Curating and Collecting Latin American Art at Arteba
Curators and collection directors from Latin America, Spain, and the United States gathered at the Museo Sívori on October 30, to examine how public and private institutions construct narratives around Latin American art, running alongside the arteba contemporary art fair. Co-curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Francisco Lemus, the panels addressed the systemic challenges of identity, state censorship, and global art market dynamics across the Americas.
Challenging State Curation and Historic Censorship
Opening the first panel, titled Curcuría para fortalecer el arte de las Américas
(Curating to Strengthen the Art of the Americas), Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín Chief Curator Marielsa Castro Vizcarra stated that framing art from the Americas remains difficult due to a profound diversity that resists easy categorization. Castro Vizcarra pointed to the legacy of Colombian artist Débora Arango, who became the first woman to paint and exhibit female nudes in 1940. That initial exhibition was shut down and labeled pornographic, prompting a decades-long isolation that lasted until 1984.
Connecting that historical suppression to current events, Castro Vizcarra referenced an incident in October when Colombia’s recently assumed president ordered roughly 60 works removed from an exhibition hall over concerns they gave visibility to LGBTQ+ communities. Local artists organized protests and successfully utilized a legal protective writ to force the reinstatement of the pieces. She characterized state censorship as a recurring institutional mechanism where the nation-state attempts to dictate cultural acceptance.
Dismantling Geopolitical Narratives through Exhibition History
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo curator Pollyana Quintella analyzed two concurrent exhibitions to highlight political friction in image-making. One exhibition, which closed at the Malba museum in February 2026, was titled Pop Brasil: vanguardia y nueva figuración, 1960s-70s
and featured the original flags from the 1968 Happening das Bandeiras in Rio de Janeiro’s General Osório Plaza. One flag displayed a phrase in Spanish alongside an unlabelled press clipping of Juan Domingo Perón, illustrating how artists integrated regional Spanish-speaking politics into Brazilian movements. Quintella compared Che Guevara’s rapid post-mortem transformation into a cultural icon to the way North American popular culture adopted Marilyn Monroe.
In a parallel gallery, the Pinacoteca exhibited works by Colombian artist Beatriz González, whose critique of bourgeois systems included painting on repurposed domestic items like curtains and bed frames. González was rejected from the 1967 São Paulo Art Biennial, which favored conceptual art, for presenting an altered television set that commented on freedom during dictatorships. Expanding on these transnational migrations, panel co-coordinator Aimé Iglesias Lukin noted that artists who relocated to New York often remarked that they only realized they were considered Latin American
upon arriving in the United States.
Redefining the Geopolitical South
Concluding the first panel, 25th Bienal de Arte Paiz curator Cuauhtémoc Medina invoked a 2021 work by Chilean visual artist Carlos Arias Vicuña bearing the phrase A Latinoamérica la jode la identidad
(Identity fucks up Latin America
). Medina argued that the statement captures the vicious cycle of being compelled to project a limited, prescribed regional identity that serves the interests of the nation-state.
Medina pointed to the intellectual framework of the 2009 VII International Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory (SITAC), titled Perdiendo el Norte
(Losing the North), which reframed the South not merely as a cultural refuge, but as a complex migratory network. The South is an ambivalent field that we learned to renegotiate, which produces a certain affiliation,
Medina concluded.
Financing Public and Private Collections in the Americas
The second panel turned to the operational models governing museum collections. Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Head of Collections Claudia Segura detailed the institution’s consortium structure, which unites regional public bodies with a private foundation managed by an expert acquisition committee. Segura noted that the museum collects not only paintings, paper works, and performance documentation, but also extensive archives that fuel ongoing contemporary research.
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Head of Latin American Art Collection Suset Sánchez outlined the museum’s long-term acquisition strategies, noting that while events like the ARCO fair provide access to prominent Argentine artists, building a balanced collection requires sustained financial commitment over decades. Sánchez observed that the Reina Sofía’s holdings still feature a disproportionate number of male artists compared to female creators, requiring continuous adjustments to state budgets and incoming donations.
Isabel & Agustín Coppel Collection Director Magnolia de la Garza described a private framework operating outside traditional institutional bureaucracy. Established formally as a civil association in 2006 with roots stretching back to the 1990s, the collection is based in Culiacán, Sinaloa, a region heavily shaped by narratives surrounding drug trafficking. De la Garza explained that the collection follows a personal vision centered on photography and mixed-media works without a fixed geographic mandate, often generating debate when exhibited elsewhere due to its fluid scope.
The complete proceedings from the Museo Sívori encounters will soon be published on arteba’s official YouTube channel.
Disclaimer: The views and cultural analyses presented in this article are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Information regarding legal disputes or financial data is based on available public records.