2012 Walter Hopps Award winner Cuauhtémoc Medina is one of the key curatorial figures in the rise to international prominence of art from Mexico City. Since 1992 Medina has been a full-time researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas at the National Autonomous Univeristy of Mexico. Between 2002 and 2008, as associate curator at the Tate Modern in London, Medina was instrumental in facilitating the growth of the museum's Latin American collections.

As a critic, curator, and historian, his work is informed not only by theoretical concerns, but also by a politically committed engagement with social issues and everyday life.

Established in 2001 in honor of Menil Founding Director Walter Hopps, the biennial Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement recognizes curators in early to mid-career who have made significant contributions to the field of contemporary art.