Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, the Venezuelan artist and critic Perán Erminy reflects on the relationships between the so-called art categories of “popular art” and “non-popular art” in contemporary art and in the framework of the exhibition Confluencias. [...]

The art critic for the New York Times, Holland Cotter, introduces the artist Beatriz González—who is also an art critic—as an artist who defies the conventions imposed by the North American and European art markets and sets her own rules as [...]

Adriano Pedrosa, curator of the segment “Arte Contemporânea Brasileira” in the 24th International Biennial of São Paulo (1998), states that the name of the exhibition he is curating raises the following question: “What art is (not) [...]

In this text, curator Moacir dos Anjos analyzes the global conditions transforming contemporary artistic production. Mondialisation, he argues, entails rupture in the traditional associations between place, culture, and identity, ushering in [...]

This text by Carolina Ponce de León discusses the flurry of exhibitions on the topic of Latin American art that took place in the early nineties in the United States and Europe on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of the “discovery [...]

In this article, Alice Piron considers the public art collection at the Chicago Harold Washington Library Center, notable for having the largest “Percent for Art Program” budget—at the time in excess of $1 million—and for having specific [...]

This newspaper column comments on Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s works in the exhibition Los Encuentros at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to mark the Colombian quincentenary. The author weighs how Manglano-Ovalle uses everyday artifacts to [...]

According to curator Carolina Ponce de León, the recent focus on multiculturalism, identity, and difference has lent renewed visibility to Latin American art, although it is understood strictly in terms of otherness. Multiculturalism has also given [...]

This document is a condensed interview between Chicano artist David Avalos and John C. Welchman in which they address the concept of “borders” as physical, philosophical, and cultural entities, and discuss the relationship of art to such limits. [...]

In the introductory essay to The Hybrid State Films, a survey of independent films and videos, Cuban-American art scholar and curator of the show, Coco Fusco, states that she is critical of the foundational approach of multiculturalism that [...]

Indeed, “Redefining Displacement”, an interdisciplinary and multicultural project in the visual and performance arts, explores how individuals and communities negotiate displacement through the arts. In this instance, what is at stake is the [...]

This booklet for the exhibition Confluencias: Leandro Soto and Raoul Deal contains three texts: an interview with the artists by Linda Corbin-Pardee, an essay by Gregory Jay, and a short text by Awam Amkpa entitled “The Story of Oggun.” Jay [...]

This brochure for artist Raoul Deal includes photographs of his works from 1984–1992, biographical information, an artist statement, and teaching philosophy.  Deal outlines his artistic philosophy as one informed by popular culture. He cites a [...]

In this lecture, Raoul Deal reflects on his experiences living in Mexico between 1988 and 1998, on the history of art and education in Mexico, and the work of the workshop of El Tesoro de Tamulté in the state of Tabasco. Deal stresses Leandro Soto [...]

In this essay, curator and art historian Mari Carmen Ramírez argues that demographic trends and the emergence of multiculturalism have generated renewed debate about the conditions for representation and identity among marginalized groups. While [...]

In this essay, written for the catalogue of the exhibition La Frontera/The Border: Art About the Mexico/United States Border Experience (1993), artist and professor David Avalos describes his experience working at San Diego’s Centro Cultural de la [...]

In this essay, Madeleine Grynsztejn, co-curator of the 1993 exhibition entitled La Frontera/The Border: Art about The Mexico/United States Border Experience, outlines the scope and vision of the show and details the contributions of its 37 artists [...]

In this essay, Texas artist and activist Pedro Rodriguez begins the exhibition catalogue, Mutual Influences/Influencias Mutuas, by discussing the state of Chicano art and its history. He points out that reflecting on the origins, causes, and effects [...]

In this statement, artist César Martinez briefly mentions his Mestizo(intermingling of European and Pre-Columbian descent) series of paintings in which he confronts both aspects (Spanish and Mexican Indigenous) of his mestizo self. The artist [...]

In this essay, American curator Lynn Gumpert compares the socio-aesthetic programs adopted by Taller Boricua [Puerto Rican Workshop] and Fashion Moda, two art collectives based in Latino neighborhoods in New York City that were invited to present [...]

In this essay, Puerto Rican-born artist, Diogenes Ballester, gives a brief overview of Puerto Rican art and artists working in El Barrio (East Harlem, New York City) from the 1940s to 2000 and categorizes the art produced into three themes: 1) [...]

Marcos Dimas, artista y cofundador del Taller Boricua, ofrece en este prefacio una breve perspectiva general de la evolución del Taller desde la década de setenta al año 2000. En el texto, Dimas describe las dificultades que tuvo que superar el [...]

In this essay, art critic Lucy Lippard acknowledges that the Taller Boricua artists collective contributed to diversifying the New York art milieu in the 1970s and 1980s by engaging in political actions and creating works that explored issues of [...]

In this essay, the author explains that the exhibition About Place considers the "redefinition" of the Western Hemisphere brought upon by the economic integration of the region, increased electronic communications, and improved long-distance [...]

The artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle recounts the conflict that occurred between two efforts to neutralize a Chicago street block plagued by gang violence: the coordination of a block party by members of the Street-Level Video (SLV) collective and the [...]

Aracy Amaral comments in this essay on the term “Latin American” as an aesthetic category, which would suggest being identified as something different and also the need to search for universal values. This would be one of the paths: the denial of [...]

The essay “La puesta en escena internacional del arte latinoamericano: montaje, representaciones” [The International Staging of Latin American Art: Assembly, Presentations], by the French-Chilean cultural critic Nelly Richard, is in the archives [...]