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Dr. Leslie Ureña

Leslie Ureña joined the National Portrait Gallery in 2016 as assistant curator of photographs. She recently co-organized the presentation of Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom (2013-ongoing), part of the Portrait Gallery’s “IDENTIFY: Performance Art as Portraiture” series (April 2018) and is curating two upcoming exhibitions, “In Mid-Sentence” (2019) and “One Life: Marian Anderson” (2019). She also serves as one of the curators of the ongoing “Portraiture Now” series. Ureña received a BA in art history from Yale University and an MA and PhD in art history from Northwestern University. Her dissertation, “Lewis Hine at Ellis Island: The Photography of Immigration and Race, 1904–1926,” investigated how Hine’s photographs of newcomers shaped and were shaped by competing discourses on race in America.

Stories from this author

“Marian Anderson” by Beauford Delaney, oil on canvas, 1965. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, J. Hardwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art; Photo by Travis Fullerton ©Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator

Barrier-Breaking Opera Singer, Marian Anderson, Featured by National Portrait Gallery

Smithsonian Music interviews Curator Leslie Ureña, of the National Portrait Gallery, about the upcoming exhibition, "One Life: Marian Anderson."

Sonic Blossom /2013–present / Lee Mingwei / Ongoing participatory performance installation with chair, music stand, costume, and spontaneous song / Installation view at “Lee Mingwei: Sonic Blossom,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015 /Photo: Anita Kan.

Lee Mingwei on Music and Sonic Blossom

In anticipation of the National Portrait Gallery’s presentation of IDENTIFY: Sonic Blossom by Lee Mingwei, the artist discusses the role of music in his practice with the Portrait Gallery’s associate curator of photographs, Leslie Ureña.