About
advisory
panel
Mayara Carvalho
Curator, writer, researcher and educator
Mayara holds a BA in History of Art and works as a curator, writer, researcher, and educator. Her practice is rooted in local histories, revolutionary narratives, and pressing ecological issues, explored through an anti-colonial perspective. Getting to know other cultures and their artistic expressions is also a central part of her approach.
She sees curating as a way of making art and research more accessible and engaging to broader audiences. Recently, she was Assistant Curator for the exhibition African Languages that Make Brazil at the Museum of the Portuguese Language. She also contributed to the book Blacks in the Pool: Contemporary Art, Curatorship and Education. She is currently part of the New Curators Programme in London, where she is co-curating an upcoming exhibition with artist Duane Linklater at Camden Art Centre.
It was an honour to join the advisory panel and share my anticolonial Brazilian perspective on an issue central to my research in contemporary art. I hope it offered an impactful contribution, especially given the urgent climate challenges facing Brazil and Latin America.
Mayara Carvalho
Marcio Junji Sono
Programme Curator and Policy Advisor, Embassy of Brazil in London
With a background in Philosophy (BSc from the University of São Paulo; master’s from Birkbeck, University of London), his early career focused on communications and production, including outreach work for institutions such as the Museum of Image and Sound and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, where he also served as a trustee. Based in the United Kingdom since 2016, Sono works as a curator and cultural policy advisor. He also spent three years as Head of Exhibitions at the Isaac Julien Studio, where he coordinated shows held at institutions such as MAXXI Rome and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Edinburgh. With academic research exploring questions around the ontology of post-historical art, his curatorial practice have often centred on photography, including solo exhibitions by Thomaz Farkas and Gleeson Paulino. As an artist, he works primarily with sound, music, and performance, with a keen interest in deliberately undisciplined methods, while addressing themes such as liminality and nihilism. In 2024, he was a British Council Fellow at the Venice Biennale.
Condensing complex — and topical — issues into a concise group of images is as challenging as it is timely: our contemporary pace demands immediate connection, which is precisely what The Gallery offers.
Marcio Junji Sono
Jonathan Stubbs
Head of Visual Arts Programme, British Council
Jonathan Stubbs is Head of Visual Arts Programme at the British Council. He leads the programme team to support the development of artists and art professionals, co-create international exhibitions with the British Council Collection, and develop the public programme and UK tour for the British Pavilion in Venice.
Before joining the British Council, he was Deputy Director at Film and Video Umbrella where he worked on moving image commissions by artists including Bani Abidi, Larissa Sansour, Ruth Maclennan, the Jerwood/FVU Awards and BEYOND commissions for emerging artists. Previously, he held several roles at the Royal Academy, including leading a major Lottery funded programme of artist commissions, RA Collection, education, and digital projects.
Bakul Patki
Curator, creative producer and cultural consultant
Bakul Patki is an independent curator, creative producer and writer with over two decades experience working across arts and culture.
She works independently and for organisations to devise, develop and deliver projects with individual artists, studios, institutions, festivals, and charities, as well as brands who have an interest in working with and supporting creativity.
She is passionate about bringing art into the public realm – extending its reach and amplifying its impact by removing physical, social and/or perceived barriers – and creating interventions and interactions that surprise and delight, move and inspire.
Over her career she has curated and produced exhibitions, installations, performances and panels, at a number of prestigious locations and events, including Royal Hampton Court Palace, Somerset House, Piccadilly Circus in London, the Photo Museum of Ireland in Dublin, The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, Documenta 15 in Kassel, Frieze LA and London and Miami Art Basel.
She regularly hosts and participates in panels, most recently speaking at Art Dubai, as part of the talk, ‘Reimagining Public Space: Art, Architecture, and the Politics of Urban Identity’, and moderating the closing talk at the inaugural Architecture and Design Film Festival in Mumbai, on the theme, ‘Culture is Ordinary’.
Martin Firrell
Artist and Creative Director, The Gallery
Martin Firrell is a British public artist whose works challenge unjust power systems of all kinds, including patriarchal power, the oppression of women and non-heterosexuals, and the heteronormative status quo. He uses language to engage directly with the public, provoking dialogue about more equitable social organisation. The artist’s reported aim is ‘to make the world more humane’. His work has been summarised as ‘art as debate’.
Helen Marriage
Director, Artichoke
Helen Marriage MBE has spent a lifetime in the arts. In 2006, she set up Artichoke with Nicky Webb to produce The Sultan’s Elephant, a spectacular largescale work by Royale de Luxe that drew an audience of over a million over four days in London that permanently re-shaped the world of outdoor arts in the UK. Since then, she has continued to drive through Artichoke’s mission to invade and transform the public realm with work that stays in the collective memory for ever.
Helen is on the Board of York Central, consulting on the cultural infrastructure for this £2 billion redevelopment project by McLaren Regeneration and Arlington Real Estate. She is also part of the multidisciplinary team supporting DAVID RUBIN Land Collective (Land Collective) on their proposal to redesign Pennsylvania Avenue.