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Katherine Bel is a second-generation Cuban American and proud co-founder of New York Art Conservation, an all woman owned equal partnership. She serves as the company’s Managing Director, where she is the head of operations, logistics, and administration. She runs the day to day business, manages projects, new hires, and clients. Her academic background includes a BA in English with a major in Creative Writing and Art History from Florida State University and her Master’s Degree in Visual Art Administration from New York University. Katie’s thesis, Organizational Structures in the Contemporary Art Studio, explored innovative methods to help studios run efficiently in the context of art making. After graduating in 2014, she further expanded her professional skills as a versatile and highly organized studio manager by working in contemporary artists’ studios such as Dan Colen, Matthew Barney, and Ran Hwang, in addition to galleries and museums, such as Marian Goodman Gallery and the Rubin Museum of Art. She was the studio manager of Contemporary Conservation where she worked from 2018 until 2022.
Recognizing the importance and implications of preserving an artist’s legacy, and enjoying the rich exchange of information and history, Christine has a special interest in working closely with living artists and artists’ estates.
Christine moved to New York in 2011 to join Contemporary Conservation Ltd, where she was an Associate Conservator for 11 years until she co-founded New York Art Conservation.
She graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Cologne/Institute for Conservation Sciences in 2007 with a major in conservation of paintings and sculptures. Her Master’s thesis centers around a minimalist painting by American artist Frank Stella, Lake City (1963-64), and the particular conservation challenges of its metallic copper pigments.
As a conservator in private practice in Cologne, she gained substantial experience by participating in numerous conservation projects in renowned museums and private conservation studios in the Netherlands, Germany and New York. During her career, she has built an extensive conservation repertoire and an acute expertise in the works of Josef Albers, Philip Guston, Frank Stella, Joan Mitchell, Jennifer Bartlett, David Reed, Anselm Kiefer, Nicolas Party, Mark Bradford, and Robert Gober.
More recently, Christine held workshops and lectures as an external expert at the Getty Conserving Canvas project at the MSSA in Santiago, Chile, and held guest lectures at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
Prior to co-founding NY Art Conservation, Giuliana was an Associate Conservator at Contemporary Conservation for over 10 years.
Giuliana specializes in the conservation of objects and paintings, with a focus on non-traditional materials and use of innovative artistic techniques. These include plastics, such as vacuum-formed polystyrene reliefs, wall-cast latex panels and polyurethane foam sculptures, as well as inkjet printed surfaces and silkscreened chocolate.
She works closely with progressive contemporary artists, among them Wade Guyton and Seth Price, on developing strategies for treatment and preservation of their work. Additionally, Giuliana has become an expert on the treatment of works by Ed Clark, David Hammons, Anish Kapoor, Adam McEwen, Matthew Barney, Yayoi Kusama, Amy Sherald, Hannah Wilke and Kelley Walker.
Together with Delia Müller-Wüsten she has led workshops focusing on treatment of high-gloss plastic surfaces, at Future Talks and the American Institute of Conservation’s Annual Meeting.
Giuliana graduated from the University of the Arts in Bern Switzerland with an MA in the Conservation of Modern Materials and Media where she developed new research focused on synthetic polymer Polycaprolactone in Matthew Barney’s corpus. She is a co-founding member of AIC’s Contemporary Art Network (CAN!), has published and presented internationally and has been a guest lecturer at the NYU Conservation program.
Delia is specialized in the conservation of artworks made of synthetic materials and has developed specialized treatments for high-gloss and reflective metal, glass and plastic surfaces by artists such as Larry Bell, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Simone Leigh, John McCracken, Robert Rauschenberg, and De Wain Valentine.
Delia joined Contemporary Conservation Ltd. as an Associate Conservator in 2012 until she co-founded New York Art Conservation in 2022. Delia started her professional career in 2003, initially as a furniture conservator, gaining extensive experience both in museums and private practices in Germany, Denmark and Croatia.
She received her Diploma in Conservation in 2011 and her MA in Conservation in 2012 from the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne. Her theses dealt with the conservation of kinetic art and investigated the possibilities of joining fractures in plastics.
Delia has lectured and published on the conservation of modern and contemporary art and furniture and has edited numerous scientific articles on the conservation of modern materials and contemporary art.
Together with Giuliana Moretto, she has led workshops focusing on treatment of high-gloss plastic surfaces.
She co-founded AIC‘s Contemporary Art Network (CAN!) to accommodate the constantly increasing importance of contemporary art in conservation.
After completing her undergraduate studies (B.A. Art History, Diploma in Conservation), Sara earned her Master’s degree in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria University, UK, in 2012, where she wrote her thesis entitled “Plasticized PVC: Preventive Conservation and Storage Suggestions.” During this time, Sara was simultaneously working in object and painting conservation at institutions throughout Spain, such as the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, and in Denmark, at the Statens Museum for Kunst. She was an assistant sculpture conservator at Tate Gallery in London, where she had worked intensively with modern and non-traditional materials. She eventually joined Contemporary Conservation as an Associate Conservator in 2015.
The duality of her experience in both museum and private practice has fostered Sara’s broad understanding of contemporary materials and the latest innovations in conservation techniques and practices. Highly interested in the fabrication processes, Sara’s expertise lies in outdoor sculpture, sculpture fabrication, welding techniques and surface finishing. She is an expert in the work of artists such as Lynda Benglis, Jack Whitten, Takashi Murakami and John Chamberlain.
Soona has extensive experience conserving artworks ranging from old master paintings to post war and contemporary works, including works by artists such as Charles Errard, Charles Le Brun, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Tamara de Lempicka, Cy Twombly, Franz Kline, Andy Warhol, Judy Chicago, and Anne Truitt.
Soona conserves both traditional and experimental types of media. She has broad experience working with museums, galleries, auction houses, artists’ foundations, and estates, as well as private and public collections, both on-site and in studio.
Prior to joining New York Art Conservation in 2023, Soona worked as a paintings conservator traveling between Paris, France, and New York from 2013-2017 settling down in New York City in 2018. Under the direct tutelage of Olivier Nouaille-Rouault, a conservator in France specialized in paintings supports, Soona has cultivated a deep understanding about the mechanical behaviors of various types of painting supports and their impact on paint layers through the stratigraphy.
Soona holds a Master’s degree in Paintings Conservation-Restoration from Ecole de Conde de Paris (2014), and a Master of Research from the University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris, France, in Cultural Heritage Conservation-Restoration (2016).
Alice joined New York Art Conservation in 2024 as a Paintings Conservator. She holds a BA and MA in conservation and restoration from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HAWK) in Hildesheim, specializing in polychrome wooden objects and paintings, with a minor in analytics and development, alongside theory and the ethics of conservation. During her training, she developed a focus on the special requirements of preserving contemporary art.
Yuhi moved to New York City from Japan and California to get his Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2009. He has been an invaluable studio member and technician at Contemporary Conservation for over a decade and excitedly joins the team at New York Art Conservation.
Yuhi shows a sensitivity towards artist’s materials, exceptional attention to detail, and always finds creative solutions for handling, packing and mounting the diverse artworks that come through the studio.
Rob has worked for a number of contemporary artists over the last decade. He has an intimate understanding of modern methods and materials. He enjoys the creative problem solving inherent to the field of contemporary art and its conservation.
Zoe graduated from Pitzer College in 2022 with a BA in Studio Art and English/World Literature, focusing on photography and poetry. Her immersive thesis installation and self-published photo/poetry book of the same name, the perilous body: an interruption, was granted the President’s Acquisition Award, and she is also a recipient of the Bea Matas Hollfelder Creative Writing Award. From 2020 to 2022, Zoe worked as an intern at Los Angeles-based Autre Magazine where, in addition to copyediting, she often transcribed artist interviews. In this way, she familiarized herself with many contemporary artists and their practices. Born and raised in New York City, she is a quick learner whose people skills and editing proficiency make her a versatile assistant to New York Art Conservation.
Andrea Benn joined New York Art Conservation at its inception and is the company’s accounting department. Andrea is from Washington DC and studied at the American University receiving an undergraduate degree in International Finance. After receiving her degree she moved to NY in 2001 to work with large, prominent real estate companies. Within the time of working in the real estate industry she returned to her studies, attaining a graduate degree in Real Estate at NYU and worked her way up to becoming a Controller. In 2013 she shifted to becoming an accounting consultant, targeting small creative companies, bringing her excellent interpersonal skills as well as accounting knowledge. She has never looked back.