Exhibiting Your Work

Please join us as we welcome Alessandro Facente and Aisha Zia for a MFA Professional Development panel discussion. Our guests will share information regarding gallery representation, curatorial relationships, self-organized exhibition making, publishing, and online publicity and presence. Food will be served!

Confirmed panelists:

Alessandro Facente is a New York-based independent art critic and curator. Currently, he serves as Curator at Artists Alliance Inc., and as an Adjunct Lecturer at NYU Steinhardt (Art and Art Professions) and Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice, CCNY. Facente holds an M.A. in Art History and Contemporary Art from La Sapienza University in Rome. His research focuses on the crossover and interplay of art criticism and curatorship through a concept that he refers to as ‘curaticism.’ He has participated in various curatorial programs, including Residency Unlimited (New York), HIAP (Helsinki, Finland), Ateliê397 (São Paulo, Brazil), and 'CPR 2018' (Iceland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), and curated solo/group exhibitions, independent projects, and talks in non-profit spaces, foundations, and galleries, such as Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, Critical Practices Inc., NARS Foundation, Italian Institute of Culture in New York, and Kunstverein Dresden (Germany). His articles, interviews, and essays have appeared in art magazines such as Art Asia Pacific, Heichi, Hyperallergic, and Temporary Art Review. As a Studio Visitor, reviewer and Visiting Critic, he has engaged with organizations such as Art Omi, NYFA, Art In General, and schools like the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, The School of Visual Arts, and Columbia GSAPP. 

Aisha Zia Khan is Co-founder of Twelve Gates Arts. As the Executive Director since 2009 she provides a platform for artists and diasporic audiences to present and experience contemporary art projects. Khan has dedicated her career to curating innovative programs and exhibitions that bridge cultures, foster dialogue, and promote artistic diversity. She brings six years of experience as a Strategic and Financial Analyst at Merrill Lynch to her work. With this expertise, she works towards the founding vision for 12G: a space as expansive and malleable as the artists it accommodates. 

Khan's recently concluded Curatorial Residency in Penn's Asian American Studies Program (ASAM) in spring 2023 (as part of the ASAM's Sachs 2022 Grant) titled “The Third Space: Unfurling Diasporic Arts of South Asia”, consisted of a series of programs seeking to highlight Diasporic Arts of South Asia as a distinct, expansive, and emergent tradition within American contemporary art. This residency was not just a critical opportunity for ASAM to premier South Asian American arts in an examination of diaspora, ethnic identity, and immigration history, but also a culmination of her own work highlighting these aspects in artistic productions of diasporic artists.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.