MASP INAUGURATES AN EXHIBITION BY MINERVA CUEVAS ON SOCIAL ECOLOGY
The multidisciplinary exhibition by the Mexican artist, featuring installation, sculpture, painting, posters, and video, closes the Histories of Ecology cycle and highlights the environmental crisis as a social issue.
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) presents Minerva Cuevas: Social Ecology, an exhibition bringing together works by conceptual artist Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City, 1975) that address the connections between environmental issues and social structures. Featuring 42 pieces, it is the artist’s largest solo exhibition in Brazil to date.
Working across a range of media, including installation, murals, painting, and video, Cuevas critically investigates the mechanisms of capitalism and their impact on the environment. Curated by André Mesquita, MASP curator, with assistance from Daniela Rodrigues, MASP’s supervisor of mediation and public programs, the show closes the museum’s 2025 cycle dedicated to the Histories of Ecology.
According to Mesquita, “the exhibition underscores that ecology is, fundamentally, a social issue, because we will not overcome the ecological crisis while living in a hierarchical society. We need to open a collective discussion about our habits, customs, and values. Art can open and carry forward this essential debate for ecology.”
Cuevas’s practice also explores the symbolic dimension of cacao, contrasting its ritual uses with the large-scale production of chocolate. Her work illuminates the historical conflicts and comercial interests surrounding these activities, showing how economic pressures shape territory and affect the lives of local populations.
She also subvert logos, advertising campaigns, and symbols of major corporations to question issues such as consumption, value, and ownership. By appropriating advertising codes and brand language, Cuevas turns symbols of consumption into instruments of critique.
Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City, 1975) is a Mexican conceptual artist whose projects engage with anthropology, history, and the natural sciences. Her work spans a wide range of media, including installation, muralism, painting, video, and performance. Founder of Mejor Vida Corp. (1998), a nonprofit corporation, Cuevas has gained international recognition through solo exhibitions such as The River (Cc Foundation, 2024), Game Over (Museo Jumex, 2022), and SCOOP (Whitechapel Gallery, 2010).
Minerva Cuevas: Social Ecolgy will be on display until April 12, 2026, at MASP — Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Avenida Paulista, 1578 – Bela Vista, São Paulo (Brazil).
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