Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

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 exhibition brochure, written by guest curator Julia P. Herzberg, explains the ideas behind Leandro Erlich’s installation Neighbors. The brochure contains her curatorial statement and a brief artist’s biography. It describes Neighbors [...]

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 [...]

This essay explores Liliana Porter’s screenprint and mixed-media works (1991–94), depicting figures and objects taken from popular culture, art, literature, and her own collection of bric-a-brac. Her works create images in which the real [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This is an essay by the researcher and curator Carmen María Jaramillo published in a monograph on the Colombian artist Beatriz González. The author’s goal is to shed light on how González’s work exposes and challenges [...]

In this interview, art critic Marta Traba poses ten questions to Colombian artist Beatriz González. Traba begins by inquiring about the ironic nature of González’s subjects and the kitschy character of the objects she produces. In [...]

In this newspaper article, Marta Traba asserts that Beatriz González’s art epitomizes the Colombian avant-garde. It describes the difficulty of introducing González’s oeuvre at the XI Bienal de São Paulo, and states [...]

In this article, which appeared in El Espectador (Bogotá), Marta Traba defends the portrait of Simón Bolívar (“El Libertador”) made by Beatriz González from the attacks of conservative members of the Academia [...]

In this April 1964 magazine article, Marta Traba attests to Beatriz González’s artistic talents, reaffirming the decision by MAM (Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá) to exhibit the young artist’s work in a debut solo exhibition [...]

The writer Salvador Garmendia reviews the exhibition of photographs by Daniel González; he describes the methodology of the mobile photography that treats the street as its own laboratory, in constant communication with chance. In his images, [...]

This article presents the retrospective on Mercedes Pardo’s art production at Museo de Arte Moderno de México (1978) by witnessing her international reach. Jose Balza focuses on the links that Pardo has with both Caracas and its [...]

José Ratto Ciarlo publishes in 1943 his conversation in tandem with the Chilean artist Marco Bontà Costa and Mercedes Pardo during the opening of the exhibition of the former’s Venezuelan landscapes at the Museo de Bellas Artes in [...]

The article reports the opening of the Salon Espacios Vivientes in the Sala Principal del Palacio Municipal in Maracaibo, Venezuela. The artists contributed two artworks each, either paintings or sculptures, and they are presented as “not yet [...]

This article appeared in El Nacional, and refers to the 1960 XXI Salón Oficial de Arte held in the Venezuelan capital city. It focuses on the Premio Puebla de Bolívar awarded to Mercedes Pardo. The abstract modernist artist is [...]

In 1963, Guillermo F. Pardo de Leygonier published this article in El Universal expressing his initial hesitations on writing about the work of his niece, the modernist artist Mercedes Pardo. Indeed, he fears that his critical ideas on art would be [...]

Alejandro Otero writes this article for Revista Cal to reflect on the work of fellow pioneer in abstract art (and his wife) Mercedes Pardo. It focuses on Pardo’s series of Signes, on view at the Sala Mendoza in Caracas. The Venezuelan modernist [...]

Ángel Ramos Giugni published this article in Imagen concerning 1x9, a silkscreen exhibition by Mercedes Pardo at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. The modernist abstract artist is praised for maintaining her own “personal rhythm to [...]

This article appeared on the Venezuelan magazine Imagen, focusing on the opening of 1x9, a silkscreen exhibition by the modernist abstract artist Mercedes Pardo, held at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. After a brief introduction with [...]

Art critic Roberto Guevara states in El Nacional that Venezuelan plastic arts are facing “one of the most difficult periods of their history.” According to him, there is, in spite of their talent, a lack of “creative determination& [...]

The prominent literary figure Ida Gramcko writes for El Nacional on the work of the abstract painter Mercedes Pardo. In her text, the role played by art creators is duly taken into consideration: their individualities, and their tendencies in [...]

In this 1977 article, Roberto Montero Castro discusses the work of the Venezuelan abstract painter Mercedes Pardo regarding her exhibition at Galería Adler/Castillo in Caracas. The author introduces her by reflecting on the proneness in [...]

In this article for El Nacional’s Artes Plásticas section, art critic Roberto Guevara analyzes both paintings and screenprints by modernist artist Mercedes Pardo. His view is introduced with a reflection on the ongoing “search for [...]

Mara Comerlati writes a press article about the modernist painter Mercedes Pardo in El Nacional. The exhibition involves her most recent work (twelve paintings and twenty silkscreens), at the Galería Adler/Castillo in Caracas. The subheading [...]

This 1978 article was published in El Nacional to inform the Venezuelan public about Mercedes Pardo’s exhibition at Museo de Arte Moderno de México (MAM). The subheading introduces the text by the director of the MAM, Fernando Gamboa, [...]

Art critic Juan Acha writes about the retrospective of the Venezuelan abstract artist Mercedes Pardo, held at Museo de Arte Moderno de México. He argues that the exhibition of over twenty years of artistic production (1952–78) shows us [...]

This article was written on the occasion of the exhibition of Venezuelan abstract modernist Mercedes Pardo at Museo de Arte Moderno de México that featured works from the early 1950s to her most recent production: all abstract works, since she [...]

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 [...]

In this 1979 article in El Nacional, María Josefa Pérez interviews Mercedes Pardo regarding her retrospective exhibition Color: piel, presencia meditada. Mercedes Pardo Exposición antológica at the GAN ( [...]

In this 1991 article written for El Universal, María Ramírez Ribes presents the Mercedes Pardo retrospective Moradas del color, on view at the GAN (Galeria de Arte Nacional) in Caracas. The works on show span from 1941 to 1991 and [...]

In 1991, María Fernanda Palacios analyzes the work of Mercedes Pardo. In “Landscapes: Soul and Geography,” the first section, she reflects on the role that they take in Pardo’s œuvre, arguing that her work is “ [...]

This article was published in El Universal to report the national success of the Venezuelan pioneer of modernism Mercedes Pardo, awarded with the Premio Armando Reverón. The anonymous author explains that the prize is given by the AVAP ( [...]

As a prominent figure of Venezuelan culture herself, Ida Gramcko reflects on the success of the abstract painter Mercedes Pardo, 1991 winner of the Premio Armando Reverón. Being awarded a prize is not a “guarantee of the quality” [...]

This article appeared in El Nacional the day of the opening of Obra gráfica de Mercedes Pardo at the Galería Los Espacios Cálidos in Caracas. The show was organized in tandem by the Ateneo de Caracas and the GAN (Galería [...]

This article was written for El Globo on the occasion of the exhibition Obra Grafica de Mercedes Pardo, recently opened at the Galería de los Espacios Calidos of the Ateneo de Caracas. The author positions the work of the abstract artist both [...]

This article, published in El Nacional in February 1995, was written on the occasion of the closure of Obra Grafica de Mercedes Pardo at the Galería de los Espacios Cálidos del Ateneo de Caracas. The show was co-organized by the GAN ( [...]

This article was published in El Nacional (Caracas, August 11, 1996), on the day of the opening of Mercedes en el Museo Sacro. Obras recientes de Mercedes Pardo in this institution. This anonymous text points to a dual reading of the exhibition&rsquo [...]

Yasmin Monsalve writes this article for El Globo, Caracas, for the upcoming opening of an exhibition of Mercedes Pardo in Galeria del Sacro. Fourteen paintings and ten screenprints are shown after her five years of silence. The works are said to be [...]