Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This article is based on a conversation with Carlos Cruz-Diez after he was awarded the Officier des Arts et des Lettres, a prize sponsored by the French government, which was presented by the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lange. In it it appears [...]

This is an anonymous review of the retrospective exhibition of Cruz-Diez’s work at the Signals gallery in London in 1965. The reviewer notes a constant quality in Venezuelan painting—“clarity, order, and a distinct gentleness&rdquo [...]

This exhibition essay by Julia P. Herzberg reviews the artistic trajectory of Venezuelan artist Nela Ochoa (b. 1953), whose current work is inspired by the medical sciences. Since the 1990s, she has mainly focused on the body, genetics, and [...]

In this interview with Iván Navarro, Julia P. Herzberg poses questions about process and materials, the use of electricity, and art historical influences on his work from the 1990s to the 2000s. Navarro’s Blade Runner series (2004), [...]

This text, included in an exhibition catalogue for artist Carlos Alfonzo, is a transcription of a conversation between Alfonzo and his friend César Trasobares. The interview was videotaped by Alfonzo’s friend Craig Robins in November [...]

This exhibition essay by guest curator Julia P. Herzberg addresses two major long-term projects by Leandro Katz. The Catherwood Project (1985–1995, 2001) is a photographic reconstruction of the two mid-nineteenth century expeditions of John [...]

 This art magazine interview between Julia P. Herzberg and Francisca Sutil involves a conversation about the artist’s painting process in general and her recent series Mute (2009), in particular. Sutil explains that prior to initiating [...]

This exhibition essay explores the works of four contemporary women artists of Cuban descent: Teresita Fernández, María Elena González, Quisqueya Henríquez, and María Martínez-Cañas, each discussed [...]

This exhibition essay discusses three interrelated artistic works by Raquel Rabinovich: the Pabhavikas series, the Emergences series, and the Riverbed Library series. It details how she brings together the creative and perceptive mindset of her [...]

This exhibition essay discusses several Central American and Caribbean artists who draw on rituals in their performative works, including Ernesto Pujol, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, José Bedia, Pepón Osorio, Tania Bruguera, [...]

This exhibition essay discusses the Chilean artist Catalina Parra’s collages on view in the exhibition Catalina Parra: It’s Indisputable. It includes seven series with seventy works, which comprise collages made of newspaper clippings [...]

These exhibition notes explain RISD’s (Rhode Island School of Art and Design) Art ConText series and artist Pepón Osorio’s work Transboricua. These socially engaged installations originate from his past experiences as a social [...]

This art magazine article on Pepón Osorio overviews his career trajectory since the late 1980s, suggesting that he has pushed boundaries with his site-specific installations. His work addresses social issues by engaging in community outreach [...]

This short text appears in a catalogue of works in El Museo del Barrio’s permanent collection. It addresses several works by artist Leandro Katz. Among them, a chromogenic photographic print titled Lunar Typewriter (1980). It depicts an old- [...]

This art magazine article reviews the 10th Bienal de La Habana organized around the theme “Integration and Resistance in the Global Era.” It exhibits works in all media that explore the effects of globalization on economies, natural [...]

This art magazine article reviews the 9th Bienal de La Habana and describes art works in its various venues. The biennial’s theme focuses on the dynamics and complexities of urban culture, exhibiting works in all media. Some works present the [...]

This exhibition essay charts Ana Mendieta’s artistic trajectory between 1970 and 1980, including her tenure at the University of Iowa (where she completed two master’s degrees: one in painting and one in intermedia), her time in Mexico, [...]

This magazine article addresses Ana Mendieta’s early work during her graduate studies at the University of Iowa in the early 1970s. The article argues that though Mendieta’s work has been extensively analyzed, this period in her [...]

This exhibition essay by adjunct curator Julia Herzberg on artist Magdalena Fernández’s video installation 2iPM009 (2009) intends to broaden our understanding of the Venezuelan artist’s concepts, processes, sources, and development [...]

This exhibition brochure by guest curator Julia P. Herzberg describes several works included in A Town Portrait, with an eponymous installation and two photographic series, When I Am Not Here/Estoy allá (1996) and Abridor de caminos (1997). [...]

This essay by Julia Herzberg overviews Carlos Alfonzo’s artistic trajectory from 1982 to 1991, outlining the biographical details of his life and analyzing multiple artworks included in the exhibition. Working mainly in a Neo-Expressionist [...]

Curator Julia Herzberg’s exhibition essay for The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s explores the construct of “identity” in the art of the 1980s. It discusses the twenty-five Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Latin American [...]

This exhibition essay by Julia P. Herzberg explains and describes two installations by Josely Carvalho: It’s Still a Time to Mourn: Dia Mater I and Tempos de Luto: Dia Mater II (both 1993). Both works are part of the larger series It’s [...]

This exhibition brochure, written by consulting curator Julia P. Herzberg, addresses Ernesto Pujol’s installation Conversion of Manners. The title comes from a Benedictine vow that Catholic monks take when they leave secular life and enter [...]

Written by guest curator Julia P. Herzberg, this exhibition leaflet explains the ideas behind Ernesto Pujol’s installation American Fields. This Cuban artist’s work comprises a wooden table, a metal chair, and cast-aluminum corn cobs, as [...]

This exhibition essay overviews the trajectory of Arturo Cuenca’s photographic practice from his time spent in Cuba in the 1980s until his arrival in New York in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, he transitioned from making Photorealist/Pop [...]

In this article for The Daily Journal, Baiba Pecins writes about Mercedes Pardo on the occasion of the exhibition of her work at the GAN (Galería de Arte Nacional) in Caracas. The article is introduced by observations on luminosity and [...]

Rodrigo Quijano argues that Tiempo detenido—the installation by ceramicist Carlos Runcie Tanaka—does more than illustrate a traumatic event. Since its beginnings, Quijano asserts, the work has been linked to the artist’s search for identity. To [...]

In this text, Rodrigo Quijano argues that Lima 01—a series of photographs of inverted images of interiors of old abandoned buildings in downtown Lima—addresses questions of forgetting and urban decay. The series makes reference to the design of [...]

The Uruguayan artist Carlos Capelán created a fictitious entity he called “Post Colonial Liberation Army” which he used to issue personal, though supposedly anonymous, manifestos in which he discussed various things related to art practices, the [...]

Carlos Capelán’s installations include texts expressed as proclamations presented under the acronym PCLA (r): Post Colonial Liberation Army (re materialización). The Uruguayan artist’s work alludes to and emulates manifestos produced by [...]

Clever Lara’s work is reviewed by the critic Ángel Kalenberg, who was also in charge of Uruguay’s contribution to the XLII Venice Biennial (1986). In Kalenberg’s opinion, Lara’s work is representative of the kind of painting that was [...]

This is the catalogue published to accompany Camargo, the exhibition organized by the Gimpel Fils gallery in London. The Brazilian artist Sérgio Camargo’s works were exhibited there from November 17 through December 5, 1970. The [...]

“Lygia Clark at Signals London, 27th May to 3rd July” is a special edition of Newsbulletin of Signals London devoted to Lygia Clark (1920−1988) on the occasion of the Brazilian artist’s first solo exhibition in England, which [...]

In this essay from 1992, Jean Clay outlines the salient concepts that are intrinsic to Lygia Clark’s work. In his opinion, the Brazilian artist’s trajectory is marked by the tendency toward fusion, an obsession with synthesis, and a [...]

In this essay, the British curator and art critic Guy Brett traces the linkage between the different phases that made up the artistic career of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. From her Neo-Constructivist paintings and sculptures made in the late 1950s [...]

In this letter dated June 20, 1988, the English critic and curator Guy Brett expresses his gratitude to the Brazilian collector Adolpho Leirner and his wife, Fulvia Leirner, for the time they spent together in São Paolo. Brett is especially [...]

This catalogue accompanied the 1959 exhibition of twelve oil paintings by Elsa Gramcko, an abstract artist from Venezuela, at the Pan American Union of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. This exhibition marked Gramcko’s [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon.                                However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

In this translated and edited text by Ralph E. Dimmick for a monograph on Venezuelan art as part of the series Art of Latin America Today, the critic and art historian Clara Diament de Sujo offers an overview of the state of art in 1961. In her [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon. However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

Mari Carmen Ramírez and the North American curator Edith A. Gibson curated Re-Aligning Vision. Alternative Currents in South American Drawing, the exhibition which was organized by the Archer Huntington Gallery in Austin, Texas. Gibson writes about [...]

Curator Kaira Marie Cabañas argues that work by Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994), a Venezuelan artist of German origin, constitutes a “performative geometry” based on a primordial interest in the act of “making.” The configuration of [...]

Antonio Arráiz reviews Naturalezas vivas, the exhibition of works by José Antonio Dávila. The author discusses the artist’s early paintings and his career, then turns to the series of works that the Venezuelan painter showed in 1985 at the Galer [...]

In this text, curator William Niño Araque reflects on Fabiola Sequera’s sculpture on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Galería Astrid Paredes in Caracas in 1991. The curatorial essay proposes three approaches to a body of work that [...]

In this essay about the work of the sculptress Marisol, the gallery owner Clara Diament de Sujo provides a brief biographical sketch of the artist’s childhood and youth, and a list of the group exhibitions in which she has participated. She [...]

In this essay on sculptor Marisol [Escobar], North American curator Roberta Bernstein provides a chronological description of her work, analyzing the vast majority of her creations and the different phases of her production. She describes the [...]

This text describes the most outstanding characteristics of the works created by Gego during her involvement with the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California, in 1966. The article explains that Gego’s line, a predominant element in [...]

Robert Storr analyzes Gego’s work in the formal milieu in which it was created. The curator begins with an introduction in which he provides the essential information about her life, her late training as an artist, and the influence of Paul Klee [...]

In her introduction to the catalog for the exhibition, The Experimental Exercise of Freedom at the MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999–2000), the curator Alma Ruiz explains that the purpose of the exhibition is to show [...]