José Miguel G. Cortés, PhD in Philosophy, has been Professor of Art Theory at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Valencia since 1991. He has been director of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) between September 2014 and September 2020.

His books include Order and Chaos. A Cultural Study on the Monstrous in Art (1997), Politics of Space. Architecture, gender and social control (2006) and Other possible cities (2012). In Ediciones Akal he has published La Ciudad Cautiva. Control and surveillance in urban space (2010).

He has curated numerous exhibitions, including "Between myth and horror: the Mediterranean as a conflict", "Micropolitics. Arte y cotidianidad 2001- 1968", "Malas calles", "Cartografías disi - dentes", "Contra la Arquitectura: la nece - sidad de (re)construir la ciudad" or "Héroes caídos: masculinidad y representaciones", in addition to those dedicated to artists such as Mona Hatoum, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Gülsün Karamustafa, Zineb Sedira, Jeff Wall, Pepe Espaliú, Annette Messager, Gilbert & George or Christian Boltanski.