Latina/o Presence in the Archives of American Art”
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, Washington, DC
Panel: “Living Archives: Latin American and Latino Art Materials in U.S. Institutions”
organized by Olga U. Herrera
Paper: “Latina/o Presence in the Archives of American Art”
2015 Trestle Projects
Moderator: Artist talk with Kati Gegenheimer and Charlotte Hallberg
VizCult Guest Speaker Series, Art History Department, Binghamton University
Paper: “Marfa, Aztlán”
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, New York City
Panel: “Imagining a US Latino/a Art History” organized by Adriana Zavala
Paper: “Minimalism, rasquachismo: ‘World-Traveling Two ‘American’ Aesthetics”
2014 “The Ends of American Art,” Graduate Student Panel, Stanford University
Paper: “Yo soy Guadalupe”
Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies (LACAS) Graduate Scholar Series,
Binghamton University
Paper: “La Virgen de Marfa, Texas: A Map and a Performance”
“MLK Celebration 2014: A Single Garment of Destiny,” Ithaca College
Paper: “Pilgrim, Approach”
“American Comparative Literary Association Annual Meeting: Capitals,” New York
University
Paper: “Grids In Chicano/a Art”
“Association of Art Historians Annual Conference,” Royal College of Art, London
Paper: “He Came On My Canv-ass: Considering Queerness In the Work Of Joshua
Saunders”
2013 “Imagining America National Conference: A Call To Action,” Syracuse University
Workshop led as PAGE Fellow: “Community formation(s) and the Arts”
“Hemispheric Institute HEMI Graduate Student Initiative Convergence: Experimental
Collectives,” University of Southern California & University of California Los Angeles
Workgroup: “Decolonial Feminism”
Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Ithaca College
Lecture / performance workshop delivered for “Latino / a Studies,” with Instructor Nancy
Morales
Marfa Book Co., Marfa, TX
Paper: “Marfa, Marfa: Minimalism, rasquachismo, and a Question of Decolonial
Aesthetics”
“Symposium on the History of Art,” organized by The Frick Collection and The Institute
of Fine Art at New York University
Paper: “Exposed: Process, Couture, and Photography in Marfa, Texas”
Art History Department, Binghamton University
Lecture delivered for “American Art Worlds,” with Prof. Kevin Hatch
2012 “ICONS,” 20th Annual Crossing the Boundaries Conference, Art History Department,
Binghamton University
Paper: “Virgin Time”
2011 National Association for Chicano and Chicana Studies Annual Conference, Pasadena, CA
Paper: “Rasquachismo: The Chican@ [Everyday]”
“Conflict,” 19th Annual Crossing the Boundaries Conference, Art History Department,
Binghamton University
Paper: “In’Laketch: La Virgen Looks at Donald Judd, and How We Might Look Too”
2010 “El Mundo Zurdo: The International Conference on the Life and Work of Gloria
Anzaldúa,” San Antonio, TX
Paper: “Marfita: A Toltec Methodology?”
“Mexico in its Revolutions,” a trilingual conference at Glendon College and University
of Toronto, Toronto, CA
Paper: “Rebozo [Man] in Nepantla: Xican@ Gender and Arts Revolution in San Anto,
Tejas”
2009 “Inhabiting the Transnational” Conference, Binghamton University
Paper: “Thinking Beneath the Border: Reading Azade Seyhan’s Writing Outside the
Nation”
2007 “Creating Agents for Change: Improving Communities through Faculty and Student
Leadership,” National Conference on Civic Engagement, Austin, TX
Paper: “Anarchy and Service-Learning”
Professional Service
Service outside university
2019 Search committee for Director, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian
2017- Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) Selection Committee,
Smithsonian
2017- Inter-American Development Bank Collection Committee
2016- Lunchbag Lecture Committee, Smithsonian American Art Museum / National
Portrait Gallery / Archives of American Art
2016- Latino Gallery curatorial advisor, Smithsonian Latino Center
2015- Secretary and Membership Coordinator, US Latinx Art Forum (USLAF)
2017 Juror, Museums Panel B, National Endowment for the Arts
2013 Facilitator, -empyre- listserve, “Call and Response,” Week of 16 December
2010-11 Co-founder, co-editor, 7STOPS online monthly magazine
2010 New York Gallery Week with Artpace San Antonio
2009 Participant, “Urban Treasure Hunt,” ARTREBELS, Copenhagen
2009 Moderator, “Theorizing at the Intersection of Chicana/o Studies and
Decoloniality,”
panel at National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Conference, New
Brunswick, NJ
2009 Invited speaker, “Magical Realism in Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo,” lecture given
in IB
World Literature course, Odessa High School, Odessa, TX
2008 Volunteer, Macondo Workshop, convened by Sandra Cisneros, San Antonio, TX
2007 Site Coordinator, “Latin@ Genius: Locos, Dreamers, and Visionaries,” reunion of
Los Macarturos, Latino / a MacArthur grant recipients, hosted by Sandra
Cisneros, San Antonio, TX (Interviewed for documentary DVD Spring 2008)
Service within university (Binghamton University, SUNY)
2014 Hiring Committee, Faculty Engagement Associate, Center for Civic Engagement,
Binghamton University
2014 Member, Transdisciplinary Area of Excellence: Material and Visual Worlds
2011 Co-organizer, “Conflict,” 19th Annual Crossing the Boundaries Conference, Art
History Department
2010-11 Secretary, Art History Graduate Student Union
2010 Organizer, Monique Roelofs’ two-day seminar, “The Cultural Promises and
Threats
of the Aesthetic,” part of the “Human and Non-Human” Dean’s Speaker Series
hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Philosophy, Interpretation,
and Culture
