About

Manuela Pacella (Rome, 1977) iis an art historian and critic. As a freelance curator, she works on cultural exchange between Italy and several countries in Central and Northern Europe. In particular, she is an expert on the art scene in Northern Ireland, where she has been working since 2011 and where she also took part in the ICI-Independent Curators International Curatorial Intensive at the CCA in Derry and the International Residency at the Flax Art Studios in Belfast (both in 2013). As guest curator she realised in 2017 the exhibition “Lost in Narration. Riccardo Giacconi, Invernomuto, Luca Trevisani” at the MAC in Belfast and led the second Curatorial Directions, which explored the importance of text, narrative and storytelling in the context of exhibition making with workshops and lectures in Belfast and Milan. In 2015 and 2016 she was Editorial Researcher and Coordinator at NERO (Rome).
She regularly writes for exhibition catalogues and books, as well as for art magazines and newspapers such as “Flash Art” (Italian and international editions), “Il Foglio Arte” (Milan), “NERO Editions” (Rome), and “The Visual Artists’ News Sheet” (Dublin). Her publications include Inner Homeland (NERO, 2012), Bertille Bak. La fiaba del reale (Postmedia Books, 2018), and Tell me stories! (Politi Seganfreddo edizioni, 2024), a book based on the column of the same name published in “Flash Art Italia” from 2020 to 2024.
She recently started a new column, Cicala (Cigada), for the relaunched print edition of “Flash Art Italia,” presented at Artissima in Turin in 2025. Every two months, she portrays Rome and contemporary art in the city with a personal, derivative, and fragmented perspective and style.
She currently focuses on writing and publishing, working on online and print projects through her platform RUTH, and teaches in Rome at the American University of Rome (BA in Art History), IED Design (BA in Interior and Product Design), and NABA (MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies).

The content of this website includes a selection of exhibitions and publishing projects. The texts – essays, articles, interviews, and reviews – have been chosen from those translated or published in English.

Download PDF for the full list of publications.