KARA WALKER'S SILHOUETTES AT FUNDACIÓN PROA: HISTORY, POWER, AND REPRESENTATION
For the first time in Argentina and South America, Fundación Proa presents an exhibition dedicated to the North American artist, one of the most influential figures in contemporary international art.
Renowned for her compositions of cut-paper silhouettes and her unique ability to craft narratives that confront history and visual culture, Kara Walker (Stockton, California, 1969) has built an unmistakable language that combines beauty, irony, and conceptual rawness. The exhibition, on view from September through November 2025, brings together a selection of works created between 1994 and 2021, offering an overview of more than twenty-five years of production. From her monumental paper murals—reinterpreting an 18th-century popular technique—to bronze sculptures, drawings, prints, texts, and video animations, the project presents a comprehensive panorama of her vast career.
Educated at the Atlanta College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design, Walker rose to prominence in the mid-1990s when she began creating large-scale wall pieces using the cut-paper technique, composing scenes as haunting as they are disturbing—saying everything while showing nothing. At Fundación Proa, visitors will encounter these emblematic installations as well as works in other media through which the artist explores materiality, installation, and scale to question the symbolic mechanisms underpinning contemporary social structures.
Drawing holds a central place in this anthological exhibition. The artist has developed an extensive body of work on paper that includes graphite, watercolor, collage, and ink, with open references to popular illustration, 19th-century caricature, children’s tales, and the works of Goya and Daumier. Complementing these are video animations such as 8 Possible Beginnings (2005) and Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies (2021), in which she translates her imagery into animation using techniques such as stop motion and shadow theater, underscoring her critical inquiry into language and memory.
With the support of the Walker Art Center and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., the exhibition spans three galleries, charting a complete panorama of the most significant moments in the career of an artist whose vision both captivates and challenges viewers.
Adriana Rosenberg, director of Fundación Proa, emphasized that the artist’s work should not be seen solely as a document of U.S. history: “While many of her works are rooted in specific events tied to slavery and racial history in the United States, her approach goes beyond that framework. What she constructs has profound connections with experiences and processes that also shape Latin America: forms of violence, exclusion, racism, structural inequality, and differing positions regarding historical narratives.”
Kara Walker’s work “speaks from a broader perspective, one tied to the human condition and to the mechanisms that sustain certain hierarchies across geographies and historical periods.”
The exhibition will be open to the public from September 6 through November 2025 at Fundación Proa, Av. Pedro de Mendoza 1929, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Related Topics
May interest you
ARTEBA: AT THE CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Youth, performance, and permanence: Argentina’s most important art fair has opened at Centro Costa Salguero and will run until August 31.
“RETURNING HOME”: HANDS OF PARAGUAYAN INDIGENOUS TRADITION IN BUENOS AIRES
Around 100 artisans and artists came together to create an exhibition that reflects the heritage and contemporary identity of Paraguay at the Cultural Center of the Republic of Paraguay.
THE HYPNOTIC NATURE OF AN EXPOSED STAGECRAFT
By Violeta Méndez
Just steps from the door, I heard the echoes of Tramoya. Curiosity guided my body toward the gallery, stealing from me the chance to prepare for the detours and fragmentations the works would provoke—and for the attempts to piece together those fragments within my own body.
THE ARMORY SHOW 2025: LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS AND NEW TRENDS
By Violeta Lozada
The Armory Show 2025 returns to the Javits Center in New York, reaffirming its status as one of the most influential events in modern and contemporary art since nineteen ninety-four. Every year, the fair brings together leading international galleries to showcase innovative works, with a strong focus on curatorial excellence, engaging public programming, and bold artistic activations.
AGUSTIN DI LUCIANO'S CHRONOTOPIC REALITY AT MARCO MUSEUM
Last few weeks to enjoy a unique experience at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Boca: an immersive exhibition that combines art, technology, and audience participation.
GYULA KOSICE: INTERGALACTIC, AN EXHIBITION THAT RESHAPES HIS VISIONARY CONTRIBUTION
By Adriana Herrera Téllez, PhD
Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic is one of those axial exhibitions that unsettle the boundaries of the usual narratives of art history by incorporating visions that broaden our understanding of the contributions of foundational artists who, like this creator—born in today’s Slovenia in 1924 and later naturalized in Argentina—have not been sufficiently incorporated into the global narrative of concrete art.
MIAMI PHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATORY OPENED WITH ARTIST RAMÓN WILLIAMS
The new center promotes residencies and curatorial projects focused on visual research and artistic production, building an alternative archive on Miami’s urban transformation.
INTERVIEW TO ALEX NUÑEZ AND HER VISION OF FLORIDA'S PLAYFUL WILD
By Violeta Lozada
For Miami-born artist Alex Nuñez, inspiration often springs from the familiar yet unsettling details of everyday life in South Florida. Her latest project, "There’s a Gator in the Pool", takes a symbol that outsiders often fear and transforms it into a playful, layered metaphor for life as a Floridian. The exhibition is on view at the Faena Art Project Room in Miami Beach through September 14th.
GALLERY RETURNS TO PALERMO AND VILLA CRESPO FOR ITS SECOND 2025 EDITION
The cultural event turns Buenos Aires into a vibrant art route: galleries, museums, artist studios, and independent spaces open their doors with free activities and special programs.
FEDERICO BROOK: BETWEEN ROME AND LATIN AMERICA AT MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES
Featuring nearly fifty works, the exhibition explores Brook’s “clouds” series and his interest in integrating sculpture into architecture and public space.
THE HUMAN CONDITION AT FUNDACIÓN PROA: TWELVE LENSES ON CONTEMPORARY URGENT ISSUES
The tenth edition of the Prix Pictet brings together in Buenos Aires twelve international photographers who address the major social and environmental challenges of our time.
JUAN ENRIQUE BEDOYA’S ANTHOLOGY AT FUNDACIÓN LARIVIÈRE
In its final weeks, the exhibition Mi país no es Grecia offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of the Peruvian photographer’s work—moving between the popular, the precarious, and the poetic.
