Notes related to Arte latinoamericano

For the third consecutive year, the Ama Amoedo Foundation launches its grant program, an initiative aimed at providing resources and opportunities to strengthen the art ecosystem and its institutions across Latin America. The open call closes on August 31.

Chilean-born visual artist, architect and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar is this year’s recipient of the 65th Annual Edward MacDowell Medal, for his outstanding contributions to American culture in the field of “Visual Arts.” His poetic photographs, films and elaborate installations confront the greatest socio-political issues of our time, including genocide, the displacement of refugees, war, corruption and economic inequality.

The Museum of America in Madrid is hosting El sueño del jaguar (The Dream of the Jaguar), an exhibition curated by visual artist Fredi Casco (Asunción, Paraguay, 1967) and photographer Fernando Allen (Asunción, Paraguay, 1957), which brings together artistic, ethnographic, and scientific perspectives on the jaguar and its symbolic and ecological significance.

Pinta Asunción Art Week, formerly known as Pinta Sud | ASU, will take place this year from September 10 to 13, marking its fourth edition. With its extensive contemporary art and cultural programming spread across the city, the event invites attendees to discover an ever-growing artistic scene alongside Paraguay’s unique cultural, culinary, and tourism traditions.

The Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art (CAAC) presents Sensemayá. Cánticos para matar a la Culebra (Sensemaya. Chants to kill the snake), the first solo institutional exhibition in Spain by Claribel Calderius (Havana, Cuba, 1986). Conceived specifically for the San Bruno Chapel, the project is a site-specific intervention that draws on the space’s historical and spiritual resonance—qualities that align seamlessly with the symbolic universe of the Cuban artist.

Gonzalo García Callegari presents his twentieth solo exhibition at the Inca Garcilaso Cultural Center in Lima. In the wake of Peru’s bicentennial of independence, he invites us—with his signature dark humor—to question the unfinished ideals of national emancipation.

This past April 2025, Venezuelan artist Samuel Sarmiento (Maracaibo, 1987) opened his solo exhibition, Primordial Marshes: Of Waters and Goddesses, at the Claustro de San Agustín of the National University of Colombia. Curated by María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, the show features over 100 works—ceramics, watercolors, and paintings—created by Sarmiento from 2013 to the present. The exhibition presents water as a fertile ground for human stories and myths, focusing particularly on narratives from the Caribbean islands, where the artist resides.

With its inaugural edition, Panama Art Week stepped onto the contemporary art stage not as a marketplace for immediate transactions, but as a catalyst for long-term cultural positioning. 

The first edition of Pinta Panamá Art Week was a collective celebration that transformed the city into a major stage for contemporary art and Central American culture. The event welcomed over 650 attendees at its official opening and thousands of visitors throughout the week, with daily activities including exhibition openings, talks, guided tours, and urban experiences. The week was marked by a strong commitment to strengthening and valuing local identity.

With major exhibitions such as the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams (2022), Surrealism Beyond Borders at Tate Modern and the Metropolitan Museum in the same period, Surrealism at the Centre Pompidou (which closed in 2025), and various revivals of lesser-known figures and centenary celebrations of the movement, surrealism has gained renewed momentum and has (somewhat) emerged from technical archives and private collections around the world.

As part of Pinta Panamá Art Week, Lo que sueña toda vida takes place—an exhibition project that reflects on ways of living in the Central American country. Curated by Juan Canela and Emiliano Valdés, the program features a series of artistic actions by Felipe Gómez and Jonathan Harker, the Enlaces Program, Libertad Rojo, and Humberto Vélez.

Two spaces that have sought to foster the growth of local art since their inception are part of Pinta Panamá Art Week, where creative energy is palpable. With proposals that combine exhibition, reflection, and audience development, both galleries present themselves as driving forces in an expanding scene shaped by collective work, experimentation, and a shared desire to strengthen the cultural fabric.

The Casa de México Foundation in Spain is hosting, through the second week of June, a must-see exhibition from the Jumex Collection—one of the most significant contemporary art collections in Latin America. Titled Éramos felices y no lo sabíamos (We Were Happy and Didn't Know It), the exhibition revisits the vibrant artistic scene of 1990s Mexico, offering a re-reading of one of the most dynamic periods in the country’s contemporary art history.

Pinta Panamá Art Week makes its debut from May 21 to 25. Over five days, it will offer a public program filled with art activities, inviting attendees to explore a city undergoing a cultural boom. This first edition positions Panama City as a key destination on the international art and culture calendar.

This was my first visit to Lima (and I hope it’s the first of many), and I came to take part in Pinta Lima 2025—an incredibly enriching experience. From the opening to the close, the fair was full of life: buzzing rooms, lively conversations, and unexpected encounters. There was an unmistakable energy in the air, the kind that comes from a city that takes seriously its place on the Latin American contemporary art map.

In the heart of Casco Antiguo, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama (MAC) embarks on a new chapter with the opening of its Sala Satélite, a space dedicated to showcasing projects developed from its Permanent Collection. The inaugural exhibition, 60+1 el pequeño gran museo de Ancón (60+1 The Little Big Museum of Ancón), serves as a tribute, a reflection, and an exploration of the museum’s history.

Bogotá’s art scene was reinvigorated this past weekend with a new edition of ARTBO | Fin de Semana, held from Friday, April 25 to Sunday, April 27. Unlike the main fair taking place in late September, this format invites visitors to explore the city’s key contemporary art circuits, with gallery openings, guided tours, talks, and performances across various cultural venues.

The art fair invites galleries to submit their proposals for its new edition, taking place from December 4 to 7 at The Hangar, Coconut Grove. The application deadline is July 30.

The enduring legacy of Teresa Burga (Iquitos, 1935 – Lima, 2021) is celebrated at the Latin American art fair Pinta Lima, where she was selected as the tribute artist for the Special Project, curated by Miguel A. López. The exhibition brings together, for the first time, various moments of her production between 1966 and 2020, showcasing the intelligence, boldness, and versatility of an artist who was not always recognized or understood in her time.

The first large-scale exhibition of Latin American art in the West Asia and North Africa region has opened: LATINOAMERICANO. Modern and Contemporary Art from Malba and Eduardo Costantini Collections.

In its 2025 edition, the Latin American contemporary art fair presents, through RADAR and Video Project, a selection of works that engage with key issues of the present—both within the artistic field and beyond it: from questions surrounding the re-signification of ancestral knowledge to reflections on the idiosyncrasies of human nature.

Through the idea of an endless spiral, this exhibition at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) unfolds as a reverse retrospective of artist Magali Lara (Mexico City, 1956), beginning with two murals created especially for the show and tracing back to her earliest drawings from the 1980s and 1970s.

At the Lima Art Museum – MALI, the exhibition Yerko Zlatar. Ancestral Technology is currently on view. This show invites reflection on the contrast between the deep, harmonious connection that ancient Andean civilizations had with the cosmos and their environment, and the way we now live, governed by a technology driven by consumerism and individualism.

Peruvian contemporary art is experiencing a vibrant moment. Over the past decade, its art ecosystem has begun to consolidate, with a growing local collector base, a more professional gallery scene, and an increasing number of artists gaining international visibility. However, it remains an early stage, with a small and fragile market that requires stronger structures to support its development. Unlike other countries in the region, Peru lacks strong institutional support for contemporary art.

The event will bring together, for the first time, 24 art galleries and projects from different cities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico; it will take place on April 3, 4, 5, and 6 at Distrito Capitalinas, in the city of Córdoba, Argentina.

The CAV La Neomudéjar Museum is in its final days of exhibiting Ecos del Vacío (Echoes of the Void), a project developed by Guatemalan filmmaker and artist Verónica Riedel during her artistic residency at Kárstica Espacio de Creación, in the town of Cañada del Hoyo, Cuenca.

The Cultural Institute of Mexico in Spain hosts the exhibition Estrategias de recuperación (Recovery Strategies), featuring three recent projects by the photographer. Including the series Las flores mueren dos veces (Flowers Die Twice, 2021–2024), Palimpsesto (2024–2025), and Maíz (Corn) (2023–present), the Mexican photographer explores the elements and causes that create distortion and fragmentation in memory.

The exhibition brings together a group of eight artists whose work, though diverse in technique and approach, shares a common concern for social justice and historical memory.

Sesc SP announced the fourth edition of Frestas—Triennial of Arts for the third quarter of 2025 at Sesc Sorocaba. This initiative is part of the institution’s extensive cultural agenda in the countryside of São Paulo State, aiming to expand access to cultural assets, strengthen local and regional partnerships, and foster the contemporary art scene in the region.

The renowned artist Moico Yaker returns to the exhibition halls with a solo show after six years to present Conversaciones en el zoológico (Conversations at the Zoo), while Rafael Pascuale explores the relationship between the body and fragility in Espejos de una humanidad perdida (Mirrors of a Lost Humanity).