Professional Team and Collaborators

Alejandra Castro Rioseco

Alejandra Castro Rioseco, Founder and Executive Director of MIA ART COLLECTION, graduated in Civil Engineering, dedicated to philanthropy for the last 15 years. The three main pillars of her engagement are Gender Empowerment & Rights, Education, Arts & Technology.

MIA ART COLLECTION is a not for profit organization focused on improving visibility of women artists around the world and based in Dubai, UAE and in Europe in Antwerp, Belgium and Madrid, Spain. The collection is recognized for its emblematic leadership to support women artists, with artists from over 33 countries and more than 900 artworks.

Alejandra’s commitment to build towards a better and more harmonious and balanced society is expressed through her active engagement with organizations protecting the environment, promoting gender equality, promote music as part of basic children education. She served as first South American woman on the Board of the worldwide International Chopin Society Federation headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. In 2020 she integrated the Middle East Guggenheim art acquisition committee.

She is founder of the project “Exiled for the Arts, NYC” in 2017. She serves on the Board of the prestigious International Jose Limon ballet, with a mission towards education of children and youngsters through dance in the world.

She founded in 2018 the MIA ART COLLECTION Virtual Museum, a technological platform for promoting women artists and access to their works during the Covid pandemic, with as stepping stone was her personal art collection of exclusively contemporary women artists. She founded the Mujer Opina Foundation in Chile to promote and educate on women development and empowerment. Alejandra was an active participant in the establishment of the Gender Equality Roundtable in the Chilean Senate.

Océane Sailly

She is finishing her PhD on « French cultural diplomacy in GCC countries » for which she was granted a scholarship from Sorbonne Nouvelle university and one from the French Research Centre of the Arabian Peninsula (CEFREPA – Kuwait). She is also part of an international research group on inequalities in the art world and has written about contemporary art in the UAE in academic publications.

Prior to this, Océane Sailly was a cultural officer for the « Emirati-French Cultural Programme – Dialogue with Louvre Abu Dhabi » and co-founded Hors-Cadre gallery with Manon Sailly.

Through her professional and academics activities, she is actively engaged in women representation and empowerment. ” is the founder and director of Hunna Art, a gallery representing women contemporary artists from the Gulf region.

Virtus del Hoyo

Virtus is an art historian, specialized in contemporary art, pursuing a postgraduated degree in Art History in feminine: The Woman Artist. Proof that for Virtus, she never stops learning.

InfuSsiones Creativas (@infussionescreativas) is the last of her projects carried out as an entrepreneur. A company focused on cultural management, elaborations of personalized art projects for companies that want to invest in digitization, culture and creativity. A platform for companies and artists, seminars, web content, round tables, exhibitions, experiences, etc.

Virtus also works as an independent curator, collaborating with institutions such as El Museo de la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Institut Français de Madrid, Instituto de la Lengua de Castilla y León. Now, she collaborates as an art critic in El Norte de Castilla, after having collaborated with Dario de Burgos.

Juan Pablo Espínola

Juan Pablo Espínola is a Chilean architect and designer based between Antwerp and Paris. After graduating with maximum distinction from Architecture at Universidad de Chile, Juan Pablo Espínola worked among worldwide recognized architects, such as Sou Fujimoto in Tokyo, Japan, before launching his own fashion brand. Juan also works in other design lines and projects, including computer design, 3D design, code, app and front-end design, and virtual architecture, supporting different art installations and galleries around Latin America.

Juan works in the MIA Art Collection as coordinator of the virtual museum MIA Anywhere, creator of content and social media design, as well as website designer, communications with artists, and graphic design. He is the executive director of MIA Anywhere and works hand-in-hand with Alejandra Castro Rioseco in different projects. In 2021, he was accepted as a Fashion Design Student from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, being the first Chilean person accepted in this school.

Hana Sammak El Kurdi

Hana Sammak El Kurdi is an art advocate and an education expert with more than twenty years of experience in the education field in Lebanon, with a focus on management and communication. She is a graduate from the American University of Beirut and holds degrees in English Language, Sociology and Journalism, and has recently acquired a certification in Art Management from ESA Business School.

She is the founder of Sundara, a platform based in Abu Dhabi, dedicated to promoting Art and Cultural Exchange through launching impactful humane and cultural initiatives and showcasing the work of emerging and established contemporary artists from around the world.

In addition to “Finding Place”, an exhibition that offered a timely reminder of the importance of art in documenting and processing complex personal and political experiences, El Kurdi is currently organizing “Beyond Barriers” an exhibition featuring the works of artists with autism, behavior disorders and social challenges, with the aim of collecting funds for artists and their respective NGOs. Her work in the MIA Art Collection is being our Middle East Curator.

Maie El-Hage

Maie El-Hage is an architect, art historian, journalist and curator with a Master of Arts degree in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex (UK). She has curated shows in Beirut and Dubai for regional and international artists, including three collaborations with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Beirut. Her research and writings cover contemporary artists and exhibitions, reporting from Beirut, Dubai, New York and Istanbul. She has a decade of teaching experience at University level, and is regularly invited to give keynote lectures and talks about art, architecture and art history.

Moustafa Abdul Haliem

Moustafa is an undergraduate at Sorbonne University studying philosophy and sociology. He has experience interning with magazine publisher Brandmoxie, where he worked under their head of public relations cataloguing businesses and personalities.

Moustafa is most interested in modern and contemporary art and the sociology behind the art world. He spends his free time browsing galleries and museums and assisting Alejandra with personal projects.

Moustafa plans to further his studies with a masters in art history in order to prepare himself for a more important role with the MIA art collection.

Bastián Marín

Bastián Marín Salinas is from Santiago de Chile, he is currently 22 years old.

As for his professional training, he spent 2 years in the world of law, but finally he turned to his true passion, the world of journalism and fashion. Bastian is a young journalist with training at Finis Terrae University and has extensive experience in the media, as a columnist and fashion stylist in Chilean and international media.

Bastian has been an active member of the MIA Art Collection team for 2 years, as he is the journalist and communications manager for our foundation.

Pepe Baena Divi

Pepe Baena Divi is a cultural producer, curator and collector. Baena is a Christie’s University (New York) graduate with an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art, Law, Business and Finance and an Elisava (Barcelona) and Southampton University (Winchester) undergraduate in Design.

Baena serves as director of Focus Foundation, which aims to foster cultural exchange and cross-disciplinary creativity and create opportunities for artists with diverse backgrounds and a meeting place where guests and visitors are invited to spend time in the particular landscape and community.

Founded in 2020, Baena is co-director with Painter Angel de Leon of Plataforma2, a Barcelona-based contemporary art project space concealed above a nightclub. Presenting the artwork of emerging and mid-career artists in curated dialogues and solo presentations, the exhibition program focuses on painting, performance, video, installation and sculpture,  complemented by public talks and events to encourage discourse and critical reflection.

Matteo Sormani

For the LAVINA exhibition , the MIA ART Collection and lead curator Mrs Alejandrw Castro Rioseco has invited as special co-curator Mr. Matteo SORMANI.

Matteo Sormani was born in Rimini, Italy in 1975 and graduated from the University of Urbino in Environmental Science. He is currently Art Director and founder at Augeo Art Space in Rimini and sought after top cultural consultant for the Italian Exhibition Group.

Matteo Sormani is founder and CEO of Art –Preview, scouting and studying new promising artists to reach the international stage. Art –Preview in 2022 won the Lux Excellence Awards as the “ Best Global Contemporary Art Management Platform”.

He curated several contemporary art exhibitions in Miami, London, Mexico City, Minorca, Paris and Rimini. Matteo lives in Rimini, Italy.