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Silvia Benedetti

@silvitamarie

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Meet Silvia Benedetti! Independent Curator and Art Writer, and also a CIMAM 2026 Travel Grantee. @silvitamarie

Silvia is a Venezuelan art historian whose research brings underrepresented artists into global art histories and examines craft and textile traditions as tools for cultural and ecological preservation. She has held curatorial and research roles at the Guggenheim, Dia Art Foundation and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and received the 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Silvia’s Travel Grant has been supported thanks to Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC).@cppcisneros

Get to know more about Silvia and the rest of the Travel Grantees who will travel to Harare this November at cimam.org

#CIMAM2026 #TravelGrants #ContemporaryArt #Harare by @silvitamarie

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7 days ago

From exhibition to expedition!!! After including #AugusteMorisot’s drawings in #BoundlessReality Traveler Artists’ Landscapes of Latin America, I made it to the petroglyphs he documented in the 19th-century in the 💚 of the Amazon! by @silvitamarie

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a month ago

En medio de las noticias más devastadoras para los venezolanos, el New York Times imprime la historia que escribí sobre Margarita Mora con bellísimas fotos de Andrea Hernández. Estamos en la portada de la sección de arte y una página completa a full color dedicada a Margarita!!

🧶💗⛰️🌷🍓

In a time of so much devastating news from Venezuela, some wonderful news is seeing the story I wrote on Margarita Mora, with beautiful photos by @andrernandez on the front page of the New York Times art section, followed by a full-color spread! @nytimes

@eltallerdemargarita
@escueladelaboresmoconoque
@artswriters
@ragtimebilliepeaches

Thank you to my friends Judy and Anna for catching it on the newspaper this morning!! 😃 by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

In the New York Times!! With beautiful visuals!! 🌼

I met Margarita through my aunt @escueladelaboresmoconoque who is a philanthropist deeply committed to the Venezuelan Andes. Since 2007, Daniela has helped hundreds of people by promoting crafts that empower women. I was impressed by @eltallerdemargarita beautiful textiles and passion for weaving when Daniela first introduced me to her. Also by how thankful she was to have her very old loom.

When I received the @artswriters for short-form writing given by the Andy Warhol Foundation and Creative Capital, I hired Margarita to teach me the entire wool-making process for someday to write about her work. I immersed myself in her world: her home, her family and friends, the Escuela de Labores Moconoque, medicinal potions. During my hiking trips with @rrangel_fabian Margarita woudl always warn me about the enchanted lagoons. Unfortunately, I witnessed the mistreatment and exploitation of artisans firsthand. This included haggling with them, underpaying them, and failing to give them credit.
I also learned that life can be more simple.

When the @nytimes commissioned me the story, I asked to collaborate with wonderful photographer @andrernandez . @ragtimebilliepeaches fantastic photo editor from the NYT made it happen. Finally, working with a team of editors, our story was featured online on Sunday New York Times!

When I called Margarita to tell her about the story, I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t seem impressed. She is the grand master weaver of Mucuchies—a fact of which she is well aware. All Margarita cares is about the wool she is currently spinning and when are we meeting again!

Link in bio 🌼

More soon!! by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

Para Margarita Mora el telar significó su independencia económica como mujer en una de las regiones más conservadoras del país. Silvia Benedetti escribe:
Sentada en su telar en la azotea de su casa en Mucuchies, un pueblo en lo alto de los Andes venezolanos, Margarita Mora recordó la mañana en que, a las 5 de la mañana, entregó la lana que su madre había hilado a una tejedora local en la cercana Mitivivó. Fue su primer contacto con el telar que usaría durante las décadas siguientes.
“Este telar me ha hecho muy feliz”, dijo durante una entrevista en su casa en 2024. “Cuando aprendí a tejer, pude comprarme mi propia ropa y zapatos”.
El reportaje “Una mujer de 91 años transforma la tradición ancestral en arte” fue escrito por Silvia Benedetti y las imágenes y videos fueron editados por Jennifer Swanson para The New York Times.
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For Margarita Mora, the loom meant her economic independence as a woman in one of the most conservative regions of the country.
As she sat at her loom on the rooftop of her home in Mucuchies, a town high in the Venezuelan Andes, Margarita Mora, recalled the morning when, at 5, she delivered some wool her mother had spun to a local weaver in nearby Mitivivó. It was her first encounter with the very loom she would use for decades to come.
“This loom has made me very happy,” she said during an interview at her home in 2024. “When I learned to weave, I was able to buy my own clothes and shoes.”
The piece “A 91-Year-Old Woman Transforms Ancestral Tradition into Art,” was written by @silvitamaire and the images and videos were edited by @ragtimebilliepeaches for the @nytimes.
#venezuela #textiles #merida taken in Mucuchies. Edo. Merida by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

Las manos de Margarita Mora Rangel parecen cubiertas de telarañas de venas, tendones y piel marcada por el trabajo. Han lavado, hilado y tejido diseños en textiles de lana que son arte. Ella se los imagina y luego los lleva al su telar en Mucuchíes, Venezuela. En su taller también trabajan su nieto Fabián y su hija Asunción, que continúan la obra de Margarita escuchando vallenato y tomando guarapitos de malojillos con limón y azúcar.
En 2024 Silvia Benedetti y Jennifer Swanson me invitaron a documentar a esta artista de 91 años. Ayer domingo, finalmente fue publicado nuestro trabajo “Una mujer de 91 años transforma la tradición ancestral en arte” en la sección de Art of Craft en el New York Times.
Estos días publicaré una selección que desarrollé con la guía de Jennifer y el espíritu de Silvia.
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Margarita Mora Rangel’s hands are covered in a web of veins, tendons, and skin marked by labor. They have washed, spun, and woven designs on woolen textiles that are art. She imagines them and then brings them to her loom in Mucuchíes, Venezuela. Her grandson @rrangel_fabian and daughter Asunción also work in her workshop, continuing Margarita’s work while listening to vallenato music and sipping on lemongrass tea with lime and sugar.
In 2024, @silvitamarie and @ragtimebilliepeaches invited me to document this 91-year-old artist. Yesterday, Sunday, our work, “A 91-Year-Old Woman Transforms Ancestral Tradition into Art,” was finally published in the Art of Craft section of the @nytimes.
In the next days, I will be posting a selection that I developed with Jennifer’s guidance and Silvia’s spirit.
#venezuela #textiles taken in Mucuchies. Edo. Merida by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

#TBT What a small world! A few years ago, my brother and cousins called from Denver to check if their friend’s mom was actually an artist. Turns out, she’s one of the most important living artists, and someone I’ve followed her work for years! #SengaNengudi

Here are a few photos from the beautiful exhibition on friendship Las Vegas Ikebana at the Pizzuti, July 2025

#MarenHassinger #LyndaGoodeBryant taken in Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

#TBT My take on Las Vegas Ikebana the wonderful exhibition on the long collaboration of #MarenHassinger and #SengaNengudi curated by Allie Tepper and Daniel Marcus at The Pizzuti.

Check out my review for the @brooklynrail and conversation with Maren and Senga for @quotidiendelart taken in Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti by @silvitamarie

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4 months ago

I met Julio Le Parc when I was living in Paris and visited his studio. I wanted him to autograph a book for me, but strangely the only one I could find in a bookshop was a thin comic book that I still have. These strips made me realize he was much more than a kinetic artist. @julio_le_parc_official

Here is the obituary I wrote for @hyperallergic focusing on his legacy of activism and subversion, edited by the one and only @valentina.diliscia

Thank you Yamil Le Parc for your beautiful words and photos, and for the brilliant and memorable quotes by @estrellitabrodsky and @val_ravaglia who is curating the upcoming show—now a posthumous tribute—at Tate Modern. Thank you @albarran.bourdais for photos by @silvitamarie

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5 months ago

Jordan Schnitzer believes artists tell the story of our times. Beyond his role as a top West Coast real estate developer, he is the world’s leading collector of works on paper and a powerful advocate for artists like Jeffrey Gibson and Mickalene Thomas.

In my latest interview for @quotidiendelart he responds difficult questions on censorship/self censorship in the art world and the current political climate—including immigration, war, and other sensitive topics. He offers insightful answers to questions, such as: “As a real estate developer, what connection do you see between land that once belonged to Indigenous peoples and collecting Indigenous art?” by @silvitamarie

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6 months ago

#Gego #Leufert #Ince taken in Inces Nueva Granada by @silvitamarie

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7 months ago

#EdgarHeapofBirds by @silvitamarie

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7 months ago