Past & Prologue

Art & Design Services

Founded by Wava Carpenter and René Morales, Past & Prologue is a multi-service art and design consultancy based in Chicago and Miami.

Driven by expertise, integrity, and passion, we are dedicated to the stewardship and advancement of modern and contemporary art, design, decorative arts, and craft.

With our combined 40+ years of experience working with museums and markets, we offer a suite of bespoke services for collectors, galleries, institutions, and aficionados. Our specialties include collection building, curation, USPAP-compliant appraisals, and more.

Our Services

  • Artworks by Carmen Herrera, Sol LeWitt & Lolo Soldevilla at Perez Art Museum Miami

    Collection Building

    With decades of experience building major private and institutional collections — as well as an expansive professional network of dealers, curators, collectors, and creatives — we offer multifaceted advisory and brokerage services for collectors of art, design, and craft.

  • Tomorrow Land by Studio Proba in the Miami Design District, featuring colorful abstract sculptures surrounded by palm trees in an outdoor plaza, with a Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome with large bubble windows in background.

    Curation & Commissions

    As seasoned arts professionals, we curate museum-quality exhibitions and installations for non-profit arts organizations, galleries, and private collectors, as well as facilitate and produce public and private art and design commissions across a range of scales.

  • Pages from the book Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, edited by René Morales, featuring a detail from Simmons' Hold Up Wait A Minute, a smeared chalk drawing, alongside text by Morales about the role of history and memory in Simmons' work.

    Publications & Programs

    We are passionate about furthering art and design discourse. We offer editorial services, scholarly writing, criticism, and research, in addition to organizing public lectures, panels, and other programs with which to engage both niche and broad audiences.

  • Modern conference room featuring a contemporary art and design collection, including paintings by Nicole Eisenman, Jana Euler & Marlene Dumas, plus design objects by Ron Arad & Konstantin Grcic.

    Appraisals & Valuations

    With deep insight into collectible markets, we specialize in appraisals and other valuations of fine art, design, decorative arts, and craft. As members of the International Society of Appraisers, we offer USPAP-compliant appraisals for donations, estates, insurance, and more.

Get in Touch

About Us

René Morales is a curator, writer, and advisor who has dedicated his career to modern and contemporary art.

A graduate of Swarthmore College and Brown University, he is the former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) and the former Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). At the MCA, René presented a major retrospective of the work of Gary Simmons, as well as surveys of the work of Arthur Jafa and Virginia Jaramillo. At PAMM, he organized over 60 exhibitions, including Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, 1980-83; Dara Friedman: Perfect Stranger; Sarah Oppenheimer: S-281913; Meleko Mokgosi: Your Trip to Africa; Marjetica Potrc: The School of the Forest; Monika Sosnowska: Market; Amelia Peláez: The Craft of Modernity; and Global Positioning System: Selections from the PAMM Collection.

Over the course of his 16 years at PAMM, René spearheaded the acquisition of over $40,000,000 in art, including major works by Carmen Herrera, Helio Oiticica, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Danh Vō, Romare Bearden, Gordon Parks, Sarah Charlesworth, Fred Wilson, Sam Durant, Sanford Biggers, Kehinde Wiley, Calida Rawles, Dawoud Bey, Lawrence Weiner, Alfred Jensen, Goshka Macuga, Coco Fusco, Cory Arcangel, Ernesto Neto, Tomás Saraceno, William Cordova, Victoria Gitman, Malik Sidibé, Stan Douglas, Elizabeth Murray, Eamon Oré-Girón, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Cao Fei, and Kenneth Victor Young, among many others. Prior to PAMM, René worked at The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where he organized and co-organized several exhibitions including Island Nations: New Art from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Specialized in modern and contemporary design, decorative arts, and craft, Wava Carpenter has built an international reputation for supporting creative communities across a range of cultural and commercial platforms.

After earning a Master’s degree in the History of Design and Decorative Arts from the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design, she was hired by then upstart fair Design Miami to develop and curate exhibitions, awards, and programming. She has since worn many hats within the Design Miami organization, including Associate Director and Curatorial Director, always working to strengthen synergies between collectors, dealers, brands, and creatives. She currently advises for the Curatorial Lab, Design Miami’s consultancy dedicated to helping brands, developers, and municipalities touch new audiences through dynamic public art and design initiatives.

Wava is also co-founder of Anava Projects, an agency dedicated to harnessing the power of design to center social and environmental awareness, with the aim of achieving a healthier, more connected, and more equitable world. Past projects include organizing successful fundraisers for urgent causes and curating thematic exhibitions and commissions for galleries, brands, and international fairs, as well as producing public art installations for neighborhoods and developers. Over the years, she’s collaborated with a wide range of contemporary talents, including Maarten Baas, Germane Barnes, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Konstantin Grcic, gt2P, and Studio Proba, to name just a few.

Beyond Design Miami and Anava Projects, Wava has worked with multiple e-commerce founders and investors to launch websites for buying and selling vintage and contemporary design and craft, including L’ArcoBaleno and Pamono. She has also produced and contributed to dozens of talks, in addition to writing and editing hundreds of texts on design and craft — past, present, and future — for books, exhibition catalogues, magazines, and other online and print publications.

René Morales, modern and contemporary art curator. Man (he/him) with glasses and beard, wearing a light shirt, looking at camera against neutral background.
Wava Carpenter, modern and contemporary design and craft specialist. Woman (she/her) with shoulder-length hair, wearing a black blazer and gold necklace, looking slightly off-camera against a neutral background.