Marcelle Joseph is an American-born independent curator and collector based in United Kingdom. In 2011, Joseph founded Marcelle Joseph Projects, a nomadic curatorial platform that has produced over 50 exhibitions in the UK and the rest of Europe, featuring the work of over 400 international artists. Joseph holds an MA in Art History with Distinction from Birkbeck, University of London with a specialization in feminist art practice. Her curatorial work focuses on gender and the performative construction of identity with an emphasis on material-led artistic practices. Joseph is the executive editor of Korean Art: The Power of Now (Thames & Hudson, 2013). Additionally, Joseph currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Mimosa House, London (appointed in 2021). She is also an Ambassador of the Royal Academy Schools, London. She served as a trustee of Matt’s Gallery in London from 2018-2022 and served on the jury of the 2017-2019 Max Mara Art Prize for Women, in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti, and the Mother Art Prize 2018. She also collects artworks by female-identifying artists under the collecting partnership, GIRLPOWER Collection, as well as more generally as part of the Marcelle Joseph Collection. Since 2022, her collection was been on public display in the UK in two institutional exhibitions co-curated by Joseph, the first at the Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Rugby (2022) and the second at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, Leeds (2023-24). In 2022, Joseph also co-curated her first museum exhibition in the United States at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles titled ‘The Condition of Being Addressable’. In 2023, she co-founded the GIRLPOWER Residency in southwestern France, an annual artist residency for female-identifying and non-binary artists.
Marcelle Joseph, an American who has lived in the United Kingdom for over 31 years, has studied art history since her university studies in the US, which included a substantial concentration in art history. After completing degrees at Cornell University (BS, 1988), NYU Law School (JD, 1991) and Brasenose College at Oxford University (Dip. Law, 1992), Joseph practiced corporate law for over a decade at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and London, while also becoming actively involved in a number of charitable and arts-related organizations. After leaving the legal profession in 2003, she furthered her arts education by completing additional study programmes in art, including a certificate course in art business at Christie’s Education in London in 2010 and an MA in Art History at Birkbeck, University of London in 2017-18. She currently supports as a patron the Royal Academy Schools, Mimosa House, South London Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, Hepworth Wakefield, and the UK Friends of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.