Robert Pierce is a curator and art scholar in Chicago, Illinois. Since 2013, he has specialized in paintings of the Early California period, circa 1890-1930. He is the recipient of the 2019 San Francisco Art Institute Masters Fellowship, 2020 La Mirada Cultural Center Scholar-in-Residence, and 2021 Magdalena Abakanovicz Fellowship. His current research focuses on identifying gaps in institutional knowledge and providing a generative framework for the assertion of cultural agency and the positive inclusion of marginalized communities and identities in the institutional art world. In 2016, Robert founded Pierce Art Advisory, a boutique art consultancy dedicated to historical art research, acquisition, and conservation. Robert is a Graduate Fellow at the Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the guest curator for Francis McComas: Rediscovering California’s First Modernist, currently on exhibition at the Monterey Museum of Art. For inquiries, contact Robert at robertjamespierce(at)gmail.com