Cosmopolitan Routes: Houston Collects Latin American Art

Supported by a collecting community made up of the Founding Members and Latin Maecenas, the MFAH has acquired more than 400 modern and contemporary Latin American artworks and has become a leader in the field. Inspired by the department´s mission to build a high-quality collection, organize groundbreaking exhibitions, uncover new research, and educate diverse audiences about Latin American and Latino art, supporters have accompanied the MFAH´s collecting activities since the department’s inception by both acquiring works for the museum and building their own collections. Cosmopolitan Routes encompasses over 100 works of art—from early modernism and postwar Latin American art to contemporary manifestations—all culled from the private collections of MFAH supporters.

On view from October 24, 2010, the exhibition is guest curated by Gilbert Vicario, curator at the Des Moines Art Center (and formerly assistant Latin American art curator at MFAH), with support from Mari Carmen Ramírez, MFAH Wortham curator of Latin American art and director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), and Elizabeth Cerejido, MFAH assistant curator of Latin American and Latino art. The exhibition’s catalogue is available from February.

Important works by internationally-recognized, contemporary Latin American artists will be prominently featured. For the first time at the MFAH, the work of Peruvian conceptual artist Fernando Bryce, Argentine painter Guillermo Kuitca, Brazilian multi-media artist Vik Muniz, Brazilian installation artist Ernesto Neto, and Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo will be shown together, creating unexpected dialogues and juxtapositions with works from their historical predecessors.