Curator Miguel Miguel wrote this essay for the group show Sin fronteras/Arte latinoamericano actual, organized by the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas in 1996. In it, he asserts that the aim of the show is to demonstrate the significant contribution that art from the region has made over the course of the last decade (1986–96) to Western art as a whole. In this framework, he discusses the work of a group of creators of new languages. Miguel points out that, in the hegemonic centers of 20th-century art (Europe and the United States), there is a tendency to begin to recognize Latin American art in relation to the talent of isolated figures associated with “magic realism,” “the fantastic,” or an aesthetic related to folk art. In Miguel’s opinion, a complete redefinition of Latin American art is underway, which implies a new awareness on the part of young people. In closing, Miguel makes a few remarks on the importance of art collecting in Venezuela.

Sin fronteras/Arte latinoamericano actual curated by Miguel Miguel for the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas in 1996 was a major exhibition of contemporary Latin American art. It not only presented the work of thirty-one artists from the region, but also formulated a necessary reflection on—and much needed redefinition of—Latin American art.

In this text, the curator analyzes current Latin American art as a whole, explaining that he bases his assessment on art produced by young artists from the region in recent years (1980-90), artists whose careers he has even been involved in promoting. Significantly, Miguel’s vision of current art from Latin America upholds the “positive” values of Western culture. As such, the panorama Miguel describes is totally different from the one depicted by other critics whose “negative” critical positions portray a painful image of Latin America as a dependent region that is always pursuing foreign avant-gardes and recognition. Though optimistic, Miguel’s text is somber. He acknowledges that it is impossible to ignore the mistaken tendency in hegemonic and trend-setting centers of art to associate Latin American art with a certain “magical realism” that has surrealist or mythological connotations or with folkloric and “fantastic” expressions. On this topic, see Mari Carmen Ramírez’s paradigmatic essay written in 1992 entitled “Beyond ‘The Fantastic’; Framing Identity in U.S. Exhibitions of Latin American Art” (ICAA doc. no. 1065386); Shifra M. Goldman’s “Latin American Art’s U.S. Explosion” (doc. no. 1065368); and Aracy A. Amaral’s “‘Fantastic’ are the others” (doc. no. 776644). See as well the “Prólogo” (doc. no. 1065611) and “Introducción” (doc. no. 1065330) to Holiday T. Day and Hollister Sturges’s “Art of the fantastic.” In Miguel’s view, this panorama is changing. He asserts that many young Latin American artists are staying in their home countries—rather than emigrating to centers of legitimation, commerce, and power in art—where they are developing significant work that transcends local contexts. Since the text is an overview, it does not discuss the specific works of the individual participants in the show.

The exhibition included the following artists (thirty-one in all) with work in Venezuelan collections: Aziz Cucher, José Bedía, María Fernanda Cardozo, Sigfredo Chacón, Eugenio Dittborn, Arturo Duclos, Eugenio Espinoza, José Gabriel Fernández, Héctor Fuenmayor, Julio Galán, Félix González-Torres, Víctor Grippo, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Alfredo Jaar, Kcho, Guillermo Kuitka, Jac Leirner, Fabián Marcaccio, Ana Mendieta, Ernesto Neto, Roberto Obregón, Gabriel Orozco, Alfredo Ramírez, Rosângela Rennô, Miguel Ángel Ríos, Doris Salcedo, Andrés Serrano, Ray Smith, Tunga, Meyer Vaisman, and Alfred Wenemoser. The catalogue also features the essay “Imaginando territorios: Reflexiones dispersas sobre arte en (Latino) América” (1996) by Mónica Amor (doc. no. 1155284).