Julia CSekö
Brazilian /American Visual Artist
Csekö’s work gravitates around conversations and eXxperiments grounded on a paradigm shift from competitive to collaborative practices in social actions and interactions.
Photo by By Dana J. Quigley, DJQ Media LLC
BIO
Born in Colorado to Brazilian parents in self-exile during Brazil’s military dictatorship, Julia Csekö was raised in Rio de Janeiro. An interdisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural advocate, Csekö has received numerous prestigious awards and residencies, including the ALAANA Creative County Grant, the SMFA Traveling Fellowship, the Collective Futures Grant, the Be The Change Award, and multiple Local Cultural Council grants. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Boston Center for the Arts and recently completed the eight-month-long Salem Public Artist Residency. Csekö has also been invited to several notable residencies, including Sculpture Space and MASSCreative’s Create the Vote Fellowship, and in 2025, she will return to MASS MoCA as an Assets for Artists Alumni AiR.
Csekö’s work includes public art commissions and is held in prominent collections such as the Tufts University Permanent Collection, Emerson College, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio (MAM Rio), the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and Centro Cultural São Paulo, as well as private collections worldwide.
Her passion for arts advocacy began during her BFA studies at the Federal University of Rio (UFRJ), where she played a pivotal role in securing an increase in Brazil’s national arts and culture funding from 0.3% to 1%. She also served on a cultural policy committee engaging with the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. Now based in North America, Csekö continues her advocacy work, championing arts funding, accessibility, and community engagement.
Current Projects
I spent 2024 collaborating with artists and tireless human rights activists based in Rio creating a new body of work. This project was made possible due to the generous support of the SMFA Traveling Fellow Grant.
OBA EBA
FIAT LUX ET MISERICORDIA
Filmed at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio, EBA UFRJ, where I received my BFA, in Sculpture.
collectivum
delirium
Is a monumental textile piece made with nylon flags and can be installed indoors or outdoors.
Many hands
make for
light work
Filmed at the now abandoned DOPS building in Rio - a police station where during the military dictatorship political prisoners were incarcerated, tortured, and many times never seen again.
upcoming events
You Belong Here Printing Workshop*
June 17th, 4-7 PM
Boston City Hall - 1 City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201
*free and open to the public
In this free all ages workshop, participants can create a message of belonging. Bring a t-shirt, tote bag, or piece of natural fabric to print with a message that expresses ideas of Belonging. Take home a gift for yourself or someone who needs to hear this. No experience needed. This program is part of our current exhibition "City of Belonging" in partnership with the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement.
Location and Directions: This event will be hosted at the top of the stairs of the Mezzanine Gallery, located on the 3rd floor. Please enter on Congress St (across from Faneuil Hall), pass security, and take the elevators to the 3rd floor.
Hosted in: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. For additional accommodations, please contact us.
Arts Fest Everett '25 Printing Workshop*
June 21st, 3-7 PM
Swan St Park in Everett, MA
*free and open to the public
This is a free, all-ages stenciling activity.
Print words of welcome on a wearable t-shirt of your own. All materials provided!
Featuring: Art Activities for all Ages. Live Music. Spoken Word Performances. Beldam Circus. Dinner from local restaurants
In caseYou missed it
Voices of Belonging / Voces de ConeXxión
A collaboration with the North Shore CDC and a direct development of the Salem Public Artist in Residence 2024 - Transcending Borders Project.
Thank you to each person who came out for this beautiful celebration of belonging and community. Thank you to the North Shore CDC and Punto Urban Museum for making us feel welcomed and well cared for.
Spaces of belonging are built by each of us each day.
Thank you so much to the speakers and the North Shore community for showing up.
We can use more of this energy right now. <3
Michelle “LaPoetica” Richardson
Edward Rocha
Dinora Mendez
Dr. Giordano Encarnación
Isaiah Duncan
Julia Csekö (organizer & mc)
Photos Derek Kouyoumjian
Create Night at the PEM
Sustainable Fashion: Upcycling with Julia Csekö
May 8th, 7-8:30 PM
PEM Main Atrium
East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970
Join Salem’s Public Artist in Residence Julia Csekö and explore sustainable fashion hands-on by upcycling a piece of clothing. No prior sewing experience is necessary! All are welcome.
Materials will be provided, but participants can choose to bring an old t-shirt or other item of clothing to transform.
Creative Sector day at State House
April 30th 10 AM - 3 PM
Members of the arts and cultural community from across the Commonwealth will gather at the State House to celebrate the contributions of artists, cultural organizations, creative businesses and arts workers to Massachusetts. Creative Sector Day will start with a formal program in the morning and include performances and exhibits throughout the afternoon.
Salem PAiR
This exhibition, under the title Social Fabric, is the culmination of visual artist Julia Csekö’s eight-month-long Salem Public Artist in Residency program in 2024. The solo presentation features newly-created monumental textile work that responds to and engages with dozens of migration stories collected from local residents through the participatory public art installation Transcending Borders Immigrant Experiences and Dreams.
Photo: joana Traub Csekö
In addition, the exhibition showcases two video pieces created in collaboration with the Salem Access TV and premiered at the Salem Old Town Hall. The first time-based project consists of a series of interviews with members of local immigrant communities, and the second features three professional dancers invited by the artist to activate the Welcome Dresses, wearable pieces made of thousands of colorful satin ribbons printed with the phrase YOU ARE WELCOME HERE in fifteen languages commonly spoken by immigrants in greater Boston; these ribbons were distributed to the public during the residence period.
About the Curator Michaela Blanc
Blanc is the Wikimedian in Residence at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and a Leadership Advisor at Art+Feminism. She recently curated Adaptation – Local Notes at Tomayko Foundation and Adaptation Screening Program at Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh. Previously, she was a Curatorial Fellow at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), a guest curator in the SMFA at Tufts University and MassArt Low Residence MFA programs, a Graduate Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a curatorial intern at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. She holds an MA in Museum Studies/Museum Education from Tufts University and a BA in Art History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
*This program is supported in part by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency and the ALAANA grant from the Creative County Initiative of the Essex County Community Foundation.
Photos by By Dana J. Quigley, DJQ Media LLC
50% of each sale will be donated to
organizations that support immigrant rights.
Hannah arendt
Limited Edition Print
I am honored to announce that Bard College Hannah Arendt Center has commissioned a Speaking Truth to Power limited edition print featuring words by Hannah Arendt from the Origins of Totalitarianism.
15x15 in Limited Edition Print
Paulo freire
LIMITED EDITION print
15x22.5 in Limited Edition Print
From the Speaking Truth to Power series featuring words by Brazilian educator and thinker Paulo Freire.