Notes related to Latin American art

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.

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.

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 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.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) presents Magali Lara: Stitched to the Body, an exhibition that examines a key moment in the career of pioneering Mexican artist.

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.

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.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University presents Rubén Ortiz-Torres: Zonas de Colaboración, the artist’s first major solo exhibition in New York, curated by Betti-Sue Hertz.

The Venezuelan's work has been added to the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, marking a significant milestone in the artist’s career. Additive Spectrum was first shown in Beltrán’s UNDER THE SUN, OVER THE EARTH exhibition at CENTRAL FINE, showcasing a vibrant exploration of color and emotional resonance.