Permanent Seminar in Latin American Art

Recommended reading:

Argentine newspaper Página/12 has recently interviewed Dr Andrea Giunta about her work “on what remains outside of history” and women artists. Don’t miss this excellent interview.

Also from Buenos Aires: the second number of the magazine Blanco sobre blanco, edited by Viviana Usubiaga, Verónica Tell, Agustina Rodríguez Romero, Teresa Riccardi, Isabel Plante, Mariana Marchesi, María Amalia García, Silvia Dolinko and Talía Bermejo, is available for pre-sale. Number 2 features texts by Francisco Ali-Brouchoud, Américo Castilla, Annateresa Fabris, Marcelo Pacheco, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Nicolás Varchausky, Zanna Gilbert, and CLAVIS’s own Luis Vargas-Santiago, among others. For sales and subscriptions, email revistablancosobreblanco@gmail.com. Special offer is available until March 31!

The first, massive, 6.9-pound volume of ICAA/MFAH’s Critical Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art: Resisting Categories: Latin American And/Or Latino? is now available in print through Yale University Press. The mighty package arrived on our doorstep just a few days ago. You can expect some preliminary thoughts on the impressive 1100 pages of mostly primary sources soon!

Hot off the press!

Exhibitions of note:

From U.S. events, we recommend the current exhibition at  the Americas Society in New York, Observed: Milagros de la Torre, curated by Edward J. Sullivan (through April 14). This is the first monographic show in New York of this notable contemporary Peruvian photographer, whose stark work examines issues related to violence, memory, and the socio-political construction of identity. Parallel exhibition, Indicios: Milagros de la Torre, also curated by Sullivan, is held at MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) from March 8 through July 1. You can read Dr. Sullivan’s interview with the artist here.

De la Torre is also featured in a very promising exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Utopia/Dystopia: Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage (through June 10). This show celebrates Houston’s FotoFest 2012 Biennial.

To coincide with the same event, Sicardi Gallery showcases their fifth solo exhibition of Liliana Porter: Fragment of the Cast (March 15–April 29), which features a selection of photographs and installations with such perennial favorites as Drumming Bear, Crying Duck, Mr. Snowman, Choir Singer, and Pink Farmboy, among others.

Houston is not the only city to celebrate photography these days, first Bienal de Fotografía de Lima 2012 brings together more than 32 exhibitions (group and solo, historical and contemporary), curated by a diverse group of established and emerging curators, among them: Gustavo Buntinx, Jorge Villacorta, José Falconi, Armando Williams, and David Flores-Hora. (Most shows run from March 19/20 through April 20–29.) Dorota of CLAVIS especially recommends a retrospective of Herman Schwarz, A ras del suelo: la imagen documental, organized by Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano (ICPNA) and curated by Augusto del Valle (Galería Germán Krüger Espantoso – ICPNA Miraflores).

As in Houston, most of Lima’s galleries have jumped on the photography bandwagon as well. Notably, Galería 80m2 arte&debates has just opened ¿Y qué si la democracia occure?, a group exhibition curated by Miguel A. López, which “attempts to rethink the last twelve years of the ‘return to democracy,’ following the fall of the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori. Its goal is to reconsider the implication of the term ‘democracy’ in the social context marked by inequality, discrimination, and exploitation.” More than 30 artists–working in variety of media, from photography and drawing to video, installation, and performance–are included in the show; among them: Álex Ángeles + Mijail Mitrovic, Luz María Bedoya, Giuseppe Campuzano, Raimond Chaves + Gilda Mantilla, Milagros de la Torre, Nancy La Rosa, Christians Luna, Verónica Luyo, Alfredo Márquez, Frido Martin, Sandra Nakamura, Musuk Nolte, Colectivo NoSINmiPERMISO, Daniela Ortiz de Zevallos, Raura Oblitas, Eliana Otta, Santiago Quintanilla, Natalia Revilla, Juan Javier Salazar, and Janine Soenens.

Fernando Bryce, Installation view of "Dibujando la historia moderna," MUAC, 2012.

Finally, in Mexico City, Fernando Bryce‘s retrospective Dibujando la historia moderna can now be seen at MUAC, after its initial unveiling in MALI in the fall. Dan Quiles’s review of the Limeñan incarnation of this exhibition is now available in March print issue of Artforum. 

In Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, from March 22 through June, Formando el cuerpo de una nación. El deporte en el México posrevolucionario (1920-1940), curated by Dafne Cruz Porchini. This is a fascinating look at how the State mobilized the arts in order to promote healthy citizens, capable of maintaining a union through participation in group activities. You can read the show’s review in Reforma here.

And, last but not least, check out today’s New York Times to find out why bilingualism is good for you. Perhaps this can reasonably explain why Latinos come to study Latin American art in the US and why gringos venture south of the border. We like to make our brains click.