Mey-Yen Moriuchi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
School of Arts and Sciences, Art History
Mey-Yen Moriuchi, Ph.D

Dr. Mey-Yen Moriuchi received her B.A. in History of Art and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. She is a recipient of the Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities and has presented her research at various conferences, including the College Art Association, Feminist Art History Conference, Southeastern College Art Conference, International Society for the Study of Surrealism, the National Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others.

Her research focuses on cross-cultural encounters and representations of intersectional racial, social, and national identities in 19th-21st-century art. Her book manuscript, Mexican Costumbrismo: Race, Society and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art, which examined representations of racial and social types in 19th-century costumbrismo, was published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 2018. Other publications include the articles “The Drop Sinister: Harry Willson Watrous’ Visualization of the One-Drop Rule,” (Art Inquiries, 2020), “Locating Chinese Culture and Aesthetics in the Art of Wifredo Lam,” (Afro-Asian Connections in Latin America and the Caribbean, Lexington Books, 2018) and “Casta, Costumbrismo, Kahlo” (Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 2018).

Her current research examines Asian-African-Latin American connections in the artworks of artists such as Wifredo Lam and Tilsa Tsuchiya. She is also co-editing a volume on Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2022) which will examine the role and breadth of contemporary activist art.

Areas of Expertise

  • Latin American Modernism
  • Colonial Latin American art
  • Mexican Muralism
  • Surrealism
  • Race and Identity in Art
  • Public Art and Activism

Education

  • Ph.D., History of Art, Bryn Mawr College
  • M.A., History of Art, Bryn Mawr College
  • B.A., History of Art, University of Pennsylvania

Teaching

  • Introduction to Art History
  • Art History II: Renaissance to Contemporary Art
  • Art and History of Mexico
  • Colonial to Contemporary Latin American Art
  • Murals in Philadelphia and Beyond
  • Race and Identity in Art
  • Surrealism: Beyond the Canon
  • Art of the Street: Murals, Monuments, and Graffiti
  • Contemporary Art and Activism

Publications

(Forthcoming 2022) Co-editor, The Routledge Companion to Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge). Co-edited with Lesley Shipley, Ph.D. Randolph College.

“The Drop Sinister: Harry Willson Watrous’ Visualization of the One-Drop Rule,” Art Inquiries, Vol. XVIII, no. 1 (2020): 521-37.

Mexican Costumbrismo: Race, Society, and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018).

“Locating Chinese Culture and Aesthetics in the Art of Wifredo Lam,” Afro-Asian Connections in Latin America and the Caribbean, eds. Debra Lee-DiStefano and Luisa Ossa (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018)

“Casta, Costumbrismo, Kahlo,” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 95, no. 7 (Summer 2018): 769-784.

“El Arte Rompe Fronteras: Art Breaks Down Borders,” in Border Crossings: Immigration in Contemporary Prints, ed.  Klare Scarborough (Philadelphia: La Salle University, 2016), 1-10. Exh. Cat.

“Space, Place, and Gender in Dorothea Tanning’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony,” Art and Social Change, eds. Klare Scarborough and Susan Dixon (Philadelphia: La Salle University Art Museum, 2016), 161-175.

“From Casta to Costumbrismo: Representations of Racialized Social Spaces” in Envisioning Others: Race, Color, and the Visual in Iberia and Latin America, ed. Pamela Patton. (Netherlands: Brill, 2015).

“Transnationalism in the Art of Elizabeth Catlett,” in Elizabeth Catlett: Art for Social Justice, ed. Klare Scarborough. (Philadelphia: La Salle University, 2015) Exh. Cat.

“Art as an Instrument of Social Change: North and South of the Border,” in American Scenes: WPA-Era Prints of the 1930s and 1940s, ed. Klare Scarborough and Carmen Vendelin. (Philadelphia: La Salle University Art Museum, 2014), 23-32. Exh. Cat.

“From ‘les types populaires’ to ‘los tipos populares’: Nineteenth-Century Mexican Costumbrismo,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, April, 2013. [23 pp.]

“The Art of Conversation: Eighteenth-Century Mexican Casta Painting,”Shift Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture, Issue 5, October 2012, 1-25.

“Biographies of the Artists,” The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World. Edited by Robert Cozzolino. Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2012, Exh. Cat.

Select Presentations

2020 College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
“Typecasting in Nineteenth-Century Mexican Tarjetas de Visita” (Feb 14)

2019 Southeastern College Art Conference, Chattanooga, TN
“Multiculturalism, Modernism, and Myth in the Art of Tilsa Tsuchiya” (Oct 18)

2019 College Art Association, New York, NY
“Nation Building Outside of the Academy: Re-considering Mexican Costumbrismo” (Feb 14)

2018 International Society for the Study of Surrealism Conference, Lewisburg, VA
“The Multiple Surrealisms of Wifredo Lam” (Nov 3)

2018 Nineteenth-Century Studies Association “Vistas” Symposium, Philadelphia, PA
“Vistas in 19th-Century Mexican Tarjetas de Visita” (Mar 15)

2017 Asians in Americas Symposium, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
“Locating Chinese Culture and Aesthetics in the Art of Wifredo Lam” (Sep 23)

2017 College Language Association, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
“Asian-African Connections in the Art of Wifredo Lam” (Apr 6)

2016 Tracing Types: Comparative Analyses of Nineteenth-Century Sketches, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
“Grisette, Maja, Manola, China: Tracing Representations” (Jun 3)

2015 Asians in the Americas Symposium, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA.
“The Legend of the China Poblana: Indian Princess or Poor Slave?” (Nov 7)

2015 New York University Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, New York, NY. Dissecting Society: Periodical Literature and Social Observation (1830-1850)
“From ‘Les types populaires’ to ‘Los tipos populares’: Nineteenth-Century Mexican Costumbrismo” (Mar 20)

2015 College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY.
“The Drop Sinister: Henry Wilson Watrous’ Visualization of the ‘One Drop Rule’’” (Feb 11)

2014 Feminist Art History Conference, American University, Washington D.C.
“Casta, Costumbrismo, Kahlo” (Nov 1)

2014 Nineteenth-Century Hispanists International Network, York University, Toronto, Canada
“Nineteenth-Century Costumbrismo Re-Imagined” (Apr 26)

2014 Nineteenth-Century Studies Association, Chicago, IL
“The Urbanites of Nineteenth-Century Mexico” (Mar 20)

2013 Southeastern College Art Conference, Greensboro, NC
“Nineteenth-Century Mexican Costumbrismo” in Close Connections: The Detail in Nineteenth-Century Art and Literature. (Oct 31-Nov 2)

2013 University of Michigan Conference, “Colonial Resonance”, Ann Arbor, MI
“Resonating Casta within Costumbrismo” (Sep 26-27)

2013 College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
“From Casta to Costumbrista: Representations of Racialized Social Spaces” in Representing “Race” in Iberia and the Ibero-American World. (Feb 14)

2012 University of Houston Symposium, “The Art of Death and Dying”, Houston, TX
“Death and Resurrection in the Art of Remedios Varo” (Oct 27)

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