THE JURY OF THE 21ST ARTE LAGUNA PRIZE

SARAH CROWE
AUSTRIA – FREELANCE CURATOR, WRITER AND ART RESEARCHER

Sarah Crowe is a freelance curator, writer and researcher. Most recently, she served as Assistant Curator at Kunsthalle Wien, where she curated Guglielmo Castelli: Sweet Baby Motel (2026) and was Assistant Curator of Richard Hawkins: Potentialities (2025). In 2024 she administered the Estate of Noa Eshkol at neugerriemschneider in Berlin. Previously, she was Artistic Director of Kunstverein Göttingen, where she developed a programme of exhibitions that included Mercedes Azpilicueta, Jonathan Baldock, Andy Fitz, Daiga Grantina, Yein Lee, Rasmus Myrup, and Tenant of Culture (all 2023). Earlier, Crowe was Curatorial Assistant at Gropius Bau in Berlin, contributing to major exhibitions by Daniel Boyd (2023), Louise Bourgeois (2022), and Thea Djordjadze (2021). Her curatorial research examines the sociocultural dimensions of materials and processes of making in contemporary art, with particular attention to the role of the body.

Photo by Katharina Behling.

YUKO HASEGAWA
JAPAN – INDEPENDENT CURATOR, ART HISTORIAN AND DIRECTOR OF THE 21st CENTURY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN KANAZAWA

Yuko Hasegawa has curated major international biennials in Istanbul, São Paulo, Sharjah, and Moscow, gaining global recognition for her work. At the same time, she has played a key role in shaping locally rooted, socially engaged institutions such as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and the Inujima “Art House Project,” both of which have expanded notions of public space in contemporary art. Building on her pedagogical work at Tokyo University of the Arts’ GA program, she is dedicated to training a new generation of curators and advancing transdisciplinary approaches to curation. In 2026 Hasegawa was established as Curator for Syrian pavillon at the 61° Venice Biennale of Art, in 2010 she has been part of the jury for the Venice Biennale of Architecture and in 2003 she covered the role of Commissioner for Japan pavillon in the Venice Biennale of Art.

As a Visiting Professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) and Research Professor at the Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University, she also engages in collaborative research bridging art, natural sciences, and anthropology.

Her exhibitions and publications address pressing contemporary issues such as ecology, feminism, and technology, while reconfiguring the narratives of postwar and contemporary Japanese art history. Through her curatorial practice, Hasegawa seeks to construct new networks of knowledge—linking theory and practice, the local and the global, the arts and society.

JEMIMA KULUMBA
BELGIUM – CO-FOUNDER OF BIENNALE OF WOMEN IN ART (WIA), INDEPENDENT CURATOR, ART CONSULTANT

Jemima Kulumba is the co-founder of Biennale of Women In Art (WIA) whose aim is cultural mediation about gender equality in the art sector. She is also a cultural mediator, curator, and cultural event consultant. She has worked as an expert in Dakar (Senegal) Biennale of Dak’art, Mairie des Parcelles (SN), Festival Women designer, Brussels (BE) President of Jury and curator, Kinshasa (RDC) Jury and coordinated cultural event, Lille (FR), World Design Capital, Anvers (BE) Speaker for the university and research institute, Namur (BE) guest speaker for study day at Le Delta, Switzerland (CH) Advisory Board Fat Art Fair, Venice (IT) Artist manager and partner TTA, London (UK) artists management and co-coordination  collaboration  at WIAF with Sylvie Gormezano WIA Executive committee and Tamar Levi, Berlin (DE) partners and curator. For her contribution to promoting art and culture, she received multiple awards including The EU Benelux award, the Wyde Award, the Award of the mayor of Dakar and recently, finalists of the Elle Magazine Women of the year award (Culture category). She regularly collaborates with cultural institutions to promote artists, underrepresented artists and women artists. She has worked as curator of the Biennale of Children in Dakar. She also co-organised several art and cultural Festival in Kinshasa as a consultant, including the 100 years of the Kinshasa city with the Old Governors’ Children’s (non-political NGO). Jemima also worked as advisor to Alassane Cissé and the Senegalese Ministry of Culture for the DakArt Biennale. She is currently on several advisory boards, Wallonia Brussels Federation concerning women’s rights (BE), Fat Art Fair (Switzerland), Alassane Cissé Advisory board (Bamako, Dakar).

WANG CHUNCHEN
CHINA – PROFESSOR AND CHIEF CURATOR AT CAFA ART MUSEUM, BEIJING

Professor Wang Chunchen is a renowned curator and critic. He served as Deputy Director and Chief Curator at CAFA Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China, and is now Director of the CAFAM Research Center for Contemporary Art, as well as Director of Shanxi Contemporary Art Museum. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales and a specially appointed professor at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, and Beijing Normal University. He also supervises PhD candidates at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts.

In 2012, he was Adjunct Curator at the Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, USA. In 2013, he served as Curator of the Chinese Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. Wang is Deputy Principal Editor of the UK-based Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and Editor-in-Chief of The Chinese Contemporary Art Series, published by Springer-Verlag, Germany. He has been invited worldwide to symposia, forums, and lectures, including a Visiting Fellowship at Tate Research Centre: Asia in 2015.
Wang Chunchen also co-organized and curated the exhibitions “Questioning on Painting: Five Artists”, CAFAM, Beijing, 2024, “The Age of Human Wisdom: The Third Jinan International Art Biennale”, 2024, “A Brief History of Photography: Documentary Exhibition of Books Donated by Christopher Phillips”, CAFAM, Beijing, 2023, “Crypto Art: A New Possibility of Art”, CAFAM, Beijing, 2023, “Coordinate: New Paintings in China since 2000”, Shanxi Contemporary Art Museum, 2023.

HÉLIO MENEZES
BRAZIL – INDEPENDENT CURATOR

Co-curator of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Choreographies of the Impossible, he has served as Artistic Director of the Museu Afro Brasil and as Curator of Contemporary Art and Literature at the Centro Cultural São Paulo. He holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of São Paulo (USP) and is an Affiliated Scholar at Princeton University’s Brazil Lab. He conceived the project Dos Brasis (SESC) and has curated the exhibitions Carolina Maria de Jesus: A Brazil for Brazilians (IMS), Afro-Atlantic Histories (MASP/Instituto Tomie Ohtake), Voices Against Racism, as well as shows at the Osório César Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery (Chicago), among others.

In 2021, he was recognized by ArtReview as one of the 100 most influential people in contemporary art worldwide.

GIANLUIGI RICUPERATI
ITALY – INDEPENDENT CURATOR, ART DIRECTOR AND WRITER 

Gianluigi Ricuperati was born in Turin in 1977. In 2012, he curated “Giorno Per Giorno,” a project promoted by the Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art CRT as part of Contemporary Turin+Piemonte and coordinated by Artissima: ten days of art, science, and contemporary cultures. In 2010, he worked with the Castello di Rivoli – Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2009, with Stefano Boeri and Fabrizio Gallanti, he co-curated Urbania, the international urban planning festival in Bologna. In 2007 and 2008, together with Stefano Boeri, he directed Festarch, the international architecture festival in Cagliari.

Former creative director of the Domus Academy, he is the founder of the Institute for Production of Wonder, which conducts research and communications for public and private institutions. He writes for La Repubblica, Il Foglio, and other publications. He initially wrote for Bollati Boringhieri and Laterza, and made his debut novel with Il mio impero è nell’aria (My Empire is in the Air), followed by La produzione di meraviglia (Mondadori 2013), published in France by Gallimard, and La scomparsa di me (Feltrinelli 2017). From January 2010 to November 2011, he conceived and directed Canale 150, on national television.

LINZI STAUVERS
UK – ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AT IKON GALLERY

Dr. Linzi Stauvers is Artistic Director for Education at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK, where she advocates for greater access to the visual arts in schools, prisons, health and social care contexts. Since joining the gallery 2017, she has enjoyed working in close collaboration with artists who use photography and film to document societal shifts, with particular focus on the immigrant experience, including Vanley Burke, Mahtab Hussain and Osman Yousefzada. In 2024, she oversaw Ikon’s 60th anniversary programme, including an exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (about 1615-17) alongside Mirror Martyr Mirror Moon (2024), an installation of film, sound, performance and sculpture by Irish artist Jesse Jones. From 2010-15, she worked at Pavilion, commissioning moving image works by Melvin Moti, Celine Condorelli and Lucy Skaer.

Photo by Ayesha Jones.