Curator Name: Michela Palermo
Residency Dates: April – May & September – October 2026
Born: 1980
Hometown: Bagnoli Irpino, Italy
Lives & Works: Palermo, Italy
URL: palermopublishing.com | Instagram: @palermo_publishing & @michela_palermo
Education:
2007 – Creative Practice Program, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
2006 – BA Political Science, University of Bologna, Italy
Bio/Statement:
Michela Palermo is a photographer, visual researcher, book designer, and publisher working between Italy and New York. She is the founder and director of Palermo Publishing (est. 2022), an independent press operating at the intersection of photography, visual arts, and critical inquiry. The press focuses on artist books and research-driven publications, with attention to what she defines as the poetics of the margin — foregrounding practices that challenge dominant narratives. She graduated in Political Science from the University of Bologna (2006), where her studies were rooted in critical theory and gender studies. Her approach is informed by feminist philosophy, particularly the concept of nomadic subjectivity, which understands identity and knowledge as situated and relational. In 2007, she attended the Creative Practice Program at the International Center of Photography in New York. Her editorial and curatorial work has been presented internationally.
As a publisher, Michela Palermo has exhibited at events such as Tokyo Art Book Fair, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (2025); NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2025); ICP PhotoBook Fest, International Center of Photography, New York, USA (2024). She has organized various events, such as a publisher presentation and book signing, In the Cracks at the Margins with Allen Frame and Dietmar Busse, Printed Matter, New York, USA (2025). Her photographic work, We Were Beautiful Like the Winter and the Snow, is part of the exhibition No Place Like Home: Italian Photography Since 1980, Germany (2026).
