Department: Tate Modern Curatorial and Research
Hosts: Matthew Gale, Head of Displays, Tate Modern Curatorial, and Jennifer Mundy, Head of Art Historical Research
Katia contributed her expertise to a substantial research project investigating surrealism on an international scale, in particular utilising her specialist knowledge in relation to South and Central America.
Katia played a key role in organising a workshop with invited specialists, discussing issues relating both to her own research field and to the broader Tate research project with a view to building networks and collaborations.
At the 2018 Association for Art History’s Annual Conference Katia presented a paper entitled Chile: An example of conquest by the Surrealist object 1941–48 in a session on the subject of Global Perspectives on Surrealism which was convened by her Tate Hosts Matthew Gale and Jennifer Mundy.
Katia’s research ultimately fed into the major Tate Modern exhibition Surrealism Beyond Borders (2022).
Matta (Roberto Matta Echaurren)
Black Virtue 1943
© ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, London
Biography
Katia Sowels is a PhD candidate in Art History at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Specialised in Surrealism, her research focuses on the history of “surrealist objects”, found or constructed by artists and poets, from diverted everyday objects, natural wonders, folk and primitive art. She is part of the SACRe doctoral school, engaging with artists, and following practice-based research and curatorial studies.
Katia contributed to the André Breton et l’art magique exhibition at the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern and Outsider Art (2017). She is also co-curated the Exhibition André à Simone Breton at the École Normale Supérieure (2017-2018).