LATEST PUBLICATION

REPORT

War and Boyish Fantasy: Puerto Rican Artists Confront the Spectacle of Militarism

NACLA Report on the Americas Volume 58, 2026 Issue 2

From toy soldiers to war theaters, Boricua artists trace how hypermasculine performativity is driving the archipelago’s renewed militarization.

Gabrielle Tillenburg (she/her) is an independent curator living on Piscataway, Nacotchtank (Anacostan) Land. As a scholar, she focuses on Art of the Americas, contemporary Puerto Rican art, anti-militarism, and ecocritical theory. Her curatorial projects have included Classroom Solidarities at Herman Maril Gallery at the University of Maryland, Sound of Fire at VisArts, Re∙Cast: Sculptural Works from the AMA Collection at UMD Art Gallery, Past Process at Strathmore, and Soft Serve at Willow Street Gallery, among others. Her work has been published in NACLA’s Report on the Americas, Sequitur, and Artlines. Her professional work at nonprofit arts organizations and public museums has involved artist research, exhibition coordination, and curation. She holds a BFA in Film from the University of Central Florida and an MA in Art History from the University of Maryland.

A 2026 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellow in American Art, Gabi is currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, completing her dissertation, Island Bodies Under and Against U.S. Occupation (1985–2025). In April 2027, she will begin a Big Ten Academic Alliance/Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.