Cross-Border Dialogues: Tarah Hogue and Pablo N. Barrera

Pablo N. Barrera (Wixáritari) joined Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center as the inaugural Curatorial Fellow before being promoted to Associate Curator. In 2024, he stepped down from his previous role and was named Adjunct Curator appointed to the upcoming retrospective, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: Honor Song, scheduled to open in spring of 2025. Barrera collaborates with local art communities to produce exhibitions and explore innovative strategies to support formal/informal learning of art. He is committed to raising public awareness of Indigenous artistic practices through generating gallery experiences that invite audiences of all backgrounds to engage with art. He has independently curated shows in London, Seoul, and New York. 

Barrera’s achievements include being among the first cohort of curators at NXTHVN Art Space (Connecticut) and serving as graduate advisor for Yale University Art Gallery’s first student-led Native American art exhibition. He has written on the artistic representation of cultures that experienced colonization, including a co-authored chapter on Korean vernacular architectural heritage (Springer International) and a paper on Mesoamerican art production as part of the Columbian Exchange between Colonial Spain and East Asia (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute). 

Barrera holds master’s degrees from Yale University (History of Art) and Harvard University (Regional Studies: East Asia) and a bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania (History of Art). He is a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow (2012) and a Fulbright scholar (2011). Barrera was born in Chicago to immigrant parents; his father is a member of the Wixáritari community near Mazamitla, Jal., Mexico, where Pablo spent his formative years. Pablo is a first-generation high school, college, and grad-school graduate, and he works to amplify the invaluable role Indigenous artistic perspectives contribute toward globalizing the arts.