Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Esq.
Associate Director — Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
University of Texas- El Paso, B.A. 1995
California Institute of the Arts, M.F.A. 1997
Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Studio Art 1998
Cornell Law School, J.D. 2006
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Esq., is currently the Associate Director for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York City, where he advises and represents visual and performing artists and arts organizations. He received his BA in Art from the University of Texas-El Paso, and an MFA in Art from The California Institute of the Arts. In 1997 he was a Van Lier Fellow at the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program in Studio Art, and received his J.D. from Cornell Law School. He is an Adjunct Professor of art law at Fordham Law School, and is also the Program Director and faculty of VLA's Art & Law Residency Program.
His legal experience includes advising artists, galleries, and arts organizations on matters involving copyright, trademarks, moral rights, free speech, and artist-gallery disputes. He has recently worked on an important appeal under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 on behalf of the Swiss installation artist Christoph Büchel in the artist’s highly-publicized dispute with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. He has also co-written amicus briefs for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court regarding another high-profile moral rights case, Chapman Kelley vs. Chicago Park District, in support of artist Chapman Kelley.
He has taught critical theory, art law, and studio art at a number of universities and art schools, including NYU, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, University of California-Irvine, Occidental College, CalArts, Hofstra University, and Brooklyn Law School. He has presented talks and participated in panels and symposiums at a number of institutions, including The Drawing Center, The New York State Bar Association, NYU School of Law, McGill Faculty of Law, Dia:Beacon, Fordham Law School, The International Center of Photography, Pratt Institute, SUNY-New Paltz, The Bronx Museum, The Yale School of Management, The School of Visual Arts, The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics at The New School, Creative Capital, Columbia University School of the Arts, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Parsons The New School for Design, the El Paso Museum of Art, The El Paso Bar Association and Federal Bar, Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Harvard University, and the Centre Sociologie de l’Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris. He was a mentor with the Kennedy Center’s Arts in Crisis program in 2009-2010.
His art projects have been shown in international exhibitions, including Mexico, Germany, and Spain, and nationally in Dallas, New York City, and Los Angeles. He has published essays and projects in Five Continents and One City Exhibition (catalogue essay, Mexico), Capital Art: On the Culture of Punishment (catalogue essay, US), Cabinet Magazine (US), Law Text Culture (Australia), and Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left.
Sarmiento currently serves as a New York State Council on the Arts panelist for state and local partnerships. He is also a member of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and serves on the advisory board for two nonprofits, The Nietzsche Circle and The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
