James Luigi Tana
James Luigi Tana (b. 1990) is an independent curator, writer, and a cultural worker from the Philippines.
In 2023, he curated keeping / sending (2023) at MONO8 Gallery. Together with Museum Director and Curator Joselina Cruz, he co-curated Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila for its 2023 inaugural and post-pandemic exhibit.
He curated works of the grantees for the 2024 Benilde Open. He served as a scout expert for Han Nefkens Foundations’ Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2022, and LOOP Barcelona Video Art Production Grant 2022. He served as the project manager for Blaffer Art Museum's Liberties Were Taken by Filipino artist Cian Dayrit (2024).
He served as a member of the curatorial team at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila for Tropical Climate Forensics (2022), do it (Manila) (2021), Watch and Chill (2021), MCAD Commons: Artist’s Film International: Care (2021), Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern (2020), and Construction of Truths (2019).
He participated as a researcher-curator in co.iki’s remote residency program Memory and Memoricide of the Land: Reimagining Alternative Model of Museum in 2021. He served as curator for the Manila iteration of Korea Research Fellow: 10x10.
Tana is a contributing writer for the Thirteen Artists Awards book project. He wrote commissioned articles for Asia-Europe Foundation (2020–2021). He contributed to InTheMuseum, a newsletter sponsored by the Centre of Doctoral Studies at King’s College London “which explores engaging with art and museum in a pandemic.” He won the Ateneo Art Gallery-Kalaw Ledesma Foundation Inc. Essay Writing Prize for the non-student category (2020).
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently finishing his master’s degree in art studies-curatorial studies at the University of the Philippines.
James Luigi Tana, Independent Contemporary Art Curator, Manila, Philippines, has been awarded by Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Manila, the Philippines.