Photo by Eva Flury.
ABOUT
Dr. Valentina Locatelli (born in 1979, Bergamo, Italy) is an independent curator and writer based in Berne, Switzerland. Her research focuses on international modern and contemporary art, Latin American art, Italian Renaissance art and 19th century art-connoisseurship. She is also interested in the exhibition of contemporary art in historic contexts.
Dr. Locatelli has worked both as an independent curator, developing international exhibitions and artistic projects, and at museums in Switzerland, including three years at Fondation Beyeler, six years at Kunstmuseum Bern and one year at the Museo d’Arte della Svizzera Italiana (MASI) in Lugano. Select shows she curated include: the exhibition of Swiss art masterpieces from the collection of the Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte from Winterthur, the thematic survey of works by Mexican women artists in the Daros Latinamerica Collection (both at Kunstmuseum Bern) and the monographic exhibition of Chinese artist Yuan Yuan (Palazzo Terzi, Bergamo). In 2019, Dr. Locatelli oversaw and curated the ambitious artistic program dedicated to modern and contemporary art in Latin America presented at the Grand Palais on the occasion of Art Paris Art Fair. She is also the co-founder and president of the Berne-based not-for-profit organisation art+château.
During her professional career, Dr. Locatelli has worked with numerous artists both internationally renowned and emerging, such as Marcelo Brodsky, Sheila Hicks, Ricardo Rendón, Betsabeé Romero and Wang Zhibo. In addition to working on several scientific catalogs for Fondation Beyeler (such as Basquiat, Segantini, Brancusi & Serra and Surrealismus in Paris, all published by Hatje Cantz), Dr. Locatelli edited, wrote and published books, such as Metamorfosi romantiche: le teorie del primo Romanticismo tedesco nel pensiero sull’arte di Giovanni Morelli (Campanotto Editore), Kunstmuseum Bern: Masterpieces (Hirmer Verlag), Without Restraint: Works by Mexican Women Artists From the Daros Latinamerica Collection (Hatje Cantz) and Cybèle Varela: Tropicalismo Remixed (Silvana Editoriale). Dr. Locatelli has participated in numerous international conferences and regularly writes texts for scientific catalogs and exhibitions. She began her career working for international auction houses, such as Christie’s Department of 19th Century European Art in London and Dorotheum in Vienna.
Dr. Valentina Locatelli obtained a PhD from the University of Bergamo with a dissertation on Giovanni Morelli and art connoisseurship, for which she also undertook lengthy research at the Institute for Art History of the Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich) and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Dresden). She holds a Master’s degree in foreign languages and literature and in 2012 she obtained the Master of Advanced Studies in Museology from the University of Geneva. Over the years, Dr. Locatelli has been awarded with numerous scholarships and recognitions from institutions such as the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), ProHelvetia and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Dr. Locatelli, a native Italian speaker, is fluent in English, French and German and conversant in Spanish.