Notes related to Latin American art

ARCOmadrid 2026 appears to reinforce its position in the global art market by consolidating a distinctive identity in contrast to the major internationalized art fairs, with Latin America as its anchor. Its capacity to generate cultural and market narratives from this positioning has been key to understanding its current role and evaluating the potential risks of its model.

We propose an overview of Latin American art presented at ARCO through ten proposals that illustrate and outline current tendencies, where critical and experimental perspectives, nature, materiality and organic processes shape different languages through which to address key themes.

Books are published about artists, museums, and collectors—but why not talk about the gallerist, the one who connects them all?

The curated program at ARCOmadrid once again provides a prominent space for Latin American galleries and artists at the fair. With José Esparza Chong Cuy leading the new edition, the program exudes a diversity of approaches and realities, raising questions while simultaneously serving as a key opportunity for visibility.

The Latin American artist draws inspiration from the landscapes of Puerto Rico and those of her adopted home in California to create sculptures that reveal the transformative power of nature.

Fifteen artists from the region will take part in In Minor Keys, the 61st International Art Exhibition opening in Venice in May 2026.

The North American country presents a strong presence of Latin American art on its agenda this year, highlighting both historical and contemporary figures.

The visual culture of the Caribbean and Latin America cannot be understood as a homogeneous or stable system; it is a territory shaped by flows, displacements, and symbolic overlaps in which images not only circulate, but constantly negotiate their meaning. Within this configuration, graphic design occupies a particularly distinctive position, as it does not function merely as a tool of mediation, but rather as a practice of judgment that intervenes in how the region represents, interprets, and projects itself.

The project seeks to promote encounters, exchange, and the creation of networks within the British art ecosystem.

As part of the 2025 Latin American Residency Program, SAE presents a group exhibition that highlights the processes of production, research, and experimentation developed by eight artists in dialogue with Punta Ballena.

The exhibition Antenas al vacío revisits the work of the Mexican artist and expands into a book that addresses contemporary art, experimental cinema, and Latin American visual thought.

Let’s Play. Juguemos en la colección, a BIENALSUR project, engages with the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas through the conceptual lens of play, featuring the work of ten artists, mostly from Latin America, including Marta Minujín, Glenda León, and Silvia Rivas.

The museum explores the construction of the region’s identity through a major group exhibition and solo presentations by Jesús Soto, Damián Ortega, Sandra Gamarra, La Chola Poblete, among other artists.

The 82nd edition brings together 56 artists and collectives in an exhibition that privileges atmosphere, sensibility, and contemporary forms of coexistence. Within this framework, Latin American artists play a key role, weaving together memory, technology, body, and territory.

In its 2025 edition, the fair unfolds a terrain of questions and encounters. Curated by Juan Canela, NEXT proposes pairings of artists and galleries that explore how we inhabit, name, and imagine the region, articulating new ways of thinking about the contemporary from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Curated by Karen Huber, Arte Sur brings together eleven galleries whose artists engage with memory, territory, craft, and identity.

The presentation of the current season at Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum has underscored the strategic importance of Latin America and its artistic practices in the vision of Spain’s largest public contemporary art institution. This is not something new, since its commitment as a public museum has incorporated the Ibero-American narrative as an essential part of its historical account from the beginning. However, what does stand out is the accentuation of its critical essence in a program —the first fully developed under the direction of Manuel Segade, with the exception of a single exhibition— which introduces new elements.

Condeduque, one of Madrid’s leading cultural centers, has unveiled its seasonal program, which establishes a strong connection with Latin American art and thought. The municipal institution, which recently appointed the Mexican writer Jorge Volpi to oversee the center’s cultural direction, has also redesigned its proposals into seven areas of activity, reinforcing connections between the various performing arts and exhibition spaces.

In this interview, the artist from Tucumán talks about her inspirations, goals, and connections with the public. About beauty, chance, and irony. About materials and words. About community.

By Maria Paula Suarez

Interview with Valerie Cabrera Brugal, founder of Catalysta

Tatiana Arocha's artistic approach examines the connections between nature, history, and cultural resilience, presented alongside a collaborative publication blending critical thought and visual research.

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.

Apexart presents the work of seven Latin American artists who, through meticulous and repetitive handcraft processes, transform labor into an act of resistance, joy, and the creation of possible futures.

The Pinacoteca de São Paulo, a museum under the Bureau of Culture, Economy, and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo, presents the exhibition Pop Brazil: Avant-garde and New Figuration, 1960-70, in the Grande Galeria of the Pina Contemporânea building.

The Reina Sofía Museum, in collaboration with BIENALSUR, presents the exhibition Resistencia. Una selección de video sudamericano (Resistance: A Selection of South American Video). Curated by Argentine art historian Diana Wechsler, artistic director of BIENALSUR, the exhibition offers two complementary ways to engage with the works, both situated around the museum’s cinema hall.

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.

Manuel Segade (La Coruña, Spain, 1977) celebrates two years this month at the helm of Spain’s largest public museum of contemporary art. Since taking over as director of the Reina Sofía, he has implemented a series of exhibition and institutional strategies that have gradually shaped the museum’s strong personality and clear direction. In addition to progress on gender and feminist issues, decolonial thinking plays an important role in his vision—always from a perspective that necessarily looks to both sides of the Atlantic. Segade never seems to lose his enthusiasm, as evidenced by his expression and way of speaking. He welcomes us into his office at the Reina Sofía to finalize ideas and details, and to discuss the museum’s positioning and approach regarding Latin America.

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.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga (Bilbao, Spain, 1986) is in her first year at the Reina Sofía Museum as Director of Studies, a position she has held since October 2024 and which, since March of this year, she has combined with the directorship of the Instituto Cáder de Arte Centroamericano (ICAC). This organization faces several challenges in its core missions of raising awareness and promoting, but above all, researching and disseminating the reality of contemporary Central American art. It has ten years ahead of it to do so, and the foundations are already being laid to ensure that its objectives are met. Morandeira welcomes us to her office at the Reina Sofía, a few floors above the building that houses the library and which marks its character and connection with divulgation, to talk about the project, her vision, and the progress and future that are already taking shape.

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.