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José Esparza Chong Cuy

@josesparza

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Director and Chief Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture (@storefrontnyc)

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Now Open 🧱The Biography of a Building: Runik’s House of Culture by @hajdefoundation and Petrit Halilaj (@xixellojme) with @arsatelie

Thank you for joining us to kick off this special two-site exhibition spanning New York and Kosovo, with an opening conference with Halilaj, Ars Atelie, Ana Janevski and José Esparza Chong Cuy.

We are now open all weekend! Visit the show Wednesday–Sunday from 12–6 pm and learn more at the link in our bio. 🔗 taken in Storefront for Art and Architecture by @josesparza

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13 hours ago

For the recent interior renovation of Storefront for Art and Architecture’s iconic Nolita gallery on Kenmare Street—the first major renovation in decades—Executive Director @josesparza enlisted Board member Tal Schori and his firm, GRT Architects, recognizing Schori’s unique positioning and understanding of the space as a former gallery manager at the institution.
Over the past 40 years the gallery has undergone improvements as needed, such as replacing the tin ceiling and refurbishing the steel frames of the panels, but this particular project marks an exciting reinvestment into its mission, as GRT’s work allows for the creation of more ambitious exhibitions with more precise control of the space and its design.
In addition to long overdue infrastructural upgrades, including updated electric and HVAC systems, GRT designed a custom aluminum display system for Storefront’s exhibition newsprints, books, and artwork that can be deployed in over a dozen positions throughout the gallery. This system, which takes inspiration from the gallery’s riveted steel columns and moveable facade panels, is designed to respond to and complement each unique exhibition design.
We collaborated with @focuslightingnyc to realize the new lighting design that includes custom track lighting and back-lighting for the front facade—concrete letters originally designed by Vito Acconi that spell out “Storefront for Art and Architecture.”
The bathroom installation was a collaboration with artist and Storefront Board member @jorgepardosculpture who designed custom tiles, produced with @ceramicasuro in Guadalajara, Mexico, to create a colorful constellation and a maximalist departure from the primary space.
The surgical renovation also includes GRT’s designs for small furniture and hardware pieces, such as a gallery desk and back-of-house storage modules. A newly designed exterior door handle (a first for the space) marks the oft-overlooked front door and allows for easier access to the gallery, creating a more welcoming entrypoint for visitors.

Photos: @rafaelgamo taken in Storefront for Art and Architecture by @josesparza

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La Bienal Internacional de Arte y Ciudad #BOG27 presenta al comité curatorial que dará vida a la propuesta artística de su segunda edición. ✨ Bajo la dirección de Juan Ricardo Rincón Gaviria (@juan____ri), está integrado por Magalí Arriola (@magali.arriola.mx) y José Esparza Chong Cuy (@josesparza) como curadores en jefe; Juliana Steiner (@julianasteiner) y María Paula Bastidas (@mariapaula.ba) como curadoras asociadas; y Elkin Rubiano (@criticasincortes) como curador de programas públicos y mediación.

Con una reconocida trayectoria nacional e internacional, este equipo acompañará la construcción del eje curatorial de la #BOG27, una invitación a reflexionar sobre la fragilidad e interdependencia entre las especies y a mirar la ciudad como un territorio de encuentros, relatos y múltiples formas de vida.

✨ Conoce los perfiles y las trayectorias de quienes harán posible esta visión artística en bienalbogota.com by @josesparza

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Last week, Storefront awarded the inaugural Kyong Park Prize for Art and Architecture to Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti (DAAR).

After many conversations, it wasn’t until we arrived in Sicily that we realized that hosting it at Borgo Ex—formerly Borgo Rizza—during the Annual Gathering of the Entity of Decolonization was exactly right. Borgo Rizza was one of eight rural settlements built during the Italian Fascist regime as part of its project to control and colonize the Sicilian countryside. Over the past five years, DAAR has slowly resignified the site, working closely with the municipality of Carlentini. It became a place to encounter DAAR on its own terms—in a setting that embodies their work and their approach to architecture.

Conversations kept returning to the aims of the Prize and to broader questions about what institutions can do. At some point Sandi remarked that this gathering was not a celebratory ceremony, but a space to see and recognize one another. In many ways, that came to define the purpose of the Prize itself—not simply to honor a remarkable practice, but to create the conditions for recognition, exchange, and solidarity.

I’m especially grateful to jury members Manuela Moscoso and Marina Otero Verzier for their generosity and the intellectual rigor they brought to this journey; to Andrea Bagnato, Miguel Fernández de Castro, and everyone at the Entity for the expansive conversations; and, as always, to my colleague Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, with whom this project was conceived and realized.

Finally, I’m deeply grateful to Kyong for allowing us to name this prize after him. These days I was reminded that what has always made Storefront so singular is not only its enduring commitment to understanding the changing built environment, but to Kyong’s insistence on continually questioning how the institution should respond to those changes. His willingness to reinvent his own thinking has allowed Storefront to do the same. If this Prize encourages us to keep imagining new ways of supporting people, rethinking institutions, and recognizing one another, then I believe it’s already beginning to live up to his name. taken in Sicily, Italy by @josesparza

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On September 28, artists, architects, designers, and supporters will come together at the iconic Grand Central Oyster Bar to celebrate the people and ideas shaping New York City’s culture at our annual Gala.

We are proud to honor architecture and design firm SO-IL, arts leader Deana Haggag, and artist Mel Chin. This event is one of our most important fundraising moments of the year, with all contributions directly supporting our future exhibitions and public programs.

Join the Storefront Circle, reserve a table, or purchase tickets at the link in our bio. 🎟️

Designed by Pentagram / Natasha Jen @njenworks, inspired by @nyoysterbar taken in Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant by @josesparza

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3 months ago

Brilant Milazimi: Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë) unfolds throughout Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto. Look closely and from a distance, walk around, have a seat, or slip behind the main installation to encounter additional works throughout the space.

Installation shots: Lorenzo Palmieri

Brilant Milazimi: Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë) is on view at Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, Venice, from 9 May to 22 November 2026.

Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00–18:00
Closed on Mondays

Artist: Brilant Milazimi
Curator: José Esparza Chong Cuy
Commissioner: Hana Halilaj, National Gallery of Kosovo

Exhibition Design: LANZA Atelier
Exhibition Production: D.H. office

Lead Installers:
Skender Xhukolli
Emir Zhinipotoku

Lighting Design: Josep Maria Comas Jordà
Composer and Sound Designer: Liburn Jupolli
Graphic Design: Bardhi Haliti
Editor: Sarah Demeuse
Translator: Blerta Haziraj

International Press Officer: Zaida Violan
Regional Press & Digital Communication: Rina Meta

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Kosovo.

pavilionofkosovo.com by @josesparza

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5 months ago

Resembling a collection of short stories, the book for Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë) dwells on timely topics including sovereignty, migration, delay, speech and silence, perseverance, and the relevance of narrative in the face of contemporary adversities. Teeth here become placeholders for ideas, reflections, historical critique, and the power of the imagination.

A series of newly commissioned texts from Magalí Arriola, Justin Beal, Hana Halilaj, and Ana Janevski are complemented by a selection of reprints from Migjeni, Vjosa Musliu, and Damir Pilić that add regional nuance and joy. José Esparza Chong Cuy’s curatorial overview meanders through the book, summarizing the themes explored in Milazimi’s work and briefly introducing each new text, while a reprint from Valeria Luiselli’s The History of My Teeth links dental anecdote with literature, power, and the economy. A fragment from Hans Ulrich Obrist’s visit to Milazimi’s studio brings in reflections about home and movement.

Finally, segments of Milazimi’s large-scale landscape painting punctuate the publication before culminating in a full panorama.

The book is designed by Bardhi Haliti and published by Sternberg Press.

Available via Sternberg Press through the link in bio. by @josesparza

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5 months ago

Thank you to everyone who came to the opening of the Kosovo Pavilion.

Brilant Milazimi: Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë) is on view at Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, Venice, Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00–19:00, until 22 November 2026.

Curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy
Commissioner: National Gallery of Kosovo, Hana Halilaj

Photography: Majlinda Hoxha

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Kosovo.

pavilionofkosovo.com by @josesparza

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5 months ago

Somehow, the Gati d’Oro Party ended up becoming one of my favorite moments of this year’s Venice Biennale.

Hosted at Ai Do Gati (“the two cats”) with our friends from the Ecuador Pavilion, what began as a last-minute joke—a plastic golden lion that I planned to give as a surprise gift to @brilant.milazimi, the artist representing the @kosovopavilion, before realizing there would be no official awards ceremony this year—slowly turned into something unexpectedly meaningful.

This year, amid ongoing genocides and geopolitical tensions that continue to shape, bend, and destabilize the world and therefore the art world, the official Biennale jury stepped down. The absence of a ceremony left a strange vacuum, and perhaps made this tiny absurd replica object matter a little more than it should have. Throughout the night, artists, curators, installers, friends, and friends of friends—whether participating in the exhibition or not—got to dance, hold the golden kitty for a second, and celebrate one another.

The party was co-hosted with the Ecuador Pavilion and the amazing curator @manu_moscoso, with whom I share an endless enthusiasm for gathering people together, introducing friends to future friends, and making new alliances and plans late into the night. Amazonian and Balkan tunes played from our bartender Mirella YouTube account, drinks were cash only, the room overflowed far beyond the 60 people we told her it would be (maybe it was closer to 300), and somehow it all held together beautifully.

Huge thanks to Mirella and Sara for welcoming all of us into Ai Do Gati with such warmth and humor. And if you haven’t been yet: their tramezzini are the best in Venice.

There are, in the end, far more cats deserving of recognition than the Venice Biennale could ever award, so huge congratulations to all. Miau! 🐈❤️

The flyer is a collaborative design between @bardhihaliti (Kosovo Pavilion) and @studiomanuelraeder (Ecuador Pavilion). ¡Gracias x el tequila @sieteleguastequila! by @josesparza

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For those currently in Venice for the Biennale, visit “Hard Teeth” the just-opened Kosovo Pavilion curated by @josesparza, our Executive Director and Chief Curator!

Kosovar artist @brilant.milazimi composes a painting installation in the newly re-opened Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, with an architectural structure designed by @lanzaatelier. Across the curved horizon, Milazimi shows long lines of sinuous and ghostly figures winding through the landscape. These works point Kosovo’s longstanding concerns of displacement, stagnation, and autonomy.

Photo: Majlinda Hoxha. Courtesy of the Artist and the Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo at the 61st Venice Biennale. taken in Venice, Italy by @josesparza

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Hard Teeth by Brilant Milazimi is now open.

Unfolding as a 17-meter immersive panoramic installation inside the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, the exhibition opens officially on May 6, 2026.

—— Press Preview: 15:00–16:00
—— Opening: 16:00–18:00

Artist: Brilant Milazimi
Curator: José Esparza Chong Cuy

Venue location in bio.

📸 @_lorenzo_palmieri by @josesparza

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Two days to the opening of the Kosovo Pavilion at Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, a church with a grand octagonal interior and a garden facing Venice’s northern lagoon.

Designed by Francesco Contin and completed in 1658, the building was conceived in the aftermath of the devastating plague of 1630, a civic and devotional response to collective catastrophe. Dedicated to Saint Mary the Tearful, it stands as architecture shaped by mourning and faith.

Press Preview: 6 May, 15:00-16:00
Opening: 6 May, 16:00-18:00

📍 Find the location via Google Maps link in bio.

pavilionofkosovo.com

Video, photography: Hana Halilaj and José Esparza Chong Cuy by @josesparza

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