About
Csekö is a visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice investigates the intersections of art, activism, and community engagement. Her work explores themes of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and collective memory, often through participatory and site-responsive projects. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, in both traditional and unconventional spaces—including a ferryboat—and her work is held in the permanent collections of Tufts University, Emerson College, the University of British Columbia, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural São Paulo, and private collections worldwide.
Her artistic practice has been recognized with numerous awards and residencies, including the Our Energy Future Grant, SMFA @ Tufts Traveling Fellow Grant, Salem Public Artist in Residence, Tufts University & Andy Warhol Foundation Collective Futures Grant, and multiple Local Cultural Council (LCC) Grants. She is a MASS MoCA Alumni Artist-in-Residence (2025) and a Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) Artist-in-Residence (2022–2025).
Csekö’s creative and curatorial work began during her BFA at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she founded the artist collective Group Py (2005–2008) and worked as First Assistant to sculptor Ernesto Neto. Her early involvement in arts advocacy helped secure increased national funding for the arts in Brazil, leading to the creation of a cultural committee that facilitated dialogue between artists, local representatives, and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.
Dedicated to expanding access to the arts, Csekö has contributed to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) as an educational activity facilitator, designing and leading family-friendly, hands-on art experiences. She also served as Community Curator for the Somerville Museum, organizing the Sanctuary City exhibition, and as a MassCreative CTV Fellow, shaping cultural policy for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates.
Her professional experience includes roles in arts communications, marketing, and administration at Artisan’s Asylum and Villa Victoria Center for the Arts (Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción – IBA Boston), where she developed an exhibition program at La Galleria highlighting contemporary Latinx artists. Csekö also serves on the Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) Acquisitions Committee.
Artist Statement
As a first-generation American, visual artist, organizer, and educator, my practice connects to several communities. I was born in America because my parents were in self-exile during the Brazilian military dictatorship. When I was only two months old, my parents returned to Brazil after the 1979 Amnesty Law was passed, and I grew up in Rio. After living in the US for about 15 years, I have increasingly questioned ideas of global instability, American interventionism, memory, belonging, and displacement.
It is perhaps unavoidable that my work is deeply influenced by the vibrant Brazilian culture and landscapes, while also bearing the generational trauma of the country's complex history. Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire's Critical Pedagogy has taught me that dialogue is the only genuine form of education, and this principle consistently influences my creative practice.
In every aspect of my professional endeavors, I strive to listen and learn, inviting communities into conversation and encouraging participation, agency, and critical thinking. Through listening, learning, and adopting a collaborative mindset, we can avoid adhering to authoritarian, colonialist, and imperialist discourses, narratives, behaviors, and practices.
I am driven by the belief that fatalism can be overcome and that alternatives are plentiful. I envision a future where no one will dare say, "it has always been this way," to justify the unthinkable.
Julia
